A Tale of False Fortunes (23 page)

Chapter Six
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When he finished speaking, Yukikuni snapped some pieces from the dwindling supply of firewood and threw them in the fireplace.

The sound of chestnut burrs falling in the grove of trees in
back mingled with the sound of falling leaves. Ayame
closed her eyes and said nothing as she sat across from
Yukikuni. The next morning, she would be reunited with
the same group of shrine maidens and journey toward
Kòzuke.

A Tale of False Fortunes
ends with these lines. An investigation of the chronologies reveals that when Michinaga died in the fourth year of Manju (1027), it was still the reign of Emperor Go-Ichijò, so there is some error in dates. But then it is a work of fiction, and perhaps the order of historical events was inverted as a means for its author to suggest something.

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A Tale of False Fortunes
About the Author and Translator
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Enchi Fumiko
(1905–1986), the daughter of the noted philologist Ueda Kazutoshi, resolved at the age of nineteen to become a playwright and in 1928 saw the successful staging of her play
Banshun sòya (A Turbulent Night in Late Spring).
Disappointment in romance, an unhappy marriage, and the Pacific War dampened her literary activity until the appearance of her collection of short stories
Himojii tsukihi (Days of Hunger)
in 1953. Her novels
Onnazaka (The Waiting Years)
and
Onnamen
(Masks)
established her reputation as one of the leading writers of post-war Japan.

Roger K. Thomas
(Ph.D. 1991, Indiana University) is an associate professor at Illinois State University, where he teaches courses in Japanese language and culture. His research and publications have focused primarily on poetry and poetics of the Edo period (1600–1868), but he maintains an active interest in modern fiction as well and has translated Inoue Yasushi’s
Confucius: A Novel.