Kagerō Nikki

[3] Sonja Arntzen argued that the work also functions as a record of the death of Michitsuna’s Mother’s marriage and her struggle to find a reason for living.

[4] The diary entries detail events of particular emotional significance, such as when Kaneie visits other women while she stays at home taking care of their son ("the boy").

She often expresses her desire to become a nun, but the effect that act would have on her son’s future plagues her mind and prevents her from ever taking Buddhist vows.

The story ends with Michitsuna’s mother watching the festival of the souls’ return in the new year, and she hears a knock on her door during the late night.

Edward Seidensticker characterized the diary as “a remarkably frank personal confession” that describes “a disturbed state of mind.” [7] Donald Keene has described Kagerō Nikki as “a self-portrait devastating in its honesty,” [8] one “written passionately and without a thought to how readers might judge her actions.” [9] Another characteristic of the work is the unique way in which the author labels people in her life.

The sarcastic tone reflects the author’s attitude to the person in question: "This method of labeling people shows how very egocentric she was in her dealings with others, defining them solely in relationship to herself.

"[6] On the other hand, Sonja Arntzen argued in her 1997 translation that Michitsuna’s Mother “contributed a realistic mode of writing to Japanese prose” and highlights the psychological sophistication shown in Kagerō Nikki that recognizes the mutability of mental states and memories.

Arntzen also praised Kagerō Nikki for its “awareness of the fictiveness of her [Michitsuna’s Mother] telling” and described the style of the work as resembling a “stream of consciousness”.

[12] Born in 935 as the daughter of a provincial governor, Fujiwara no Tomoyasu, the Mother of Michitsuna was a lower- to mid-level member of the aristocratic class.

Besides making compositions using her own name, she also wrote poems on behalf of her husband and her son in order to help them advance in social hierarchy and engage in courtship, demonstrating her artistic talent as a skilled poet.

The Mother of Michitsuna speculated that her work would be as ephemeral as "the diary of a mayfly or the shimmering heat on a summer's day," yet she played a crucial role in this legacy.