Japan: A scene from the Kagero Nikki . Yashima Gakutei (1786-1868), c. 1825

Kagero Nikki or 'The Mayfly Diary' is a work of classical Japanese literature, written around 974 CE, that falls under the genre of nikki bungaku, or diary literature. The author of Kagero Nikki was a woman known only as the Mother of Michitsuna. Using a combination of waka poems and prose, she conveys the life of a noblewoman during the Heian period. Kagero Nikki is often called 'The Gossamer Years' in English, which is the title given to the first English translation by Edward Seidensticker. The term kagero has three possible meanings: it may mean a mayfly; a heat wave; or a thin film of cobweb, which is the meaning proposed by English Orientalist Arthur Waley.