Illustrations of a diary or an illustrated diary. Diaries of high literary value or writings in the form of diaries occupy an important place in Japanese literature. Diaries in the Heian period came to be written in the Japanese kana 仮名 syllabary which was initially used mainly by court women instead of in the Japanese form of Chinese, kanbun 漢文. Personal feelings and emotions could be expressed more freely in kana which was closer to spoken language than in the formal kanbun which had long been used for official records.
1 Nikki-e may originally have meant sketches in a diary or pictures painted in a diary by the diarist him/herself. Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale of Genji) mentions, for example, that the hero, Genji 源氏, wrote a diary when he was exiled along the coast at *Suma 須磨 which he illustrated and later displayed to acclaim when he was recalled to court.
2 Nikki-e generally refers to the several Heian diaries that were illustrated and made into handscrolls and booklet sets to be appreciated just like illustrated tales, monogatari-e 物語絵. Some diaries were apparently illustrated soon after they were made public. An anthology by the priest Ekei 恵慶 (active mid-10th century) makes note of the illustrations of a copy of Tosa Nikki 土佐日記 (The Tosa Diary), the earliest extant diary in kana syllabary, written ca. 935 by Ki no Tsurayuki 紀貫之 (ca. 868-ca. 945) in the disguised voice of a woman. A famous extant example of nikki-e is Murasaki Shikibu nikki emaki 紫式部日記絵巻 (The Diary of Lady Murasaki, 13th century) originally a handscroll set and now divided among the Fujita 藤田 Art Museum, Gotō 五島 Art Museum, Tokugawa Reimeikai 徳川黎明会 and others. The diary itself was written around 1010 by Lady Murasaki *Murasaki Shikibu 紫式部, the author of The Tale of Genji.