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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.<br/><br/> 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.