thumb|Manuscripts written by [[Fujiwara no Teika]]
The is a memoir written by the daughter of Sugawara no Takasue, a lady-in-waiting of Heian-period Japan. Her work stands out for its descriptions of her travels and pilgrimages and is unique in the literature of the period, as well as one of the first in the genre of travel writing.
Takasue's daughter was a niece on her mother's side of Michitsuna's mother, author of another famous diary of the period, the Kagerō Nikki, whose personal name has also been lost. Other than the Sarashina Diary, she may also have authored Hamamatsu Chūnagon Monogatari, Mizukara kuyuru ('Self-reproach'), the Yoru no Nezame, and the Tale of Asakura.
This work is one of the six major literary memoirs/diaries written in the mid-Heian period, roughly from 900 to 1100. Lady Sarashina wrote her work with awareness of her distinguished lineage. She had a desire to produce something that would be worthy for her family line. This desire stemmed from her knowledge that autobiographical writing by women of her generation had achieved fame, which had assisted the writers' careers and their family lines. Her intention is evident in her text, as evidenced by careful editing.
The Sarashina Diary recorded her life from the age of 12 to her fifties. To compound the problems, sometime in the 17th century Teika's transcription was re-bound, but the binder changed the order of the original in seven places, making the diary less valuable and more difficult for scholars to understand. In 1924, Nobutsuna Sasaki and Kōsuke Tamai, two classical literature scholars, examined the original Teika manuscript and finally discovered what had happened, leading to a reevaluation of Sarashina's work. It is from this correctly re-ordered version that all modern versions are made.