Udaisho Michitsuna No Haha

As always, the eighth print of the year is a female poet, and this month it is the lady we know as 'Michitsuna no Haha'. We've run into this type of situation before in this series, where the only way I can identify the lady is by recourse to the men around her. In this case, we have three choices: as the mother of the military commander Michitsuna, the daughter of Fujiwara Tomoyasu, or the wife of Fujiwara no Kaneie. It is to this latter gentleman that we must offer our thanks for having this poem. As one of my reference books describes the situation: '... worried about her husband's 'affairs', she one night locked the gate. In the morning when he knocked for admittance, she replied with this verse ...'

I guess he hadn't. Or if he had, presumably hadn't cared much about her feelings. Interestingly enough, not one of the books I consulted could tell me what happened next. Did he quit philandering? Did they divorce? Did they live happily ever after? Not a word ...

Reading about a problem like this from more than a thousand years ago, hearing about plenty of other similar stories, and then thinking about my own divorce experience last year, really makes me curious about whether or not human beings are indeed 'designed' to stay togther as lifetime partners. We have many traditions about various animal species that are presumed to mate for life, but recent scientific research is now showing that the facts in those cases frequently prove otherwise ... When it comes to humans, I have to wonder if social institutions such as marriage do truly reflect underlying biological realities, or are completely mismatched.

No matter how strong our feelings may be towards the one who is our mate, we are all nonetheless still subject to impulses that would lead us 'astray'. I felt this during the time I was married, but my rationality, my desire to regulate my life properly, was the way to keep such feelings under control. Obviously, not all men follow this course, but this is a calculated decision on their part, and one that is guided by their own sense of what is right or wrong. In men, the mind can dominate the heart. In women though (at least in the two that I have known closely in my life), it seems that 'feelings' and 'impulse' are stronger than 'rationality'. The biology always gets the upper hand over the mind. So, as to whether or not humans are naturally monogamous, although I am sure that a man can be, and that a moral man will be, my personal experiences lead me to be rather less sure about women ...

I don't know if this is a suitable topic for a little 'hanga' essay, but these things have been on my mind recently, and that's where the poem led me ... Maybe I have said things that will make some of you angry. I hope though, that you will have some interesting thoughts on these matters, and will share them with me ...

October 1994

Translation - Tom Galt - 1982