In 1921 a cache of papers was found in the archives of the Nishi Honganji temple in Kyoto. They were written by a little-known Buddhist nun named Eshinni (1182-1268?) and consisted of 21 manuscript pages. Some were sutra copies, but the others were letters. The earliest letters were written in 1256 when she was about 74 years old, the last one in 1268 when she was 86.
They were written to her daughter, Kakushinni (1224-1283), and contained a wide variety of information -- recollections, religious testimony, accounts of dreams, descriptions of famine and sickness, comments about servants, complaints of old age, reflections on death and the next life -- and reminiscences of Shinran (1173-1262), celebrated Buddhist innovator and founder of the Shinshu school, True Pure Land Buddhism.
She could reminisce with some authority because Shinran had been her husband and Kakushinni was probably his daughter. Indeed, without this distinguished connection, Eshinni would be even less known than she is.