The four major court memoirs written in the late 10th and early 11th century are the "Kagero nikki" (translated by Edward Seidensticker as "The Gossamer Years"), the "Izumi Shikibu nikki" (Lady Izumi's Story), the "Murasaki Shikibu nikki" (Lady Murasaki's Journal), and the "Sarashina nikki" (The Sarashina Memoir).
The first of these covers the period 954 to 974, and was written by a woman known only as the wife and mother of two major court officials. In it she states that hers is "a diary concerning myself only," and there is rarely any doubt as to her feelings. So much is given up to complaint that, as the late scholar Earl Miner has said, "it is difficult to decide whether she is the most realistic of the major diarists or simply the most tortured by ordinary human realities."
More equitable is "Lady Izumi's Story." The author was a fine poet and left an estimable collection. She was also more satisfied by ordinary human realities and seemed to have taken advantage of some of them. She was said to have had a large number of lovers even considering the generous Heian standard.