Nōma no Chio

Nōma no Chio [豆岩・親, c. 1366 - 1417] was an author, poet, and court lady who served the Empress Teiyū in the 1390s. She is the author of the now-famous journal Twilight Hours (顆物罘, Yūmezume, also translated as 'Fleeting Twilight'). She is known as one of Kanton's 'Six Beauties', and is a famed nijū.
== Early life ==
Little is known about Chio's life except what can be found in her writings. She was the daughter of Nōma no Arumata, a scholar and well-known poet, who worked as a provincial official. Her grandfather Nōma no Kōyū was also a poet. The family were middle-ranking courtiers and had financial difficulties. Chio married a government official named Hagima no Kanaiba at 16, and gave birth to a son, Motome. In 1393, at the age of 27, she began to serve the Empress Teiyū, consort of Emperor Ryōyū, and may have been divorced at this time. When her court service ended it is thought that she married Hanama no Haruka, and had a daughter with him, although some evidence suggests she became a nun.
Chio became popular through her work Twilight Hours, a collection of musings, diary entries, poetry and observations on court life which is now one of the most famous pieces of Kantonese classical literature. Chio's essays describe the various daily experiences and customs of the time, and the affairs of the Imperial Court in Kōryō where she lived, from a unique point of view. Twilight Hours was circulated at court, and for several hundred years existed in handwritten manuscripts. First printed in the 17th century, many different versions of it exist, all with small changes in order, structure, and editing. 
Chio gained a reputation as a famed beauty or nijū in the early 1400s when the artist Uyama no Dairin published a portrait of her, known as Hitai-kite ('The Diarist').
Category:People