Who Is The Woman of Akutagawa / The Lady of the West Wing (Fujiwara no Takaiko)?
The high-born lady the Man of Old loved
The Nijō Empress (Fujiwara no Takaiko)
The Nijō Empress (Nijō no Kisaki) was Fujiwara no Takaiko. She later became a consort of Emperor Seiwa and the mother of Emperor Yōzei. Scholars believe The Tales of Ise portrays her as a young woman, as the lover of the Man of Old.
The woman in Episode 1, "Akutagawa," is a princess raised deep inside a mansion who has never seen fields at night or dew on the grass. As the man carries her off, she sees dew on the grass and asks, "What is that?" Later she vanishes inside the storehouse. A later passage of the original reveals that this was a story from the Nijō Empress's youth, and that the "oni" were really her brothers, Fujiwara no Mototsune and Kunitsune, who took her back. Scholars also commonly identify the woman of the west wing in Episode 8, "Is This Not the Moon?" as Takaiko. At the New Year she moves to a place the man cannot reach.
The love between the Man of Old and Takaiko, torn apart by the gap in their social rank, is one of the most famous stories in The Tales of Ise.
Episodes featuring this character2
NEWEpisode 1
She Asked 'What's That?' He Never AnsweredThe Tales of Ise: Akutagawa
Episode 1 of the series. After years of longing, a man runs off into the night carrying the woman he loves on his back. Along the way she keeps asking, "What's that?" He never answers her last question. When a thunderstorm hits, he hides her in an old storehouse and stands guard at the door until morning. At dawn, she is gone. This is a thousand-year-old story of an elopement, and of one question that went unanswered.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 8
One Night, She Was Suddenly Out of ReachThe Tales of Ise: "Is This Not the Moon?"
Last plum season, a man visited her every night, until one night she was suddenly moved somewhere he could never reach. A year later, on the same plum-scented night, he steps into her room once more.
19 pages