This author's name means "daughter of Sugawara no Takasue"; she was born in Kyoto but raised in the east when her father was an assistant governor. In Sarashina nikki she tells her story from age 12 to about age 52. Until she was about 30, she tells us, she did little but read tales like Murasaki Shikibu's "Menji monogatari"; then for about five ye ...