Tosa Diary - Tosa Diary

Written by Ki no Tsurayuki. Also written as "Tosa Nikki." This is a diary-style travelogue based on the 55-day sea journey that Tsurayuki, who was appointed as the governor of Tosa, left his post on December 21, 934 (Shohei 4) and returned to Kyoto on February 16 of the following year. It was probably written shortly after his return to Kyoto. "Men write diaries, and I thought I would try it myself," he says, and he writes in kana pronouncing the author a woman, covering the entire journey without missing a single day. This is a groundbreaking work that created a new genre of kana pronouncing. There are various theories about why he chose to use a woman as the author, but possible reasons include that he wanted to express his feelings from a private perspective, away from his public position, to seamlessly incorporate the 57 poems that are distributed throughout the work, and to unify the content of the articles, which are a mixture of fact and fiction. All of these things would have been impossible for a man to write in Chinese, so the reason for this is that a daily diary written in kana was necessary. In any case, the pioneering role played by the Tosa Diary was great in the sense that it promoted the later heyday of kana literature.

The contents include the itinerary of the journey, the weather, separation from people, the rich and poor of human feelings, the behavior of people on the ship, natural scenery, fear of wind and waves and pirates, longing for Kyoto, occasional humor, and satire, but the most impressive is the sad nostalgia for the child lost in another land. Also eye-catching is the large number of songs and related statements that resemble poetry. They contain a considerable amount of fiction and are intentionally constructed. However, it is not necessarily clear what the central theme of this work is. One could say that the aim was to create a new world in the space between fact and fiction, which is neither.

Among the various versions, the most famous are (1) the Maeda family version, which was copied by Fujiwara Teika from Tsurayuki's handwritten version, and (2) the Seikei Shokubon version, which was a transcription of a copy by Teika's son Tameie. The last few lines of (1) are in Tsurayuki's handwriting. (2) is the version often used by Ikeda Kikan, who attempted to reconstruct the original version and was largely successful. Among them was (3) the Tameie copy, which was discovered in 1984 (Showa 59). It is the parent version of (2) and is said to convey the style of the original even more accurately than (1).

[Yasuhiko Kikuchi]

"Japanese Classical Literature Series 20, Tosa Nikki, edited by Suzuki Tomotaro (1957, Iwanami Shoten)" ▽ "Complete Commentary on the Tosa Nikki, by Hagiya Boku (1967, Kadokawa Shoten)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

紀貫之(きのつらゆき)作。『土左日記』とも書く。土佐守(とさのかみ)の任満ちた貫之が、934年（承平4）12月21日に任地をたち、翌年2月16日に帰京するまでの55日間の海路の旅をもとにした日記体の紀行文。帰京後まもなくに成立か。「男もすなる日記といふものを、女もしてみむとて、するなり。」といい、筆者を女性に仮託して、全行程を1日も欠かさず、仮名文で書きつづる。仮名文による新しいジャンルを創始したものとして、画期的な意義をもつ作品である。女性に仮託したことについてはなお諸説あるが、公の立場を離れて私的な立場からの感懐を語るため、また、全編に57首もの歌を配するので、それを異和感なく繰り込むため、そして、虚実混交の記事内容を統一あるものにするため、などの理由が考えられる。それらはいずれも男性の漢文日記では不可能なことなので、仮名文による日次記(ひなみのき)を必要とした、という一点にかかわっていこう。ともかく、後の仮名文学全盛を促した意味でも『土左日記』の果たした先駆的役割は大きい。

　内容は、旅の行程、天候、人々との離別、人情の厚薄、船中での人々の動静、自然景観、風波や海賊への恐れ、京へのあこがれ、ときに発する滑稽諧謔(こっけいかいぎゃく)、風刺などがあるが、なかでも印象的なのは彼地(かのち)で失った幼児への哀切な追懐である。また、歌とそれにかかわる歌論めいた言辞の多さにも目をひかれる。それらはかなりのフィクションを含んで、意図的に構成されてもいる。しかし、何がこの作品の中心的なテーマなのかは、かならずしも明らかではない。虚と実の、そのいずれでもない合間に、新しい世界をつくりだすこと自体がねらいであったといえよう。

　諸本では、貫之自筆本を〔1〕藤原定家(ていか)が書写した前田家本、〔2〕定家の子為家(ためいえ)が書写したものの転写本である青谿書屋本(せいけいしょおくぼん)が有名である。〔1〕の末尾数行は貫之の手跡を模してある。〔2〕は原型本の再建を試みてほぼ成功した池田亀鑑(きかん)が多く用いた本である。なお、1984年（昭和59）になって発見されたものに〔3〕為家書写本がある。〔2〕の親本で、〔1〕よりさらに正確に原典の風姿を伝えているといわれる。

［菊地靖彦］

『鈴木知太郎校注『日本古典文学大系20　土左日記』（1957・岩波書店）』▽『萩谷朴著『土佐日記全注釈』（1967・角川書店）』

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