Empress Shōshi Gives Birth to Prince Atsuhira

In 1008 Empress Shōshi, Emperor Ichijō’s consort, gave birth to Prince Atsuhira at the residence of her father, Fujiwara no Michinaga. The birth made Michinaga the maternal grandfather of an imperial prince. Atsuhira became Emperor Go-Ichijō in 1016, but in 1008 he was a newborn within an imperial family that already had other children and succession interests.

Murasaki Shikibu was serving Shōshi and recorded the household’s preparations and postpartum celebrations in her diary. Its accounts follow attendants, ritual services and visits by leading courtiers. Celebrations continued beyond the delivery: the prince’s fiftieth-day observance included ceremonial feeding and attendance by his maternal grandfather. Care for mother and child and the display of their imperial connections occupied the same household.

The diary preserves an attendant’s observation and judgments, rather than a physician’s case record or Shōshi’s own account of pain and recovery. Painted diary scrolls made roughly two and a half centuries later selected some of these scenes. They show how later viewers imagined the birth celebrations; the earlier written testimony supplies the basis for reconstructing the event.