ABSTRACT
ONCE there was a Chūnagon1 who had several daughters. The two eldest had already married and were living in grand style in the east and west
wings of his mansion, His third and fourth daughters were now near to the age of ‘putting on the hakama’2 and also lived with him, surrounded with loving care. Besides these there was in his mansion a daughter by a princess, who had since died, whom he had formerly been in the habit of visiting occasionally. The Kita no Kata3 of the Chūnagon was of a somewhat peculiar nature, and she always treated this step-daughter of hers as inferior even to the servants. She was made to live in a part of the mansion leading off from the main building where there was a small room on a lower level than the rest.4 She was not addressed as ‘Lady,’ still less was she allowed to be called ‘Princess.’ The Kita no Kata would have had her addressed as the servants were, but in deference to what the Great Lord might have felt had she done so, she had her called by everyone ‘Ochikubo no Kimi.’5 Ever since her childhood not even the Chūnagon had treated her with affection, and moreover as the Kita no Kata had her own way in everything in the house, the Lady Ochikubo had had to suffer many indignities. She had never had a foster-mother; no one had ever cared for her except a very sharp-witted girl named Ushiromi who had been the Lady’s special attendant since her mother’s death. The Lady and this attendant of hers were very devoted to each other and were never apart.
