Tales of Ise: Lyrical Episodes from Tenth-Century Japan 9781503622715

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Tales of lse

Tales of Ise Lyrical Episodes from Tenth-Century Japan

Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by HELEN CRAIG McCULLOUGH

Stanford University Press Stanford, California

Stanford Umvers1ty Press Stanford, Cahforma © 1968 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Jumor UmversJty ISBN 0-8047-0653-0 Ongmal pnntmg 1968 Last figure below md1cates year of th1s pnntmg· o8 07 o6 os 04 03 02 01 oo 99

Th1s book 1s pnnted on aCJd-free paper

For Bill

Preface

The translation uses the text edited by Otsu Yiiichi and Tsukishima Hiroshi, in Sakakura Atsuyoshi et al., eds., T aketori monogatari • Ise monogatari • Yamato monogatart (Iwanami Shoten, 1959 [NKBT Vol. 9]), a collated edition based on the best extant Ise monogatari text, the Sanjonishi "Teika holograph" belonging to the Tempuku line, which stems from a copy made by Fujiwara Teika in 1234 (the second year of the Tempuku era). The Sanjonisht text contains 125 episodes. Sections 126-43 in the NKBT edition have been assembled from variant texts as follows: 126-32, Tameuji (Oshima) text; 133-41, Koshikibu no Naishi text as preserved in the Tameuji text; 14243, Tanimori text. For further textual information, consult Appendix B. The texts of the poems in Appendix A are from Saeki Umetomo's edition of Kokinwakashu; the translations are my own unless otherwise indicated. I have profited greatly from my husband's advice on substantive matters, and from the editorial assis~ance of Miss Betty K. Smith of Stanford University Press. I am grateful to them both. H.C.M.

Contents

Introduction

3

Japanese Court Poetry in the Nmth and Tenth Centuries, 5 China and the Japanese Poetic Trad1tion, 14 Tales of Ise, 55

TALES OF ISE Appendtxes A. Kokinshu Poems of the Six Poetic Geniuses, 159 B. Texts of Ise Monogatart, 182

Notes Abbreviations, 195

Works Cited Indexes Index of First Lines, 267 General Index, 271

1

95

Introduction

Introduction

T

HE Meiji Restoration of 1868 swept Japan into the mainstream of world history, introduced new ideas and alien traditions, and demanded reappraisal of accepted values in literature as in every other field. For more than 8oo years prior to that great turning point in the national life, two literary classics had been known to every educated Japanese: Kokznshu (Collection of Ancient and Modern Times) and Ise monogatari (Tales of Ise), the first an imperially commissioned poetic anthology that dates from around 905, the second a tenth-century collection of something over 100 brief stories in which poems are the central elements. Kokinshu and lse monogatari were the indispensable literary baggage of noblemen and court ladies in the latter part of the Heian period (794-1185), the inexhaustible lodes mined by generations of earnest medieval commentators, and the b1bles of aspiring poets through the ages. When the great "scholars of national learning" (kokugakusha) rejected Chinese influence in the Tokugawa period (16oo-I868), inaugurating a new era in the study of classical Japanese literature, they too directed their attention primarily to these works, together with an eighthcentury poetic-anthology, Man'yoshu (Collection for Ten Thousand Generations), and a brilliant eleventh-century novel, Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji).

3

Introduction

Westerners have come to know The Tale of Genji through Arthur Waley's translation. French versions of Kokinshu poems and excellent English translations of se~ lected poems from Man'yoshu have also been available for some years, and the publication of Robert H. Brower and Earl Miner's Japanese Court Poetry has given foreign read~ ers a new understanding and appreCiation of the special social contexts, intellectual and emotional values and atti~ tudes, native and Chinese traditions, and poetic techniques that brought forth the poems preserved in the two great anthologies. Through the present translation of Ise mono~ gatari, Westerners may become acquainted with a fourth major resource of the classical literary tradition.1 One can enjoy Tales of Ise without a specialized knowl~ edge of classical Japanese poetry or its social milieu, es~ pecially if one has read The Tale of Genji, which describes Japanese court society at about the time when Tales of Ise assumed its present form, and which shows very clearly the central role assigned to poetry in that society. As a work of literature, however, Tales of Ise is less able than The Tale of Genji to stand on its own in a foreign environment. Its characters are dim, elusive figures. Its prose passages, re~ mote indeed from Genji's exquisite intricacies, are designed primarily to provide settings for the poems-to serve as black velvet cushions against which the gems can flash and glow. Japanese connoisseurs admire its simple, restrained style, which they find more subtle and sophisticated than elaborate description, but in English the velvet wears thin; the language tends to be flat and banal. And the jewels themselves look a bit dull. Tales of Ise has traditionally been esteemed as a handbook for poets, one that demon~ strates better than any other the attitudes and occasions that 1

Notes wtll be found at the back of the book, begmnmg on p. 196.

4

Introduction

should inspire poetry, and the manner in which poems should be written. Yet these famous verses, the heart of the work, sound distressingly tnvial in translation. The reader may find it useful, therefore, to learn something about the origins of classical Japanese poetry and about its technical complexities, conventions, standards, and self-imposed limitations. This can best be done by consulting Brower and Mmer's invaluable study, but minimal guidelines are provided in the following pages, which also deal with questions pertinent to Tales of Ise alone-its title, authorship, date, structure, and the like-and with Ariwara Narihira, the great ninth-century poet whose shadow hovers over these pages. JAPANESE COURT POETRY IN THE NINTH AND TENTH CENTURIES

Tales of Ise is anonymous and of uncertain date, and so are a majority of its poems, but it is probably safe to assume that few, if any, of the poems are more recent than 950, and that most of them were written during the ninth century.2 The poems coincide roughly in period, therefore, with those in the first imperial anthology of Japanese poetry, Koktnshii, or Collectton of Ancient and Modern Times, in whose title "ancient times" means essentially the early decades of the ninth century. There are, moreover, basic similarities of theme, technique, and tone between the two collections, as well as a partial duplication of content. The kinds of poems considered worthy of an imperial anthology were also the kinds admired by the unknown author or authors of Ise monogatari, and they represent the practice and taste of contemporary court society. They were indeed so peculiarly a product of that society that they cannot

5

Introduction be discussed without reference to it. Let us consider, for example, the poetic criteria articulated by Ki no Tsurayuki (884--946), the principal literary critic of his day, whose preface to Kokinshii systematized and formalized existing practice. Brower and Miner say of Tsurayuki: The central value in Tsurayuki's poetic ideal ... was a strong sense of decorous elegance which involved an emphasis on style, a proper poetic diction, an accepted range of forms and themes, and virtuosity. A good poem was one that responded to given situations With purity of diction and m ways sanctioned by tradition, but one that also possessed a certain originality of treatment. There was a tendency to view materials, subjects, and decorum as aspects of diction, and attitude, technique, and themes as aspects of tone. Such a distinction, reflected in the Preface to the Kokinshu by the terms kotoba, "diction," and kokoro, "spirit," was to remain throughout the tradition as the central concept of the Japanese poetic.3

The phrase "decorous elegance" strikes close to the essence not only of Tsurayuki's poetic, but also of the cultural milieu from which the poetic emerged; the words carry the scent of the hothouse atmosphere in which aristocratic Heian poets breathed and worked. This central quality in Heian culture, which Sir George Sansom has called "the rule of taste,"' resulted from the interaction between a conscious emphasis on sobriety, restraint, and formality, and a somewhat naive and romantic emotionalism and love of nature, reinforced by a haunting sense of the transience of worldly things, and accompanied by a stubborn predilection for the beautiful, the decorative, and the opulent. The leaders of this little band of aesthetes walked the tightrope of sensibility with sure-footed artistry, though their less gifted followers lived in constant danger of a tumble into sentimentality.

6

Introduction The rule of taste governed every aspect of a nobleman's life-the manner in which he performed his official functions, his choice of avocations and amusements, his clothing and domestic arrangements, his social relationships, and his attitude toward nature. The importance of the rule led to anxious deliberation, for the insecure, in such apparently trivial matters as choosing between lavender letter paper and blue, because a false step might expose the offender to mortifying censure. Letter writing was a major preoccupation of the society; by correspondence courtiers and ladies kept in touch with friends and relatives and conducted the amorous intrigues to which much of their leisure was devoted. Paper and handwriting were subjected to highly critical scrutiny. The author of The Gossamer Years, a tenth-century court lady's diary, says huffily of a message from an admirer, "The paper was rather unbecoming for such an occasion, I thought, and the handwriting was astonishingly bad. Having heard that he was an accomplished penman, I wondered indeed whether he might not have had someone else write it."ij The handwriting of a cultivated person was expected to reflect impeccable tasteelegance, sophisticated simplicity, and perfect balance. Readers of The Tale of Genji will recall similar displays of fastidiousness, especially in matters having to do with personal attire. Descriptions and appraisals of court ladies' toilettes also account for much of the bulk of other Heian literary works, including the diary of Genjt's author, Murasaki Shikibu. The humiliation of one feckless butterfly, transfixed for posterity by Murasaki's sharp eye, is a famous example. "That day," Murasaki wrote, "all the ladies dressed with the utmost magnificence. One however was guilty of a lapse of taste in the color combination at her wrist, and all the great nobles and other courtiers no-

7

Introduction ticed it when she cleared away the things from the imperial presence .... It was nothing very serious, but one shade looked a bit pale." 6 Especially important to the content and tone of court poetry was the rule of taste as it applied to the natural world. The lives and interests of the nob1lity centered on the imperial city of Heian. To be forced to reside in the provinces was to be exiled; long journeys were undertaken with extreme reluctance, attended by timorous (if justified) misgivings about the dangers of the road, and lamented in floods of plaintively nostalgic poems. But the incomparable beauty of Japan's mountains and streams persuaded these city dwellers to build suburban villas and hunting lodges, and to venture on pilgrimages to nearby shrines and temples. No pastime was considered more elegant, and none was more typical of the age, than a brief excursion into the countryside, where, with a few companions, a gentleman sipped wine and composed verses inspired by the ever-changing face of nature. In the capital itself, every aspect of nature could be observed in the landscape gardens of the great mansions, whose lakes, streams, hills, rocks, and plants were designed with infinite pains to suggest well-known scenic places and to appear to advantage at different seasons of the year. There one might watch the nocturnal voyaging of the harvest moon, select a single perfect chrysanthemum to accompany a gift, or, seated alone of a wintry morning, indulge in elegant musings on the resemblance between plum blossoms and snow. No well-bred person remained unmoved in the presence of nature, and few aristocrats allowed their reactions to pass unrecorded in verse. A nature poem was expected to demonstrate a capacity for close observation, a keen appreciation of beauty, and, most important, a sensitivity to the

8

I ntroductton poignancy inherent in the relationship between beauty, ephemerality, and the human condttion. On viewing a cherry tree in full bloom, someone like Prince Genji, the idealized hero of The Tale of Genjt, was likely to write of the evanescence of the blossoms, or to reflect that although the tree would bloom again, man's own springtime comes but once. In the cicada's papery husk and the withering plumes of summer grasses, Heian poets recognized the tyranny of time; and nature's more permanent aspects inspired them to melancholy reflections on the brevity of human existence and the uncertainties besetting man's troubled passage through the world. A courtier responded, then, to the first green of spring, to snowfall, mist, and rain, to the scattering of blossoms. And the tone of the response was the tone of Heian society. Its basis was a love of beauty so sophisticated, so highly refined, that it permitted no careless outpouring of spontaneous feelmg. Emotion was conveyed through understatement and veiled allusion, through the subtle, half-spoken evocation of a mood; it was contained within channels of formality and propriety and expressed with decorous elegance. The cultivated man was expected to display equal taste and sensitivity in his relations with others. He conducted affairs of the heart with delicate solicitude for the lady's feelings, as when Prince Genji, blundering into a relationship with an awkward, red-nosed pnncess, made himself permanently responsible for her happiness because it was clear that she would never attract another suitor. 7 In other soc1al relationships as well, the requisites were tact, a ready wit, and discernment-the ability to grasp the nuances of a situatiOn and respond appropriately, preferably in verse. Poetry concerned with human relations reflects these so9

Introduction

cial requirements, and so does most nature poetry, because natural phenomena are almost invariably presented in terms of their effect on man in a specific situation with social connotations. Heian poems are occasional pieces, instruments of social intercourse, and much of their interest derives from the circumstances of their composition. How well has the poet met the implicit challenge? How skillfully has he shown his mastery of the rule of taste? Kokmshu and Tales of Ise both contain the following poem by Ariwara Narihtra (KKS 884, IM 82): Akanakuni Madaki mo tsuki no Kakururuka Yama no ha nigete Irezu mo aranan.

Must the moon dtsappear In such haste, Leaving us still unsatisfied? W auld that the moun tam rim might flee And refuse to receive her.

It is apparent, of course, that Narihira and others have been watchmg the moon, and that they regret its setting. The ritual of gazing at the moon has the prestige of Chinese precedent, familiar from innumerable poems and paintings, and is thus immediately classifiable as a gentleman's pursuit. The poet also demonstrates the requisite feeling for the impermanence of beauty. But it is the apt response to specific circumstances that makes the poem truly elegant. To appreciate the response, we need the background provided by Tales of lse's prose context, which reveals that the imperial prince Koretaka, off on a hunting trip with a group of attendants, has spent most of a long spring day under blossoming cherry trees, sipping wine and chanting verses. At the prmce's villa, the company has IO

Introduction sat far into the night, gazing at the moon. When at last the moon sinks toward the hills and the prince prepares to re. tire, Narihira detains him w1th the poem Akanaku nt, a graceful, compressed allegorical expression of sentiments that in another society might be spelled out at tedious length: "Today has been a rare experience. You have al· lowed us to accompany you to the fields; you have enter· tained us most graciously at dinner. We shall never forget the cherry blossoms at Nagisa, the poems on the return journey, or the stories this evening as the moon climbed the skies. It is hard indeed that such a day in such company must end. Will you not linger with us a while? Life with its precious moments passes as swiftly as the moon crosses the heavens; let us enjoy it while we may." In the eyes of Japanese critics, Akanaku ni succeeds be. cause it combines grace, sensitivity, and wit in a moving expression of the dominant aesthetic ideal of the age, the blend of elegance and pathos known as mono no aware. The same is thought to be true, in varying degree, of the other poems in lse monogatari-all are model responses to social situations, evoking mono no aware, the pathos of life, by means of apt metaphors, elegant diction, and images rich in literary connotations. The Western reader who knows something of Japanese classical literature may, however, question the claim of a poem like Akanaku nt to wit, originality, or genuine emo· tion. The Heian Japanese very early abandoned the free· dam and experimentation of the Man'yoshu period and limited themselves to a 3I·syllable, s·line verse form and a rigidly restricted range of topics, techniques, vocabulary, and images. The rules of the game left scant room for what we should regard as creative expression. Tsurayuki and his II

Introduction colleagues dictated the acceptable themes: love, nature, travel, sorrow, happy events, and a few others. These are, to be sure, universal poetic staples, but nevertheless the list represents a rejection of such topics as poverty, warfare, and the life of the lower classes, which had been exploited in earher periods but were now stigmatized as vulgar, distressing, and violent. Similarly, the Kokinshii arbiters of taste prescribed a limited range of poetic techniques, which were to grow wearisomely familiar with the passage of time. One of the most important was the pivot word, or kakekotoba, so called because the poet used it as a pivot between two series of sounds with "overlapping syntactical and semantic patterns."8 In a rough English approximation, Goldilocks might have said, after inspecting her bedroom, "I have seen a beady credible sight." Another standard technique was the associative word, or engo, "a word that has or creates an 'association' with a preceding word or situation, often bringing out an additional dimension of meaning." 9 There is a simple example in Tales of Ise (28): Nadotekaku Au go katami ni Nariniken Mizu morasaji to Musubishi mono o.

Whyisitnow Impossible for us to meetWe who were bound together L1ke the strands of a close-woven basket Impermeable to water.

The engo is musubishi, a form of musubu, "to bind together," which is homophonous with musubu, "to scoop up water with the hands"; the association is with mizu, "water," in line 4· 12

Introduction A somewhat less common device, used primarily for formal occasions, was the makura kotoba (pillow word), or .fixed epithet, normally .five syllables long: thus, chthayaburu, "mighty," an epithet for "god." New makura kotoba had been created freely in the preceding literary period, but the stock remained virtually stationary during Heian times, and in many cases the original meaning was only vaguely surmised. Such sonorous, majestic words were thought to invest a poem with an aura of dignity and formality. Similar to the pillow word, but considerably more flexible, was the JO (preface), or introductory statement, often untranslatable, which was joined to "the basic 'statement' of the poem ... by word play, by similarity of sound, or by an implied metaphorical relationship.mo In the following travel poem from Tales of Ise (9), the preface is related to its statement by an identity of sounds (utsujutsutsu). The .first two lines serve merely to introduce utsutsu ("reality," "one's waking moments") and to furnish an oblique indication of the poet's whereabouts: Suruganaru Utsu no yamabe no U tsutsu ni mo Yume ni mo hito ni A wanu narikeri.

Beside Mount Utsu In Suruga I can see you Neither waking Nor, alas, even in my dreams.

Diction, imagery, allegory, metaphor, and simile offered certain possibilities for freshness and variety, but only about 2,ooo words and a prescribed list of images were acceptable, and metaphors tended to conform to predictable patterns. In the poem below (IM IO ), the reader knows at once that someone is asking a man to marry a girl: 13

Introduction

Miyoshino no Tanomu no kari mo Hitaburu ni Kimi ga kata ni zo Yoru to naku naru.

The wild goose that shelters On Miyoshino's fields Cries that it looks In your direction And in no other.

By the end of the classical period, the wild goose had appeared many times in the role of a young girl, and she was a rather tired old bird. In the ninth century, however, the wild goose was young and the full potentialities of kakekotoba and engo were yet to be tapped. Narihira stands on the threshold of the classical tradition; his moon poem is no mere intellectual exercise sustained by shopworn verbal tricks, no lace curtain mono no aware, but the real thing. And one can say the same, with certain reservations, of other poems in Tales of

Ise. But even though some lse poets may have been innovators who helped to shape the classical tradition, are not poems like Akanaku ni little more than adaptations of Chinese prototypes? The question raises still others. How did the ninth-century Japanese develop the set of values symbolized by the phrase mono no aware? What accounts for the peculiarly social role of their poetry, and for the importance of that role? How original is even the best Japanese court poetry? Without some notion of the extent of Chinese influence in all these matters, one can neither appraise the poetry in Tales of lse nor properly understand the cultural milieu from which it emerged. CHINA AND THE JAPANESE POETIC TRADITION

Tales of lse, like all recorded Japanese literature of its day, is a product of court society, written by and for members

Introduction of a tiny elite of perhaps a thousand persons, or about onetenth of one per cent of the total population. And it owes its place in literary history to a rather peculiar feature of that society-the importance attached to the composition and recitation of the 31-syllable classical verse known as the waka, or "Japanese poem." To understand how poetry came to occupy a central position in the cultural life of the Japanese aristocracy, one must look for a moment at the source of Japan's higher civilization, China-and particularly at the great T'ang empire (618-9o6), upon whose cultural riches the Japanese drew with insatiable ardor and lasting effect during the seventh, eighth, and early ninth centuries. The Confucian Ideal. Around the beginning of the seventh century, when large-scale Japanese borrowing began, Chinese civilization was already 2,ooo years old. Confucius had d1ed a millennium earlier. One great empire, the Han ( 206 B.C.-A.D. 220), had risen and perished; and a second, the T'ang, was entering its glorious career after the 350year interlude of political disunity known as the Six Dynasties period (ca. 222-ca. s89), during which barbarian states had occupied the ancient seat of civilization in the north, and the center of Chinese culture had shifted to the south. During the Han dynasty, there had evolved a concept of government that was basically to affect the development of Chinese literature, and thus of Japanese literature as well. It postulated the necessity of a specially trained and specially selected governing class, and it identified that class with the Confucian literati, who were thought to be the "cultivated men" envisioned in the famous essay known as "The Great Learning." 11 The nature of the education and personal traits desirable in such scholar-bureaucrats was still somewhat nebulous in Han times, but tradition and

IS

I ntroductzon the operation of the T'ang civil service examination system had prescribed their essential attributes fairly clearly by the period with which we are concerned. The ideal product of the Tang examination system was a man who had devoted years to studying the lessons of the past, as recorded in official histories and the teachings of the philosophers; who applied as an official the knowledge and wisdom thus acquired; and who used his leisure hours to "cultivate his person" for the good of the state. He aspired to skill in calligraphy, for example, because he and his peers felt that handwriting was an index of characteronly the serenity and confidence born of uprightness and wisdom could produce brush strokes that combined strength with elegance, and firmness with sensitivity and moderation. He was a good amateur painter, because he hoped to enrich his spirit and discipline his mind by contemplating the mysteries of nature and by mastering the exacting materials, the silk and brush, that permitted no hesitancy, no false starts or erasures. (He did not attempt to become more than an amateur, because he regarded the professional pamter as an artisan.) He performed and listened to improving music, which by its purity, restraint, and classic balance promoted qualities of gravity and decorum. Popular music he regarded as subversive of man's higher instincts. Taste in literature was governed by similar considerations. The Tang man of letters Ignored or attacked works of fiction because he considered them tissues of lies and suspected them of undermining the qualities of sincerity, honor, nobility, and decorum that had to be cultivated, particularly among the ruling elite, if the nation were to be properly ordered. Classical poetry he esteemed as the highest form of literature. There could be no more dignified

Introduction and wholesome employment of one's free hours than savoring the poems of past generations and composing what one hoped might be considered worthy successors. To a Confucian gentleman, composing poetry, like painting and playing music, was a form of self-discipline and self-improvement. He did not simply sit down and toss off a lover's lament or an effusion on the beauties of nature. He ordered his thoughts coolly and soberly. He considered the philosophical implications of his theme. Summoning the wraiths of earlier poems on similar topics, he added subtle overtones for the perceptive reader by borrowing a pair of adjectives, a turn of speech, or an allusion. And finally, with due attention to complicated rules of prosody, he produced a few choice lines. The Confucian value system, in short, assigned to poetry a role that was political, moral, and social; poetry was a useful adjunct to government because it improved the quality of the ruling class. Official sponsorship at the highest level is the basic reason for the predominant place of poetry in the literary traditions of China and Japan. In both countries it was taken for granted that a cultivated man would compose poems; poetry writing was not only an approved but a compulsory avocation. In Japan, where imported values faced persistent indigenous challenges, and also in China, especially during periods of political turmoil, the moral and pohtical benefits to be derived from versification sometimes were at best perfunctorily recognized. Confucian sponsorship guaranteed poetry respectability and a continuing social role, but did not prevent it from developing along lines that were often notably not Confucian. This was particularly true in China during the Six Dynasties period, whose poetic practice was admired and imitated by Heian courtiers.

17

Introduction Six Dynasties Poetry. The poetic form that had claimed the attention of Han bureaucrats was the fu (sometimes called prose poem), a literary piece in which the author exhausted his powers of observation and imagination on some topic, producmg a work replete with parallelism, dif~ ficult characters, recondite allusions, and unusual words and phrases drawn from the treasure house of the Chinese language. Its composition was an intellectual exercise, a suitable pastime for a Confucian gentleman. When the Han dynasty collapsed early in the third cen~ tury, Confucianism was discredited. Political and social upheaval led to a resurgence of Taoism, both philosophical and popular, a new interest in Buddhism, and an antis~ cial, escapist, hedonistic spirit of rebellion against Confu~ cian dogma. Some scholar~intellectuals turned to rival sys~ terns of thought; others retreated to hermitages; others, fleeing south with the great aristocratic families, tried to perform their accustomed roles in the new southern states, where the shibboleths of Confucianism were acknowl~ edged, but where the social and political atmosphere was distinctly uncongenial to the Confucian ethic. For a career at a southern court, and especially for survival during the violent transitions between ruling houses, the most useful qualities were not soberness, probity, and a sound ground~ ing in the classics, but resourcefulness, flexibility, a not overscrupulous sense of honor, and the ability to adapt to the requirements of a pleasure~seeking, increasingly de~ cadent court society. Personally insecure, politically im~ potent, and infected by the restless spirit of the times, the uprooted aristocrats spent their energies, their ingenuity, and their considerable wealth on the construction and em~ bellishment of costly palaces and villas, on elaborate enter~ tainments, on amorous dalliance, and on an incessant

18

Introduction search for amusement. Enchanted by the lush scenery of the south (which was inspiring other emigres to create Chma's first true nature poetry and landscape painting), they reproduced the beauty of rivers, lakes, and mountains in the grounds of their elegant residences; and there they and their literati guests whiled away the nights with dancing girls, wine, and poetry. For such occasions the Han-style fu was inappropriate. It was not dropped altogether, but a new verse form met the needs of a new day-the shih, thenceforth the classic Chinese poetic form. The shih developed during the Six Dynasties period into a highly formal medium character· ized by lines of five or seven characters (rarely, four), parallelism, end rhyme, and a complex pattern of internal tone harmony. By the end of the period the number of lines, origmally rather considerable, had diminished to eight, six, or four-convenient lengths for impromptu versifying. In the sixth century most of the shih being written in south China' 2 were nature poems. Their subjects were determined by the surroundings at alfresco nocturnal banquets (moonlight on the lake, the stars, clouds passing in front of the moon), by the occasion (the annual chrysanthemum banquet or a cherry blossom party), or by conditions set by a host, who might call on guests to celebrate prominent features of his garden, to compose poems on topics suggested by lines from old poems, or to match rhymes with a designated verse. At one gathering of which an account has been preserved, those present were required to write 2o-line poems on the theme of the Weaver Maid and the Herdsman, using Identical rhyming characters and devoting four lines to each of five designated subordinate topics.13 The object was always to produce, with the greatest possible speed and wit, an elegantly allusive verse with 19

Introduction

aristocratic polish, an aura of opulent beauty, and a melodious tonal pattern. A man with a reliable memory could achieve social success by simply stringing together impressive words or phrases from earlier poems, with little or no independent contribution. These circumstances did not invite originality or profundity, and many poems, such as the one below on the topic "Snow,m 4 were almost totally devoid of content: Flying salt mingles with dancing butterflies, Falling flowers whirl onto a powder box, Powder from a box whirls amid falling flowers, Dancing butterflies mingle with flying salt. Few scholars today would disagree with a critic in the Sui dynasty (ca. s8I-6I8) who attacked late Six Dynasties poetry as a shallow and artificial "literature of moonlight and dew," and demanded a restoration of the Han balance between form and content. Similar strictures abound in Chinese literary criticism. But it would be a mistake to underestimate the historical importance of the Six Dynasties poets, for they developed the technical conventions observed by the far greater poets of T'ang, they firmly established the social role of poetry in China, they bequeathed a heritage of traditionalism and sophisticated elegance that enriched Chinese poetry in its great periods and weakened it in periods of decline, and they determined the basic direction followed by Japanese court poetry for a thousand years. Certain resemblances between Six Dynasties China and Heian Japan suggest a reason for the persistence of Six Dynasties literary practices in Japan; certain differences between the two societies may help to account for the devel20

Introduction

opment of mono no aware as a uniquely Japanese aesthetic ideal. The most important similarities were that the upper strata in both societies consisted of a hereditary aristocracy of wealthy dilettantes and their satellites, and that accidents of history, climate, and topography made the interests and pastimes of the one congenial to the other. The migration to the mild and beautiful south, the demoralizing troubles of the age, and the temporary discomfiture of Confucianism made the Chinese nob1hty much more receptive than before to the philosophies of Taoism and Buddhism (both of which preached man's oneness with nature), and increased their interest in their physical surroundmgs. Their example reached Japan only secondhand, by way of T'ang, but it carried the prestige of Chinese origin and it came to a land where sim1lar interests had existed for many centuries. Shinto rituals, Man'yoshu poems, early chronicles, and other sources attest unmistakably to the antiquity and strength of the Japanese people's love for their hills and waters. So the Heian courtiers, welcoming new and more sophisticated ways of expressing old commitments, designed landscape gardens of their own, celebrated the blooming of the chrysanthemums with annual court ceremonies, and made a ritual of gazing at the moon. And at court functwns and pnvate gatherings, they too composed poems on man's relationship to nature, and at times degraded poetry to the status of a game. As we have seen, Confucian tradition was largely responsible for the important social role assigned to poetry at the Six Dynasties courts, and for the poets~ imitativeness, conservatism, intellectualism, preciosity, and concern with style. One could point to many other areas of the society where Confucianism made its presence felt. But it is probably right to say that the influence of Confucianism was 21

Introduction significantly stronger in Heian Japan. To be sure, Heian Japan was not a Confucian society in the sense that Han, or T'ang, was Confucian. There was far too much heredi~ tary privilege, too much frivolity, and too little attention to the serious business of government and to public and pri~ vate morality. The immediate Chinese example was, how~ ever, that of T'ang, and Confucian tradition did impose certain standards of decorum and formality that were ab~ sent at the Six Dynasties courts. Heian society was hedonistic but not debauched, extravagant but not unrestrained. Excess of any kind was vulgar, and vulgarity was the un~ pardonable sin. Confucian influence thus helps to account for the restraint, refinement, and elegance of Heian court life and Heian court poetry-and also, it must be added, for the tyranny of tradition, the concern with form at the expense of content, and the bloodless quality of the typical Heian courtier as he appears in literature, all graceful poses, fine robes, and fashionable airs. Can we say, then, that the ideal of mono no aware re~ suited from the imposition of Six Dynasties hedonism and T'ang Confucianism upon an indigenous aristocratic social structure and an ingrained love of beauty? Not quite, for the predominance of Buddhism in China between the midfourth and late eighth centuries had consequences important to Heian culture. Buddhism entered China from India around the begin~ ning of the Christian era, but its significant impact came only with the disintegration of the Han social fabric. We have observed that dunng the Six Dynasties period its teachings, like those of Taoism, promoted the dilettantish, hedonistic tendencies of the southern ruling class by encouraging a repudiation of social responsibilities, a new feeling of identification with nature, and a sense of the 22

Introduction

vanity of worldly things. At the same time, there was a great wave of religious fervor-eager acceptance of the new religion in the highest circles, and active private and official patronage with strong economic support, both in the south and in the barbarian capitals of the north-and the flood did not ebb until the ninth century, 200 years after the be~ ginning of Japan's major period of borrowing. Intellec~ tuals, men who in another day would have become Con~ fucian scholar~bureaucrats, took the tonsure and dedicated their lives to translating and elucidating the scriptures. Artists, architects, and artisans erected soaring pagodas and great halls filled with gilt-bronze statues donated by the pious. Monasteries flourished; images were carved in re~ mote ch.ffs and caves. For China such changes were unprecedented. Never be~ fore in recorded history had the ancient center of East Asian civilization been affected so profoundly by an alien influence. And when Buddhism reached Japan, a country whose inhabitants had not advanced very far beyond the neolithic stage, the impact was infinitely greater. Entering by way of Korea during the sixth century, the religion was identified at once with the continental Chinese culture that the Japanese were seeking with increasing avidity. Its appeal was twofold. First, it seemed inseparably linked to the material aspects of Chinese civilization: when through Korea, and later directly from China, the Japanese import~ ed paintings, sculpture, new styles of architecture, and the products of continental technology, they brought in Buddhism too. And second, it offered an alluring alternative to the amorphous, naive Shinto cults, although the highly sophisticated nature of that alternative was not immediately recognized. To dazzled members of the upper classes, encountering for the first time the awe-inspiring statues

Introduction and marvelously wrought hand bells and altar vessels, the chanting high pnests in their gorgeous vestments, and the masked dancers treading stately measures while exotic instruments skuled and tnlled, Buddhtsm seemed to be, and was valued as, a new and potent form of magic. Closer acquaintance brought a slowly maturing comprehension of the intellectual message of Buddhism, but it is probably fau to say that for many Japanese the basic attractions of the Indian religion remained essentially what they had been at the beginning. In the Heian period, the great Buddhist ceremonies that studded the court's calendar had two roles. They protected the state against natural calamities, sickness, foreign invasion, and strange celestial phenomena, and they functioned as elaborate entertainments, mounted with practiced showmanship and thoroughly enjoyed by participants and spectators.15 Privately commissioned rituals, sometimes only slightly less lavish and impressive, served similar purposes for members of the nobility, rescuing them from boredom and helping them to marry well, bear their children safely, and thwart bodily

ills. There were of course many serious and devout believers, some with an extensive knowledge of metaphysical subtleties; and even the most mdolent and worldly of their contemporaries were affected in conduct and attitude by certain easily apprehensible Buddhist notions that formed part of every aristocrat's intellectual equipment. One of these articles of faith was the belief in rebirth in Amida Buddha's paradise, attested in innumerable sources of the period; another was the idea of karma-the assumption that a man's actions in one life determine his fate in the nextwhich is a major theme in The Tale of Genji. And still another was the insistence on the transience of worldly

Introduction

things, a point of view that found expression in almost every aspect of Heian life. In most respects Heian Buddhism did not differ strikingly from the Buddhism of the Six Dynasties and early Tang, but one does find in it an unusual preoccupation with the concept of impermanence in nature and in human affairs, an idiosyncrasy that cannot be explained satisfactorily, though one notes that it fits the characteristic pattern of Japanese intellectual history, in which emotional reasoning has consistently been preferred to speculative thought. It is, I think, this trait, in combination with the elements discussed earlier, that makes Heian culture unique and gives Japanese court poetry its special quality. As Brower and Miner say, time "is perhaps the element that touches the Japanese sensibility most deeply and in the most various ways.m 6 In Tales of lse, as in many other works of Japanese literature, the tyranny of time is a recurrent theme. Chinese Influence in the Early Heian Period. How did Chinese influence modify Japanese poetic practice? More specifically, how did it affect the poetry in Ise monogatari? To what extent are the Ise poems products of individual creativity, imitations of earlier native traditions, or merely clever adaptations of foreign models? If we attempt to find answers by inspecting waka produced on public occasions during the opening decades of the Heian period, we shall be disappointed. There are, incredibly, none to inspect, for the public events of early Heian inspired only halting effusions in Chinese. Nothing could speak more eloquently of the nature and extent of Chinese influence at the beginning of the ninth century. It is often said that the eighth century was Japan's great period of Sinicization, and it is true that eighth-century sovereigns and their ministers labored diligently, and with re-

Introduction markable results, to create at Nara a small-scale replica of the imperial Chinese capital at Ch'ang-an. But much of the change was only external. Political and economic evidence, indigenous myths and attitudes embedded in the official eighth-century histories, and the very existence of Man'yoshu all reveal stubborn native resistance to alien institutions and ideas. By the early ninth century, however, 200 years of assiduous borrowing and assimilation had produced a court society approximating the ideal aspired to by Nara emperors. The rulers in the new capital at Heian (Kyoto) laid out their city according to the Chinese checkerboard pattern, devised impressive Chinese names for their palace gates, and constructed a vermilion Chinese-style hall of state with emerald-blue roof tiles. In 818 and 82o, Chinese dress and rules of etiquette were prescribed for both ordinary and ceremonial occasions. Chinese delicacies were served at state and private banquets. The annual ceremonial observances around which court life revolved followed T'ang precedents. A T'ang-style bureaucracy operated a Tangstyle tax system. And Chinese ideas, values, and attitudes shaped the character of court life in innumerable ways. In that environment the Chinese writing system, Chinese learning, and Chinese belles lettres encountered little opposition. Japanese poetry disappeared from public life. Though waka were still written, they became chiefly instruments of courtship; their function was social but private. No Japanese poems were demanded by early Heian emperors at their court banquets, and none are preserved in their official records. The rather nervous efforts of Japanese courtiers to compose in Chinese, which had begun in the seventh century, received fresh encouragement from sovereigns like Em-

Introduction peror Saga (r. 809-23), an ardent Sinophile and tireless versifier who must have terrorized inferior linguists with his constant requests for Chinese poems during palace functions and imperial excursions. The results are partially preserved in four anthologies, one dating from the Nara period and the others (all imperially commissioned) from the first three decades of the ninth century. The collections are valuable not so much for their literary appeal, which is limited, as for what they reveal about the events and motivations that inspired their contents. They show clearly that almost all shih were composed for banquets, excursions, festivals, funerals, and other public and social functions. Recitations of Chinese poems formed part of the regular proceedings at several annual court ceremonies (the literary banquet, the spring and fall festivals in honor of Confucius, the chrysanthemum banquet, etc.); they contributed to the success of important special events, such as the banquets held after lectures on the Chinese classics and histories; and they lent an agreeable tone of sophistication to informal occaswns. Such literary activity was satisfyingly elevated and continental, but it may be doubted that Emperor Saga and other rulers could have counted on quite the same degree of cooperation had the poets' rewards been purely social. It is significant that the great period of Chinese studies and Chinese literary composition in Heian came around 81025, when former political and military threats had been dissipated, the government's financial situation was stable, and a single aristocratic house, the Fujiwara, had not yet secured control of the machinery of state. During those years the perennially powerless emperors, able for once to exercise a certain amount of independent authority, utilized the prestige of China to combat hereditary privilege.

27

Introductwn It was certain that lineage would continue to be the major qualification for public office, but the emperors hoped to weaken rival houses by emphasizing the necessity of a Confucian education for bureaucrats. Their ministers, they announced, would be chosen at least partly on the basis of merit. The national university, a T'ang-style institution established in the Nara period to train future officials, consequently took on an importance that it retained until the rise of the Fujiwara (ca. 8so) made its degrees worthless as instruments of political advancement. The principles, structure, and curriculum of the university followed the T'ang pattern, with the significant exception that enrollment was open only to the hereditary nobility. As in T'ang, the basic curriculum included literature whose primary appeal was stylistic. The most important literary text assigned to students was the Wen hsuan (Literary Selections), a voluminous anthology of stylistic masterpieces compiled by a late Six Dynasties prince. This work, the most famous Chinese anthology and the largest compendium of pre-T'ang prose and poetry, was immensely influential at the early Heian court, where special Wen hsuan banquets and lectures were held. Some earnest noblemen memorized all of its 30 chapters, presumably in preparation for their examinations, which required the composition of a poem in the classical Chinese style. During the few decades before the Fujiwara ascendancy, the examinations conducted by the Ministry of Ceremonial were taken with the utmost seriousness. They were staged with great formality, sometimes in the presence of the emperor himself, and a brilliant performance meant social recognition that could have important political consequences.11 It was in this atmosphere that ambitious noblemen composed their Chinese poems, first as students practicing for the examinations, and later as officials whose careers could

Introduction

be affected by their performances. With so much at stake, and in view of the practical problems involved, it is not surprising that their exercises were a bit timid. Fortunately, originality was not expected of them. Theirs was scissors~ and~paste composition-not merely influenced by Chinese poems, but rather directly imitating and unabashedly pla~ giarizing them. Given a specific topic (and nearly all poems were composed under such circumstances; they were not spontaneous emotional reactions to stimuli in the poets' lives), a courtier merely consulted a handy Chinese an~ thology, or, even better, a collection of famous lines on spec1fic topics, and borrowed suitable words and phrases, substituting Japanese place names and adding a few other naturalizing touches. Early Heian hbraries contained, in addition to the Wen hsuan, a fairly considerable number of collections and source books dating from the Six Dynasties period to mid-T'ang. Their owners regarded them not as works of literature to be appraised on the basis of their aesthetic merits, but as stockpiles of uniform value and utility, and they dipped with cheerful eclecticism into first one and then another as they cooked up "their chowders, their hodgepodges of Chinese poetry. 0018 To trace the influence of a single Chinese poet, a single school of poetry, or even a single era, on any early Heian poem is an almost hopeless task.19 But one can say that the artificiality, imitativeness, preoccupation with form, and purely public orientation of Japanese shih reflect tastes and attitudes far more characteristic of Six Dynasties courtiers than of important T'ang poets like Li Po and Tu Fu. The early Heian Japanese were not unacquainted with Li Po (701-62) and Tu Fu (712-70 ), but they seem to have found it difficult to understand them and the themes they used (many of which were alien to Japanese experience), and to have preferred to concentrate on the kind of poetry de-

29

Introduction manded of examination candidates-i.e., public poetry of the Six Dynasties variety. Those who ventured further afield were usually content to imitate private Six Dynasties poems pratsmg nature or commemorating festive events among the nobility, or to compose "Poems on Things," a category of Six Dynasties and T'ang verse that dealt with specific topics suggested by the life of the upper classes: a bird, an insect, or a plant in a landscape garden; the sun, the moon, rain, or snow as observed from a garden; an art object, an article of furniture, or a court beauty. The Resurgence of the Waka. The Heian court's rabid~ ly Sinophile phase was short~lived. By the fourth decade of the ninth century, Emperor Saga was no longer on the throne, Chinese studies and the university were declining as Fujiwara fortunes rose, and contact with the waning T'ang empire was diminishing. The Japanese were both as~ similating Chinese cultural values and creating or reassert~ ing native ones to shape the complex, sophisticated culture mirrored in Kokinshu, Tales of Ise, and The Tale of Genji. One symptom of change was the appearance of the delicate, decorative yamatoe, or Japanese picture, and its acceptance as an art form equal in dignity to the Chinese landscape painting. Another was the derivation from Chinese char~ acters of simple syllabaries (kana) for use in writing Japa~ nese. For official histories, government documents, peti~ tions to the buddhas, and court nobles' diaries, the Chinese language (or an approximation thereof) prevailed; but, from the ninth century on, ladies and other ignorant or lazy persons could set down their thoughts, feelings, and imagimngs in Japanese. This development not only made possible such distinguished prose works as The Tale of GenJt, The Gossamer Years, and Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book, but also gave powerful impetus to the revival of Japa~

Introduction nese poetry. (One is much more likely to send along a poem with a gift, message, or love letter if one is not obliged to go to the shelf for dictionaries and refer~nce works, seek out 31 Chinese characters that might be used as phonetic symbols, consider the advantages of inserting certain characters for their semantic value, and trust that the recipient will be able to muster the erudition, ingenuity, and patience to decipher the result.) With kana and a renewed belief in the worth of their cherished native traditions, the Japanese challenged the unnatural monopoly of the shih. The trend is first discernible in the 83o's and 84o's among a few well-educated courtiers-such as Ariwara Narihira's older brother Yukihira-who composed waka to which they applied lessons learned in their tussles with Chinese anthologies. By the mid-ninth century a waka revival was at hand. Japanese poems appeared alongside pictures on the folding screens that Fujiwara nobles provided for their womenfolk in imitation of T'ang custom. They were recited during Tangstyle competitions between rival sets of paintings, sweetflag roots, or incense compounds. And presently, perhaps as an outgrowth of the last pastime, they began to be written for poetry contests in the imperial palace and the mansions of the great-increasingly important functions that aroused deep passions and desperate determination among the participants and their supporters. Emperors no longer called solely for Chinese poems during banquets and hunting excursions. By the end of the century the eclipse of the shih was unmistakable: the fourth imperial poetic anthology, Kokinshu, which was composed not of shih as its predecessors had been, but of waka, merely gave formal recognition to an accomplished fact. 20 The victory of the waka, however, was not a victory for

Introduction

the tradition embodied in Man'yoshii, whose poems, though by no means untainted by Chinese notions, nevertheless emphasized content more than style and were distinguished by freely expressed emotion, flexibility in the use of vocabulary, and a relatively wide range of themes, forms, and tones. The triumph was rather that of a new poetic shaped by the Six Dynasties poets' restricted vision, their preoccupation with formal perfection and fine language, their imagery, their conservatism, and their pose of sophistication. It was no doubt inevitable that the Six Dynasties style, previously naturalized by the authors of Heian shih, should have affected the Japanese poetry that these versifiers composed. One factor in the assimilation of the style was a T'ang-inspired vogue for composing poems on the themes of famous lines from old Chinese poems; it was taken up during the heyday of the shih, and toward the end of the ninth century was being adapted to the waka. For example, a collectiOn of Chinese lines compiled in 894 contains the line "The moon shines on level sand-summer night frost," by Po Chii-i, accompanied by the following poem in Japanese:21 Tsukikage ni Nabete masago no Terinureba Natsu no yo fureru Shimo ka to zo miru.

Fine grains of sand Glistening everywhere In the moonlightCan it be that frost has fallen This summer night?

Not only topics but techniques were imported. Since imitation of the tone harmony, end rhyme, and parallelism of classical Chinese poetry was precluded, either by the nature of the Japanese language or by the brevity of the waka, the

32

Introduction

borrowing focused on imagery, and particularly on the characteristic Six Dynasties use of simile, metaphor, and allegory. In Stx Dynasties and T'ang poetry (and in Heian shih), one frequently encounters the verbs "mistake" and "deceive": "I mistook the snow for cherry blossoms"; "the snow deceived me by posing as moonlight." Though constant repetition destroyed the force of such phrases, they were intended to emphasize the impact of the poet's experience on his sensibihties. He says in effect, "I know that cherry trees do not bloom in December, but the snow on the bare limbs is so very much like flowers-the evidence of my senses is so compelling-that I cannot help feeling a momentary bewilderment." The Japanese greatly admired this kind of "elegant confusion," as Brower and Miner call it, and they adopted many of its images, such as blossoms and snow, white chrysanthemums and frost, dew and jewels, and snow and moonlight. 22 The following poem (KKS 269) by Fujiwara Toshiyuki (d. 901) illustrates the adaptation of the device to the waka. Toshiyuki is probably describing the emotions of a minor courtier who has just been granted permission to enter the inner sanctum of the imperial residence (the "celestial realm"). The metaphor, which occurs also in two Japanese shih, can be traced to an early Six Dynasties fu. 23 Hisakata no Kumo no ue nite Miru kiku wa Amatsuhoshi to zo Ayamatarekeru.

Seeing chrysanthemums In the celestial realm Above the clouds, I was deceived And took them for stars.

Japanese poets were not incapable of creating topics, techniques, and images of their own. But they felt an in33

Introduction creasingly explicit desire to refine the waka, to invest it with an aura of sophistiCation, and to elevate it to the status of Chinese poetry; and one way of achieving those goals, they believed, was to use words, phrases, images, and techniques that by their very antiquity, their encrusted connotations, conjured up, like some nchly patinated bronze vessel, the whole glorious span of Chinese civilization. Thus Ki no Tsurayuki, in a poem on "Spring" (KKS 26) admired for its elegance, opulent beauty, complexity, and ingenuity, added depth to his treatment by using words and images whose Chinese origin was immediately recognizable: Aoyagino Ito yorikakuru Haru shi mo zo Midarete hana no Hokorobinikeru.

Now in the springSeason of tender green willows' Twisted threadsThe tangled blossoms Have burst their coats.

The conceit wittily suggests a literary tailor's view of spring: the image in lines 2 and 3 is adapted from a Chinese word, "willow-thread," which describes the willow tree's long, tratling limbs in spring; hokorobimkeru, here translated "have burst their coats," is from hokorobu, "to rip, to come unsewn," and corresponds to a verb used in Chinese poetry in the same way. 24 No poem better exemplifies the ideal that Tsurayuki set forth in his kana preface. This is the Kokmshu style at its best-a delicately balanced blend of fresh emotion with formal polish, originality with allusiveness, and simplicity with sensuousness.25 The Six Poetic Geniuses. To understand more precisely the development of the mature Kokinshu style, we must look briefly at six poets who flourished from the 83o's to the 88o's-the Six Poetic Geniuses, or Rokkasen, so called be34

Introduction cause they are the only Heian poets mentioned by name in the Kokinshfi prefaces.26 Two of the six, Ono no Komachi and Ariwara Narihira, are among Japan's greatest poets. The other four, Archbishop Henjo, the monk Kisen, Otomo Kuronushi, and Bun'ya Yasuhide, are at best sec~ ondary figures, but it can be argued that they and others like them were the true precursors of the Kokinshfi style, the bridge between the shih and the Japanese court poetry of the future. 27 (Translations of all Rokkasen verses of un~ disputed authenticity-namely those appearing in Kokin~ shu-will be found in Appendix A.) Of Archbishop Henjo, a courtier who became a Buddhist monk upon the death of Emperor Nimmyo in 8so, the Chinese Kokinshu preface says: "Archbishop Henjo is an excellent technician, but his language is ornate and his con~ tent meager. His poems are hke paintings of beautiful women-they stir the senses to no purpose."28 A poem by Henjo (KKS 165): Hachisuba no Nigori ni shimanu Kokoromote Nani ka wa tsuyu o Tama to azamuku.

How is it that the lotus leaf, Untainted by impurity, Yet practices deceitFor it would have us think Dewdrops gems.

The Kokinshu comments seem to a modern reader to cap~ ture the author's essential qualities admirably. The intel~ lectuality and choice of imagery in this poem show a strong Six Dynasties influence. Almost nothing is known of Kisen other than that he too was a Buddhist monk. The Chinese preface says: "The language of the monk Kisen has a flowerlike beauty, but there is a vague quality in his poems; reading them, one

35

Introduction feels as though dawn clouds had obscured one's view of the autumn moon." 29 Kisen's only Kokinshu poem (983): Wagaiowa Miyako no tatsumi Shika zo sumu Yo o ujiyama to Hi to wa iu nari.

Thus I dwell In my hermitage Southeast of the capital At the place others call Gloomy Mount Uji.

In the first three lines, the author seems to be projecting the very Chinese image of the cultivated man who rejects society and finds contentment in the life of a recluse: shtka ("thus") stands in opposition to u ("melancholy," "gloomy," "disagreeable") and carries the implication "happily," "peacefully." But lines 4 and 5 are susceptible to various interpretations because the kakekotoba technique joins u with the place name Ujiyama (Mount Uji). The poem might be understood and paraphrased in any of the following ways: (1) "Though my life in this hermitage is always tranquil, laymen cannot believe that anyone could be happy here; to them the very name of the place suggests misery." (2) "Though I am happy here, others say that the misery of the human condition is inescapable no matter where one goes." (3) "Though I am happy here, people say that I have come because I am embittered and frustrated." (4) "Though I am happy here, people say that no one can find peace in a spot so close to the profane life of the capital." (5) "Though I am happy, nobody else would be willing to live here. People avoid this place; they call it Mount Melancholy." (6) "It is all a matter of viewpoint. To me this is a pleasant spot near the capital; to others it is the godforsaken ends of the earth." This is, in short, a deliberately obscure, self-consciously intellectual poem, with

Introduction

an emphasis on technique typical of the "cleverness" of the Six Dynasties. Otomo Kuronushi was a substantial landholder in Omi Province, not far from the capital. He held the lowest court rank, and is known to have taken some part in court life as late as the 89o's. The Chinese preface says: "There is much of interest in Otomo Kuronushi's verses, but his style is quite vulgar. He reminds one of a peasant relaxing in front of flowers." 30 A poem by Kuronushi (KKS 899) :81 Kagamiyama Iza tachiyorite Miteyukan Toshi henuru mi wa Oi ya shinuru to.

Before journeying on I shall go closer And look at Mirror MountainFor I have no doubt begun To show my age.

This is a shallow poem that derives its effect from verbal tricks. In the Heian period, mirrors were precious objects which ordinary travelers were unlikely to carry. Kagamiyama (Mirror Mountain), near the capital, was well known to early travelers. Yasuhide was a very minor court official who is presumed to have lived until around the 88o's or 89o's. The Chinese preface says: "Bun'ya Yasuhide deals cleverly with set topics, but his style lacks elevation. He reminds one of a tradesman dressed up in a new suit of clothes." 32 One of his poems, composed for a contest (KKS 249) : Fukukarani Aki no kusaki no Shiorureba Mube yamakaze o Arashi to iuramu.

When it blows It ravages the autumn woodsWhich of course must explain Why a wind from the mountains Is called a tempest.

37

Introduction The poem depends on a play involving the Chinese char~ acters for "wind" and "mountain," which together form the character for "storm." Its triviality, lack of emotion, and rather cheap ingenuity are all reminiscent of Six Dy~ nasties predecessors. These four poets, so patently indebted to Chinese mas~ ters, are equally close in tone, technique, and themes to their own immediate successors, the generation of the Kokinshii compilers. There is some doubt whether Fuku kara ni was composed by Yasuhide or by his son; no styhstic idiosyncrasy, no bold, original concept, no distinc~ tive, powerful emotional content helps us decide. The poem might as easily be attributed to Ki no Tomonori (fl. ca. 890), one of the Kokinshii compilers, whose poem below (KKS 337) plays with characters in the same way: Yuki fureba Ki goto ni hana zo Sakinikeru Izure o ume to Wakite oramashi.

After the snowfall, Flowers bloom On every treeHow shall I find the plum To pluck a spray?

The characters for "tree" and "every," combined, mean "plum." But then Tomonori's poem might have been written by Henjo, who also suffers from "elegant confusion." In Kokinshii, as in its Chinese ancestors, it is all but impossible to discover any poem of which one might say, "That could only have been written by X." Henjo, Kisen, Kuronushi, and Yasuhide blend imperceptibly with the others; they form part of a direct line of transmission from Six Dynas~ ties and T'ang to Heian shih to Kokinshii. Komachi and Narihira, however, do not quite fit the

Introduction mold. Komachi exchanged poems with Henjo and Yasuhide and must therefore have been active around the middle of the ninth century. Little is known of her life. Her Kokinshu poems and their brief headnotes provide almost no biographical data, and supplementary sources of information have not survived, except for unsubstantiated legends that describe her as a heartless beauty who d1ed in poverty. But through her poetry she emerges from the anonymous Kokinshu throng as a distinct personality-a passionate, coquettish, intensely feminine woman, preoccupied with men and the emotions they aroused. Thirteen of her 18 verses are classified by the Kokinshu compilers as love poems, and a modern reader would put the other five in the same category. When Komachi is in a flirtatious mood, she speaks with the characteristic voice of the age. Her mastery of the techniques admired by Tsurayuki is clear in the following allegorical message to a suitor (KKS 623), dependent for its effect on an intricately contrived series of word plays by means of which the unhappy man is simultaneously rebuffed and encouraged :33 Mirumenaki W a ga mi o ura to Shiraneba ya Karenade ama no Ashi tayuku kuru.

In this bay There is no seaweed. Does he not know itThe fisherman who persists in commg Until his legs grow weary ?

If she had written only poems like this, cool, witty, and fashionably elegant, she would still be remembered as an accomplished practitiOner of the court style. But there is in her best work, a group of compositions known as the 39

Introduction "dream poems," an emotional intensity that sets her apart from lesser poets and places her far closer than Tsurayuki himself to the stated Kokinshu ideal of balance between form and content. The dream poems, of which the follow~ ing (KKS 553) is an example, are moving evocations of the life of the Heian woman, who typically shared her lover or husband with rivals, and who lived in constant fear of abandonment, against which she had no protection: Utatane ni Koishiki hito o Miteshi yori Yume cho mono wa Tanomisometeki.

Since encountering my beloved While I dozed, I have begun to feel That it is dreams, not reality, On which I can rely.

The Chinese preface says, in obvious reference to the subtle blend of romanticism, escapism, and despair char~ acteristic of the dream poems, "Ono no Komachi's poetry ... has elegance but lacks strength; it reminds one of a sick woman wearing cosmetics." 34 This most feminine poetry does lack strength, in the sense that Komachi makes no bold challenge to fate, plans no action to break free of despair. But her despair is passionate, not passive, and her emotion is the more poignant for the aching sense of frus~ tration it betrays. Komachi lives, feels, and suffers, and her poetry is alive with a passionate intensity, a deep emotional involvement sought but rarely achieved by other poets in the Koktnshu tradition. Few of her contemporaries or sue~ cessors could have written the poem below: 85 Hito ni awan Tsuki no naki ni wa

On such a night as this When the lack of moonlight shades your way to me,

Introduction Omiokite Mune hashiribi ni Kokoro yakeori.

I wake from sleep my passion blazing, My breast a fire raging, exploding flame While within me my heart chars.

Komachi's experiences as a Heian woman undoubtedly contributed to her artistic growth. Her theme of unhappy love brought her into close and fruitful association with the ancient native tradition of lyric expression, which gave both authority and direction to her natural inclinations; and she must have been far less influenced than most male poets by Chinese poetry, which she was probably unable to read, much less to write. Only impre:;sive native gifts, however, can explain the ease with which she avoids the artificiality of the court style while accepting its conventions. In any society Ono no Komachi would have been a major poet. Ariwara Narihira. Ariwara Narihira (825-80) was the grandson of two emperors. His father, Prince Abo, a son of ex-Emperor Heizei, was exiled to Kyiishii in 810 at the age of 18, after participating in an attempt to restore Heizei to the throne; he returned to the capital around 824 and went on to a moderately successful official career. Narihira's mother was Princess Ito, a daughter of Emperor Kammu. According to Sandai jitsuroku (True Records of Three Reigns), the official history for the period, the poet was his father's fifth son. He and his brothers were made commoners, with the surname Ariwara, in the year following his birth. Aside from scattered hints in Kokinshu poems and their headnotes, the chief source of information about Narihira is a terse obituary notice in Sandai jitsuroku, which, like

Introduction

all the histories, concentrates primarily on the official careers of its subjects. The editors' list of Narihira's offices and ranks shows that he advanced very slowly, and that, unlike his older brother Yukthira, he never rose to the top level of the bureaucracy. After a series of minor appointments, he was promoted to first one and then the other of the two offices with which he is identified in Tales of lse: he became Commander of the Right Horse Bureau in 865 and Middle Captain in the Imperial Guards of the Right in 875. In 879, shortly before his death, he was named Director of the Archivists' Bureau. His highest court rank was Junior Fourth Upper.86 The chief reason for this poor showing was that during Narihira's hfetime the Fujiwara family was gradually excluding outsiders from important public offices. Fujiwara pressure was Irresistible unless a man happened to combine exalted lineage with exceptwnal ability or seniority, as, for example, Yukihira and some of the Minamoto ex-princes did. Narihira pursued the course usually adopted by a courtier of high birth who was unwilling either to enter the Buddhist priesthood or to seek his fortune in the provinces. He stayed in the capital, performed a few routine duties, and devoted most of his time to social activities. His life as a fashionable gentleman of leisure inspired his poetry and was indirectly responsible for the development of Tales of lse in the form in which we know it. The passage that describes Narihira in Sandai titsuroku, though famous, has been made tantalizingly cryptic by the editors' determination to write in balanced Chinese prose. Each of their four comments consists of exactly four characters.87 1. T aibo kanrei: "In appearance he was elegant and handsome." This probably means that he was more than

Introduction

ordinarily good~looking, since official histories do not as a rule comment on a man's appearance. 5 8 2. H OJU kakawarazu: H oJii usually means "self~indul­ gent," kakawarazu, "regardless of" or "in spite of." The phrase implies that Narihira did as he pleased regardless of established conventions-but when and how? As an official? In his private life? One possible interpretation, that he was promiscuous, has become the central element in a proliferating legend that has made this poet one of the great romantic figures of Japanese history, comparable in some ways to the twelfth~century warrior Minamoto Yoshitsune.39 He has been regarded as a real~ life Prince Genji, irresistibly attractive to women and highly sensitive in his relationships with them, and indeed with men as well-in short, a model Heian courtier. This is his role in Tales of Ise, which both stems from the legend and reinforces it. But attempts to find an independent, factual basis for the legend do not get very far, since headnotes to Narihira's Kokinshii poems (the other chief source of informa~ tion) show only that he was involved with three or more ladies. It is possible that the stories about his amatory prowess have been greatly exaggerated, and that the Sandai Jitsuroku editors were being less specific than has traditionally been supposed. One modern interpretation takes the comment to mean, "He did as he pleased instead of observing the rules that ought to govern an official's behavior."40 It has also been suggested, on the basis of the third comment in the obituary, that the phrase means that he refused to bother with Chinese studies because he preferred to wnte Japanese poetry.41 3· Rotondo saigaku nashi: "Almost no saigaku." In Sandat Jitsuroku, sat ("talent," "intelligence," "aptitude") usually seems to mean scholarly attainments or capability

43

Introduction as a Chinese scholar, and gaku ("education") Chinese learning. Puzzled Tokugawa scholars, unable to understand how someone with "almost no Chinese education" could have had an official career, decided that the negative nashi had somehow slipped into the text instead of the positive ari. The present tendency, however, is to hold that Narihira's duties could not have been exacting, and that the text probably means what it says. 4· Yoku yamatouta o tsukuru: "He excelled in the composition of Japanese poems [as opposed to Chinese]." This is a rather unusual remark for the editors of a standard history, who typically took the position that only a man's official career and his achievements as a Chinese scholar were worth recording. (The biography of the great Man'yoshu poet Otomo Yakamochi, for example, says nothing about his verse.)' 2 It probably signifies both that the status of the waka was rising and that Narihira's genius was recognized by his contemporaries.43 This is as far as the official history takes us. For more information about Narihira, his associates, and his way of life, one can only rely upon his Koktnshu poems, poems written to him, and the relevant headnotes. 44 Appendix A shows that Narihira wrote a number of poems relating to prominent figures of the day: the Fujiwara regent Mototsune; Fujiwara Koshi (sometimes called Taka1ko), a consort of Emperor Seiwa; and an imperial prince, Koretaka. Prince Koretaka (844--97) was a son of Emperor Montoku (r. 8so-s8) who had appeared to be destined for the throne until his infant half-brother was named crown prince instead, in 8so. Koretaka was the son of a lady from the Ki family; his successful rival, the future Emperor Seiwa, was the grandson of a Fujiwara. Narihira married a daughter of Ki no Aritsune, Prince Koretaka's uncle.

44

Introduction During his years as Commander of the Right Horse Bureau, he was apparently in the prince's service (perhaps because of the family connection), and he seems to have been a valued and congenial member of the prince's literary coterie. 45 A poem in Kokinshii (970) bears touching witness to his grief when the prince suddenly took religious vows at the age of 28 and retired to a hermitage. Tokugawa scholars were wrong, one feels, when they explained the relationship between these two men as merely a political alliance against the Fuj1wara, though it can be assumed that disappointment was among the ties that bound them together. During the Tokugawa period, a political explanation was also zealously sought for the most famous of Narihira's legendary love affairs. The lady was Fujiwara Koshi (842910), "the Empress from the Second Ward," niece and adopted daughter of the Fujiwara chieftain Yoshifusa. Koshi became a junior consort (nyogo) of Emperor Seiwa in 866, when she was 24 and the emperor was 16. She bore the future Emperor Yozei two years later, and received the title of ex-empress (kotaigo) after Yozei's accession in 876. For seven years, from the time her son was named crown prince until Emperor Seiwa abdicated, she was the most important of the imperial ladies, and she seems to have led a gay life, surrounded by luxuries, and to have maintained a literary salon frequented by Narihira and other poetcourtiers.46 Later her fortunes waned. Yozei, who proved to be criminally insane, was deposed in 884 by Koshi's brother, Mototsune, and in 896 Koshi was deprived of the title of ex-empress because of a sensational liaison with a Buddhist monk. Koshi's affair with Narihira supposedly took place while her adoptive father, Yoshifusa, was waiting for the future

45

Introduction FUJlWara-Imperial Family Intermarriage (9th century) Fujiwara Fuyutsugu

I Emperor Nimmyo;:: Junshi I

I

I Yoshifusa I

Emperor MontokuTMeisht

I

Emperor SeiwaTKoshi

I

Mototsune

Emperor Yozei

Emperor Seiwa to reach puberty so that she could be made an imperial consort. According to legend, Narihira visited her in the palace of her aunt, Fujiwara Junshi, "the Empress from the Fifth Ward," became intimate with her, and finally abducted her. A generally reliable eleventh-century chronicle, 6kagami (The Great Mirror), says of Koshi: It is not at all clear how the lady happened to become an imperial consort, because she was the gtrl whom Middle Captain Narihira carried off and hid while she was still living a sheltered life at home. Her elder brothers ... went to fetch her back. [Since her elopement ruled out the possibility of a formal presentation], there would have been no opportunity for the emperor to meet and fall in love with her if she had been kept as rigidly secluded as most girls. But she paid vis1ts to the Empress from Somedono [Meishi, Setwa's mother], with whom she was on intimate terms, and no doubt he noticed her on one such occasion.47

As a result of the elopement (the legend continues), Narihira was obliged to go to eastern Japan for a time, and after his return his official career languished because of Fujiwara hostility. According to some Tokugawa scholars, the seduction was a political ruse devised by Narihira because, as a partisan of Prince Koretaka and the Ki family, he wished to prevent the match between Seiwa and Koshi.

Introduction Kokinshii and Tales of lse are the sources for this romance, which has always been regarded as one of the great scandals of early Heian court history. The headnotes to Nanhira's poems KKS 632 and 747 are said to refer to Koshi, though they do not mention her name; and she has traditionally been thought to figure in Sectwns 4, 26, and 65 of lse monogatari, as well as in the sections that identify her by name. 48 Since Tales of lse is not a reliable historical source, the legend rests on the hints preceding KKS 632 and 747, and on the texts and headnotes of two other KKS poems by Narihira that show him traveling in eastern Japan (410 and 4rr). Many scholars have questioned the historicity of the trip to the east, usually on the grounds that it ought to have produced more and better poems, and there is in any case no evidence to support the old argument that the trip was made because of the disclosure of an affair with Koshi, or possibly to try to recruit anti-Fujiwara support. About the affair itself, one can merely speculate. Perhaps the dashing young man did indeed snatch the susceptible maiden from under the arrogant noses of her Fujiwara guardians; perhaps not. Eleven hundred years later, it can be said with certainty only that the legend was firmly established well before the end of the Heian period. Kokinshii shows Narihira writing poems for Koshi, as for Prince Koretaka, on purely public and social occasions (KKS 871 and 294). We learn from the same source that he composed a graceful poem for Mototsune's fiftieth birthday celebration (KKS 349), and there are other indications that he was outwardly on good terms with the Fujiwara, regardless of his private sentiments. A lament for Yoshifusa is attributed to him in the second imperial waka anthology ( GSS rr26), and the main figure in lse monogatari is consistently courteous and complimentary in his dealings with the family (IM 98, 101).

Introduction From Kokinshu headnotes (corroborated by episodes in Ise monogatarz), one can deduce that Narihira's closest associates were men of his own sort, cultivated, interested in poetry, high-born but of little consequence politically: e.g., Kino Aritsune, his father-in-law; Fujiwara Toshiyuki, an important poet who was Aritsune's nephew; and Kino Toshisada, a minor official whose poetry was good enough to be included in Kokinshu. 49 Narihira's nine poems in the Kokinshu "Love" category disclose the following information about his celebrated amours. One poem (785), with the companion verse by the lady and that verse's headnote, constitutes the evidence for his marriage to Aritsune's daughter; one (476) was sent to a stranger; two ( 632, 747) seem to hint at the relationship with Koshi; one ( 622) is a complaint against a lady who had resisted his advances; three others ( 616, 644, 707) are addressed to a lady or ladies whom he had presumably wooed successfully, perhaps Koshi, perhaps Aritsune's daughter, perhaps one, two, or three others. And one (646) is said to be a reply to the poem below (KKS 645): When Narihira went to Ise Provmce, he paid a most secret visit to the Virgin. The next mormng, as he was thinking of her longingly (he could not very well send her a message), someone brought him this.

Kimi ya koshi Ware ya yukiken Omoezu Yume ka utsutsu ka Nete ka samete ka.

Did you, I wonder, come here, Or might I have gone there? I scarcely know ... Was it dream or realityDid I sleep or wake?

Section 69 of Tales of Ise says, "The Virgin was the one who served during the reign of Emperor Seiwa,mo but

Introduction Kokinshu is not specific, and its phrase saigu narikeru hito might even be rendered "a lady in the Virgin's service." Within a few decades, however, the combined influence of the two books had made this particular Virgin part of the Narihira legend, and by the early eleventh century she was being accepted as the mother of one of the poet's sons. Modern scholars have been more skeptical. They point out that if such a love affair took place it must have been a wellkept secret, since otherwise the Virgin would have been removed from office (she served her full term without incident), and that whereas hints of the Koshi liaison recur repeatedly in Tales of lse) suggesting that there was some foundation for the persistent rumors, the same is not true of the supposed association with the Virgin.n It has even been argued that the headnote to KKS 645 is an interpolation based on Tales of Ise. The only certainty is that of the three specific ladies to whom Kokinshu alludes, or appears to allude, Aritsune's daughter, a suitable wife for a man in Narihira's position, has received little attention in the legend, while Koshi and the Virgin, the glamorously inaccessible imperial consort and high priestess, have become its main pillars. There are only a few other bits of information with which to touch up this sketchy picture of Narihira and his life: intimations of periods of depression, caused no doubt by dissatisfaction with his offices and ranks, or by unhappy loves ( GSS 1084, 1245) ; additional exhibitions of sensibility (KKS 133, 268, 879); and mdications of a warmly affectionate, generous nature (KKS 868, 901). The total is not an impressive foundation for a major legend, and yet it evokes a curiously vivid image. Like Prince Genji, Narihira seems to personify the supreme Heian ideals of elegance and sensitivity. And it is fairly certain that this is why he became the model for the character, identified only as 49

Introduction "the man of old," who lends unity to Tales of Ise's vignettes. Since Narihira has always been regarded as a great poet, his name has become attached to many poems from other hands. In order to appraise his work, one must first discard these accretions. A mere 150 lines remain, but they are enough to prove that his reputation rests on solid achievement, to illuminate his place in the classical tradition, and to clarify the nature of his indebtedness to Chinese example. Here is one of his poems, composed "On seeing the cherry trees at the Nagisa House" (KKS 53): Yononakani Taete sakura no Nakariseba Haru no kokoro wa N odokekaramashi.

If this were but a world To which cherry blossoms Were quite foreign, Then perhaps in spring Our hearts would know peace.

It can scarcely be denied that this poem stands squarely in the Six Dynasties tradition of intellectualism. Furthermore, it is not an isolated aberration. Narihira constantly hypothesizes, explains, wonders, poses rhetorical questions, and devises ingenious metaphors. Whether he was a Chinese scholar or not, there can be no doubt that he used the techniques of Chinese poetry and that his themes show Chinese influence. The "message" of Yo no naka ni is a familiar one: "We could enjoy the spring if we were not obliged to worry constantly lest wmd or rain destroy the blossoms." Similarly, the basic idea in the famous Tsuki ya aranu (KKS 747, discussed below )-the contrast between the ephemerality of human experience and the eternal sameness of spring-can be traced through numerous Chinese and Japanese variations to an early T'ang original.52 Still

I ntroductton other examples could be cited. But in poetry the crucial thing is the use made of materials, not the materials them~ selves. It was natural that Narihira and other early Heian poets should have sought to adapt Chinese conventions to the waka. The important question is: how successful as poetry was the result? Few poets have treated their subjects with more tech~ nical skill or greater lyric beauty than Narihira. Brower and Miner's analysis of Yo no naka ni sheds useful light on his methods. Although appropriate diction is but one of Narih1ra's many ac~ comphshments, it is the language in cadences of Virgilian resonance more than anything else which makes his art so appealing. He and Komachi often fill the third and fifth lines with liqmd, inflected adjectives or verbs that develop the sounds of preceding words with a perfected lyricism. [The poem Yo no naka nz] by Narihua, for example, is one that will never have a Wide appreciation among foreign readers, but its pure d1ction and lovely rhythms will always appeal to the Japanese. The major pause at the end of the third hne antiCipates the strong conclusiOn, in which the "o" and "k" sounds of the preceding line are given a new direction; the first and fourth lines have shghtly longer pauses and their grammatical structure IS simtlar, except that each of the two nouns in the fourth line has one more syllable than the corresponding noun in the first hne. 53

One of Narihira's special qualities is that, ltke Komachi, he remains very much a lyric poet in the ancient native tradition, even though he accepts the conventions of a new era, and indeed does much to shape them. He stands at a happy point in time; his poetry, like Heian civilization itself in the ninth century, combines the glonous Nara vitality, sense of wonder, and emotional intensity with a sophisticated Chinese elegance too new to have felt the para-

Introduction lyzing hand of conventionality. In his day, repetition of hackneyed themes and techniques had not yet threatened to reduce the waka to a mechanical exercise, nor was the function of Japanese poetry quite as public as it soon became. None of Narihira's Kokinshu poems was written for a contest, and, so far as can be determined from the headnotes, very few were composed on topics set by other people. Most of them instead represent his response to personal experience, affected in a general way by knowledge of the Chinese classical tradition, but shaped specifically by a warm, easily moved nature and a rare poetic sensibility. Of course Narihira's lyricism is not the lyricism of the Man'yoshu poets. The following love poem (KKS 747), linked in the legend to the affair with Koshi, illustrates his characteristic mode of expression: Once, quite without premeditation, Narihira began to make love to a lady who hved in the western wing of a palace belonging to the Empress from the Fifth Ward. Shortly after the Tenth of the First Month the lady moved away with no word to him, and though he learned where she had gone, it was impossible to communicate with her. In the spring of the following year, when the plum blossoms were at their height, poignant memories of the preceding year drew him back to the western wing on a beautiful moonlit mght. He lay on the floor of the bare room until the moon sank low in the sky.

Tsuki ya aranu Haru ya mukashi no Harunaranu Wa ga mi hitotsu wa Moto no mi ni shite.

Is not the moon the same? The spring The spring of old? Only this body of mine Is the same body ...

Whereas the emotion in the typical Man'yoshu poem is directly expressed and easily apprehensible, Narihira pre-

Introduction sents a psychological state so complex that the poem can be interpreted in at least four different ways. (I) "Is it possible that the moon is actually dtfferent this year? The spring too? They seem so to me. Everything has changed; I alone remain the same." (2) "How could the moon and the spring be different this year from last? Clearly, they are not. Physically, I too am still the same, but I feel entirely different. I was happy before; now I am miserable." (3) "Everything is as it was before. The moon, the spring, I myself-all are the same. The only difference is the absence of the woman I love; the change is there, not in me." (4) "I don't know whether or not the moon and the spring are different. I suppose not, although they seem very different to me. But I am pamfully aware that I am the same person who once was happy here. Of that there can be no doubt at all." 54 T suki ya aranu is typical of a group of poems (KKS 476, 6I6, 644, 646) in which Narihira has used polished craftsmanship and lyric intensity to explore the nature of illusion and reality, and, in so doing, to create a dreamlike, otherworldly atmosphere. The poem has exceptional formal distinction. Stops at the ends of lines I and 3 strengthen the emotional impact, and great aural beauty is achieved by patterns of repetition: Tsuki ya ... Haru ya; Tsuki ya aranu ... Haru naranu; Haru ya ... Haru naranu; Wa ga mi ... Moto no mi. The early negatives (aranu, naranu) balance the later affirmation. And by leaving the final line unfinished, Narihira transcends the limitations of his brief medium, leaving in the air a variety of provocative suggestions. This poem and others like it establish Narihira as a major Japanese poet. The Kokinshu compilers, however, preferred the witty conceits of Yo no naka ni and Akanaku ni. The Chinese

53

Introduction preface says, in obvious reference to T suki ya aranu and poems of its kind, "Ariwara Narihira's poems suffer from an excess of emotion too tersely expressed. They resemble drooping flowers, somewhat lacking in color but still fragrant."55 In other words, Tsurayuki and his colleagues felt that there was an imbalance between form and content in Narihira's poetry: the "lingering fragrance" was the portion of the content denied expression by the inadequacies of the form. The compilers had no objection to overtones per se. They themselves exploited the allusive possibilities of Chinese subjects and metaphors, and manipulated kakekotoba, engo, and jo to induce romantic, nebulous mental images and associations of ideas. But whereas Narihira, in his best poems, used linguistic resources to evoke complex human emotions, and even to raise metaphysical questions, the more typical Kokinshu author was concerned with creating an impression of ethereal, elegant beauty. The difference is the difference between T suki ya aranu and Tsurayuki's Aoyagi no (p. 34 above). Different ages establtsh dtfferent concepts of beauty and of the function of art. Ours is broader than that of Heian Japan-less refined, perhaps. We find in Tsuki ya aranu a beauty emotionally and intellectually more satisfying than that of a poem like Aoyagi no; Tsurayuki, while recognizing Narihira's greatness, believed that there was something not quite well-bred, something disturbing, in the intensity of his feeling. Tsurayuki and his colleagues recognized that there could be no poetry without emotion. "Poetry has its roots in the human heart," Tsurayuki wrote at the beginning of his preface. But the Koktnshu compilers rejected excessive displays of passion for the same reason that they rejected distressing themes and unorthodox images-such as those of Yamanoue Okura's "Dialogue on Poverty" in Man'yoshu/ 6 with its description of whining

54

Introduction

children and tattered bedclothes, or of the country lass's poems in Tales of Ise (14), with their homely chatter of roosters, Cisterns, and silkworms. The ideal of "decorous elegance," they felt, could best be served by giving pre£~ erence to conservative diction, seasonal themes, and gently melancholy reflections on the ephemerality of worldly things. It can be argued that the Kokinshu compilers and their followers sacrificed too much by limiting themselves in this way, stayed too much under Chinese influence, lost the freedom to experiment and grow, and made the eventual declme of their art inevitable. But it was a deliberate choice, made for reasons that command respect. Their ideal was beauty, taste, and sensitivity; and they achieved it with n~ table success. The remarkable thing about the Japanese classical tradition is indeed not its sterility but its vitalitythe fact that for generations its poets produced works of great distinction, which, after centuries, are still fresh and moving. The survival of this poetry best answers the ques~ tion of Chinese influence, for mere imitation seldom con~ fers immortality. The good classical poets used Chinese materials creatively. To call them imitators or borrowers is to disregard their finest achievements. TALES OF ISE

The ideals of the Kokinshu compilers set the general liter~ ary tone of the period during which Tales of Ise came into being. Tales of Ise itself, however, stems primarily from the indigenous tradition of lyric love poetry, as modified through contact with the new Sin~Japanese culture. Sym~ bolically, it contains all 30 of Nanhira's Kokinshu poems but only one poem attributed to Tsurayuki. Tales of lse resists capsule description. Early modern

55

Introduction scholars, seeking to relate it to recognized literary genres, found themselves obliged to assign it to a new category, the uta monogatari ("stories about poems"), created expressly for it and for two shghtly later works written under its influence. As the name suggests, it is a hybrid form, combining the traditional emphasis on poetry with a new interest in the potentialities of the prose medium. It represents an early stage in what was perhaps the most significant literary phenomenon of the Heian period-the flowering of true prose literature, which culminated in The Tale of GenJt. Tales of lse can be described as a collection of short short stories, but many of its episodes consist of nothing more than a poem with a one-line introduction. In such sections, and in numerous others with only slightly more extended prose contexts, it strongly resembles a poetic anthology with headnotes. We cannot however call it one, for its prose elements are, on the whole, too prominent. It is a transitional form, halfway between the poetry collections and the later prose works, such as The Tale of Genji, in which the role of poetry, though important, is unmistakably subordinate. In most lse monogatari texts there are 209 poems distributed among I25 sections. In a poetic anthology such as Kokinshu, the poems are arranged with great care, first by general categories (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Felicitations, Parting, Travel, Love, etc.), and then by subjects within categories. The structure of Tales of Ise is much less tidy. There has been an attempt at rational organization, but at least two mutually contradictory principles have been observed. One is biographical. In the first section of most texts, a young man, recently come of age, flirts with two beautiful sisters at the Nara capital. That

Introduction section's initial phrase, mukashi otoko ("in olden times a man," "once a man"), recurs in episode after episode. The anonymous protagonist woos a lady whom the reader is invited to identify with Fujiwara Koshi, the future consort of Emperor Seiwa, and then journeys to eastern Japan "because of certain problems that had made life in the capital uncomfortable for him." In the east he exchanges love poems with several ladies. Before long he is back in the city, writing poems on public occasions, pursuing casual amours, and traveling in neighboring provinces. He is dispatched to Ise Province as an Imperial Huntsman, and at the Grand Shrine, in a secret nocturnal meeting, he wins the heart of the Ise Virgin. He serves a son of Emperor Montoku, Prince Koretaka, until the prince takes religious vows and retires to a hermitage. Meanwhile he grows older. He appears to be in demand as a poet on social occasions, although he is described as a humble old fellow who is not good at writing poetry. His poetic exchanges with ladies continue. Near the end of the book he complains-not for the first time-that life has been unkind to him, and in the final episode he writes a death poem. The poems composed by the "man of old" include all of the 30 attributed to Ariwara Narihira in Kokinshii and four of the 11 attributed to him in Gosenshii; the court offices he holds are offices held by Narihira; and many of the stories about him parallel Kokinshii headnotes to poems by Narihira. But it is clear that there has been no serious, consistent attempt to present a historically accurate biography. Poems listed as anonymous or attributed to other writers in Kokinshii are presented as compositions of the "man of old." The two Kokinshii poems by Kino Aritsune's daughter and Narihira are given a fictional setting (IM 19). Two unconnected Kokinshii poems by Komachi and Narihira

57

Introduction

are joined in a romantic episode (IM 25). Narihira's poem about autumn leaves floating in the Tatsuta River, described in Kokinshu as having been written for a picture on a folding screen, is said by Ise monogatari to have been composed at the river. Koktnshu poems by Narihira and by others are consistently endowed with contexts that change their meaning. In many episodes, moreover, the chief male character is someone very different from Narihira-a man living in a remote country district (IM 24), the young son of an ordinary couple (IM 40 and 86), a minor official traveling in K yiishii (IM 6o), or the son of an itinerant peddler (IM23). The placement, and indeed the inclusion, of some episodes seems to have been dictated by a determination to group stories dealing with the same locality (eastern Japan, Kyiishii, the home provinces), the same person (Koshi, Prince Koretaka, the lse Virgin), or the same subject (married life, court service, unhappy love). Many of the tales in such groups have no connection with the Narihira theme, and some of them (e.g. 23, itself a capsule biography) badly disrupt whatever unity the chronological principle confers. Either Tales of lse was written by an extraordinarily muddleheaded author or it owes its present form to two or more men who sometimes worked at cross purposes. A book of this kind, made up of short, loosely linked episodes, was peculiarly susceptible to revision, especially in view of the circumstances under which it circulated during its crucial early history. Mentions of Ise monogatari in The Tale of Genjt show that it was regarded as a classic by the beginning of the eleventh century, and that it must therefore have been widely known. 57 It was transmitted in manuscript versions, which were copied by readers who saw nothing wrong with making revisions, deletions, and,

58

Introduction especially, additions that seemed to them to improve the text. Almost all Heian works have undergone a similar process, but in the case of Ise monogatari an exceptionally complex network of textual lines attests to repeated and extensive changes.5 8 Every extant full-length version of Ise monogatari contains a core of some no episodes that appear to constitute the oldest part of the book. Some families of texts have five additional sections, some 15, some 20 or more. The process of accretion can be detected. For instance, every textual line includes Section 69, the story of the encounter with the Ise Virgin (found also in KKS 645 and 646 and their headnotes), but Sections 7o-'J5 in our text, which are short episodes echoing the theme of Section 69 (and which contain no Kokinshu poems), appear in other texts in different sequences or not at all-as though they had been added late and were not carefully integrated. Episodes that seem little more than vanations or elaborations of earlier ones may also have been added later. Section 83, containing a Kokinshu poem by Narihira (970) in a context similar to the Kokinshu description of a visit to Prince Koretaka at Ono, is followed by a section (85) presenting a poem of unknown provenance in an almost identical setting. Similarly, the abduction story in Section 6, which follows two sections based on Kokinshu poems by Narihira, both hinting at the liaison with Koshi, is a fanciful elaboration of the Koshi theme, with, again, a poem of uncertain origin. In a number of texts, there is another abduction story, which sometimes follows Section 6 and sometimes appears elsewhere (see Section 127).59 Many other examples could be cited to support the thesis that extant texts of Ise monogatari are the result of a long and complex development. The above will be enough,

59

Introduction however, to indicate the hazards involved in attempting to discern in Tales of Ise the hand of a single author with a single theme, philosophy, or purpose. It has been said that the book was intended to illustrate different kinds of love, as experienced by men and women of widely varying ages, temperaments, and social classes, and extending to the attachments between parent and child, friend and friend, and superior and inferior; or that it has the didactic aim of describing the behavior appropriate to a cultivated man; or that it tries to demonstrate the kinds of poems suitable for various occasions, particularly romantic ones; or that the original author wanted to explain the circumstances surrounding the composition of certain poems. Some or all of those motives were no doubt operative at one time or another, but it is probably best to think of the work as a response to contemporary interest in the waka-the poems themselves, the circumstances of their composition, their authors-and in the emerging possibilities of the prose medium. It can be assumed that the form of the poetic anthology, with its introductory comments preceding the verses, served the original author as a point of departure, and that there is a close relationship between lse monogatari and one particular anthology, Kokinshu. Of 62 Kokinshu poems in Ise monogatari, the prose contexts of 25, all written either by or to Narihira, correspond so closely to the Kokinshu headnotes that there can be no question of coincidence. Either lse monogatari has borrowed from Kokinshu, Kokinshu has borrowed from Ise monogatari, or both have drawn on the same source or sources. Examination of other poems common to the two texts suggests fairly conclusively that Kokinshu has not borrowed from Tales of Ise, and that in some cases, at least, Tales of Ise has relied

6o

Introduction upon Kokinshu. We have already noticed that two poems by Narihira and Komachi, which merely adjoin one another in Kokinshu (622 and 623), are in Tales of Ise made the focal points of a romantic episode involving the "man of old" and an unidentified lady. In some versions of lse monogatari, a Komachi poem from Kokinshu is presented as a composition of the "man of old" (Section 143), anonymous love poems that in Kokinshu have brief introductory remarks or none are provided with extended settings, and other Kokinshu poems are revised to fit new contexts. It is tempting to suppose that an early tenth-century courtier, wishing to compile a collection of exemplary love poems, used Kokinshu as his principal source, drawing heavily on the early anonymous love poems and including most or all of the poems attributed to Narihira, who was already becoming legendary; and that the resultant work, containing few poems by other historical figures, came to be dominated by Narihira's presence. One could argue that gradual accretions tended to increase the book's resemblance to a biography, and that by the eleventh century it was accepted as such, as demonstrated by its alternative titles, Tales of Narihira and The Journal of Narihira. 60 The long trend among Japanese specialists, however, has been to favor the third possibility listed above, namely, that Kokinshu and Ise monogatari drew on a major common source. Kokinshu, like other imperial anthologies, is based largely on private poetry collections, and it is assumed that Kokinshu poems by Narihira, together with their uncommonly long headnotes, derive from a vanished "Narihira Collection." 61 The collection, it is thought, also formed the basis for the original version of Ise monogatari, even though it is recognized that at some point there was borrowing from Kokinshu.

Introduction The reasoning behind the "Narihira Collection" position is closely related to the question of lse monogatari's enigmatic title. As mentioned above, the text probably once had an alternative title or titles, but the name Ise monogatari seems to have been well established by Murasaki Shikibu's day. It is the one attached to all known manuscripts, and the one used by all commentators from the Heian period to the present. M onogatari means "tale" or "tales," but by the late Heian period, or perhaps earlier, the significance of lse was no longer understood, and attempts at explanations had produced a number of theories, classifiable under three broad categories. 62 r. Theories ascribing a special meaning to the word. One of these suggests that i stands for "female" and se for "male," in which case the title would mean "Tales of Women and Men"; another holds that ise is a variant of yose, from yoseru, "to sew, piece together, collect," and that the title means "Collected Tales." 2. Theories postulating a special connection with Ise Province or a person named lse. One of the most persistent of these, apparently dating back to the mid-Heian period, links the work to Lady Ise, the poetess (fl. ca. 877-940), who, according to a highly unlikely story, married Narihira at the age of 12 and revised his draft of the book after his death. 3· A theory that the title derives from Section 69 and related episodes dealing with the Ise Virgin. Its proponents argue either that the Ise episodes are the most important in the book or that the original work must have begun with Section 6g. The etymologies are unconvincing, the proposed connection with Lady Ise suffers from lack of supporting evi-

Introduction dence, and it cannot be argued successfully that the Ise Virgin episodes are the most important in the book as we know it. But late Heian scholars reported, and recent research appears to confirm, that there was indeed once a version of Tales of lse that began with Section 69 of the present text, although it has not survived intact.63 The present tendency is to regard it as an early form that was much less sophisticated structurally than extant chronologically oriented versions. It is the effort to account for this line of texts, called the "Imperial Huntsman" line, that has led Japanese scholars from the Tokugawa period on to postulate a hypothetical "Narihira Collection," rather than Kokinshu, as the most important source for lse monogatari. Proponents of the "Narihira Collection" theory have usually assumed that the Ise Virgin episode came first in the collection and, accordingly, first in the original uta monogatari, which was therefore called lse monogatari, in keeping with a not uncommon practice; and that the old name was retained after the original version was supplanted by the present chronological one. A recent refinement by a leading young scholar, Fukui Teisuke, presupposes not one "Narihira Collection" but two. The "Imperial Huntsman" texts would derive, according to Fukui's theory, from Collection A, a random assortment of poems by and to Narihira, with the so-called exchange with the lse Virgin at the beginning. Collection B would represent a rearrangement of Collection A into conventional categories; and all extant complete lse monogatari versions would be developments from Collection B. Fukui believes that extant full-length versions, when divested of presumed accretions, progress conventionally through the seasons and on to love poems, as he supposes Collection B to have done.64 Since lse mono-

Introduction gatari has clearly borrowed from Kokinshu, Collection B would, he says, have been later than Kokinshu, which presumably would have borrowed from Collection A. 65 . The great merit of Fukui's theory is that it disposes of the "Imperial Huntsman" line and proposes a simple, logical development for the present full-length versions. The theory's weakness 1s that, like the older "Narihira Collection" hypothesis, it rests on scanty and inconclusive evidence. Until new facts come to light, the "Narihira Collection" must remain mere plausible conjecture. It was noted earlier, in connection with the title, that an ancient tradition named Narihira as the author of lsc monogatari. By the end of the Heian period, scholars recognized that Narihira could not have written the book in its final form, since the text included his own death poem and other materials not available during his hfetime. Many medieval commentators therefore took the compromise position that Narihira had begun the work and that someone else, perhaps a relative or Lady Ise, had completed it. Narihira's modesty, they said, accounted for the description of the "man of old" as a humble old fellow who knew nothing about poetry. Other pre-modern critics gradually produced other candidates-Ki no Tsurayuki among themsupporting elaborate hypotheses with bits of circumstantial evidence, and ignoring inconvenient conflicts. But scholars now admit frankly that there are simply no facts with which to work, and that the problem is unlikely to be solved. Even if a long-buried diary were suddenly to yield the original author's name, it still would reveal nothing about the many other people who must have contributed in major respects to the book.66 The problem of dating is equally recalcitrant. There must obviously have been an important period of activity

Introduction at some point after the compilation of Kokinshu (ca. 905). Whether or not one supposes that to have been the initial period will depend upon one's opinion concerning the source used by the original author. If, as most scholars assume, the principal source was a "Narihira Collection" identical in content, if not in form, with the one used by Kokinshu, Tales of Ise may have originated at any time after Narihira's death in 88o (not before, since Kokinshu contains the death poem). In textual studies designed to establish a cut-off date for the process of development, modern scholars have unearthed no evidence of important accretions after the middle of the tenth century. The Tale of GenJi, written around woo, describes Ise monogatari as old. It can be concluded, therefore, that the work had assumed a fairly stable form by the beginning of the eleventh century, and probably several decades earlier. 67 In summary, then, Tales of Ise is an anonymous work, the product of a gradual development that took place around the first half of the tenth century. In form it resembles a poetic anthology with greatly expanded and fictionalized headnotes. Its 209 poems deal with all the chief topics of Japanese court poetry, most importantly with love. A majority of the verses are anonymous. Because a famous ninth-century poet, Ariwara Narihira, is the one historical person who figures in it prominently, both as an author of poems and as a protagonist, it has sometimes been regarded as a biography of Narihira, but to view it in that light is to give it a unity and historicity that it lacks. It can best be approached not in terms of preconceived notions about its theme or purpose, but as an interesting combination of poetry and prose, and as a source of insights into the psychology, values, and behavior of Heian society.

Tales of Ise

Tales of lse

I

O

NCE a man who had lately come of age went hunting on his estate at Kasuga village, near the Nara capital.' In the village there lived two beautiful young sisters. The man caught a glimpse of the sisters through a gap in their hedge. It was startling and incongruous indeed that such ladies should dwell at the ruined capital, and he wished to meet them. He tore a strip from the skirt of his hunting costume, dashed off a poem, and sent it in. The fabric of the robe was imprinted with a moss-fern design." Kasuganono Wakamurasaki no Surigoromo Shinobu no midare Kagiri shirarezu.

Like the random pattern of this robe, Dyed with the young purple From Kasuga PlainEven thus is the wild disorder Of my yearning heart:

No doubt it had occurred to him that this was an interesting opportunity for an adaptation of the poem that runs, • Notes to the Tales will be found on pp. 199-259·

Tales of lse Michinoku no Shinobu mojizuri Tare yueni Midaresomenishi Ware naranaku ni.

My thoughts have grown disordered As random patterns dyed on cloth Reminiscent of Shinobu in MtchinokuAnd who is to blame? Surely not I.'

People were remarkably elegant in those days. 2

Once in the days after the move from Nara, when people were still not settled in the new capital, a certain man discovered a lady living in the western part of the city. She was charming to look at, and her disposition was even more delightful than her appearance. She was apparently not single, but the man made love to her anyway, even though he was an honorable fellow. After he had returned home his conscience must have bothered him, because he sent her this poem. (It was early in the Third Month and a drizzling rain was falling.) Oki mosezu Ne mo sede yoru o Akashite wa Haru no mono tote Nagamekurashitsu.

After a night Neither waking nor sleeping, I have spent the day Staring at the rainThe long rain of Spring.'

3 Once a man sent a bit of seaweed' to a lady with whom he was in love. His poem:

Tales of Ise Omoiaraba Mugura no yado ni Nemoshinan Hijikimono ni wa Sode o shitsutsu mo.

If you love me, Let us sleep together, Though it be in a weed-choked house With our sleeves For mattress."

This happened while the Empress from the Second Ward" was still a commoner, before she entered the emperor's palace.

4 Once when the ex-empress was living in the eastern Fifth Ward, a certain lady occupied the western wing of her house. Quite without intendmg it, a man fell deeply in love with the lady and began to visit her; but around the Tenth of the First Month she moved away without a word, and though he learned where she had gone, it was not a place where ordinary people could come and go. He could do nothing but brood over the wretchedness of life. When the plum blossoms were at their height in the next First Month, poignant memories of the year before drew him back to her old apartments. He stared at the flowers from every conceivable standing and sitting position, but it was quite hopeless to try to recapture the past. Bursting into tears, he flung himself onto the floor of the bare room and lay there until the moon sank low in the sky. As he thought of the year before, he composed this poem: 1

Tsuki ya aranu Haru ya mukashi no Harunaranu Wa ga mi hitotsu wa Moto no mi ni shite.

Is not the moon the same ? The spring The spring of old ? Only this body of mine Is the same body .. .S

Tales of lse

He went home at dawn, still weeping.

5 Once a man was paying secret visits to a lady in the neighborhood of the eastern Fifth Ward. Since he did not wish to be observed, he could not enter through the gate, but came and went through a broken place in the earthen wall where some children had been playing. The spot was not much frequented, but his repeated use of it finally became known to the house's owner/ who posted a night guard there. The man, when he came, was thus obliged to go home without having seen the lady. He composed this poem: Hito shirenu Wa ga kayoiji no Sekimori wa Yoiyoigoto ni Uchi mo nenanan.

W auld that he might fall asleep Every nightThis guard At the secret place Where I come and go."

The lady was so distressed that the owner relented. Gossip about these secret visits to the Empress from the Second Ward finally led her brothers to place her under guard-or so it is said."

6 A certain man had for years courted a most inaccessible lady. One pitch-black night he finally spirited her out of her apartments and ran off with her. As they passed a stream called the Akutagawa, she caught a glimpse of a dewdrop on a blade of grass and asked him what it was.

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Tales of Ise The journey ahead was long, the hour had grown late, and a torrential rain was pouring down, punctuated by frightful peals of thunder. The man put the lady inside a ruined storehouse and stationed himself in the doorway with his bow and quiver on his back, never dreaming that the place was haunted by demons. But while he was standing there longing for daybreak, a demon ate the lady up in one gulp. A thunderclap muffled her scream of terror. When the sky finally began to lighten a bit, the man peered inside and saw that the lady was gone. Frantic with helpless grief, he recited, Shiratama ka Nani zo to hito no Toishi toki Tsuyu to kotaete Kienamashi mono o.

When my beloved asked, "Is it a clear gem Or what might it be?" Would that I had replied, "A dewdrop!" and perished.1

It is said that while the future Empress from the Second Ward was in attendance upon her cousin, the imperial consort, someone was fascinated by her beauty and carried her off on his back. Her brothers, Mototsune and Kunitsune, who were minor officials then, happened to be on their way to the imperial palace. They heard someone wailing, halted the abductor, and took the lady back. They were the devils the author talks about. The lady was still very young and had not yet ceased to be a commoner."

7 Once a man set out toward the east because of certain problems that had made life in the capital uncomfortable for him.' Gazing at the foaming white surf as he crossed the

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Tales of Ise beach between lse and Owari Provinces, he composed this poem: Itodoshiku Sugiyuku kata no Koishiki ni Urayamashiku mo Kaeru nami kana.

How poignant now My longing For what lies behindEnviable indeed The returning waves."

8 Once in the past a certain man journeyed toward the east in search of a place to live, perhaps because he found it awkward to stay in the capital. One or two people accompanied him. When he saw smoke rising from the peak of Asama in Shinano Province, he recited a poem: Shinano naru Asama no take ni Tatsu keburi Ochikochibito no Mi ya wa togamenu.

Surely no one Far or near But marvels to see The smoke rising from the peak Of Asama in Shinano.'

9 Once a certain man decided that it was useless for him to remain in the capital. With one or two old friends, he set out toward the east in search of a province in which to settle. Since none of the party knew the way, they blundered ahead as best they could, until in time they arrived at a place called Yatsuhashi1 in Mikawa Province. (It was a spot where the waters of a river branched into eight channels, each with a bridge, and thus it had come to be called

74

Tales of Ise

Yatsuhashi-"Eight Bridges.") Dismounting to sit under a tree near this marshy area, they ate a meal of parched rice. Someone glanced at the clumps of irises that were blooming luxuriantly in the swamp. "Compose a poem on the subject, 'A Traveler's Sentiments,' beginning each line with a syllable from the word 'iris' [ kakitsubata ],''he said. The man recited, Karagoromo Kitsutsu narenishi Tsuma shi areba Harubaru kinuru Tabi o shi zo omou.

I have a beloved wife, Familiar as the skirt Of a well-worn robe, And so this distant journeying Fills my heart with grief."

They all wept onto their dried rice until it swelled with the moisture. On they journeyed to the province of Suruga. At Mount Utsu the road they were to follow was dark, narrow, and overgrown with ivy vines and maples. As they contemplated it with dismal forebodings, a wandering ascetic appeared and asked, "What are you doing on a road like this?" The man, recognizing him as someone he had once known by sight, gave him a message for a lady in the capital: Suruganaru Utsu no yamabe no Utsutsu ni mo Yume ni mo hito ni Awanu narikeri.

Beside Mount Utsu In Suruga I can see you Neither waking Nor, alas, even in my dreams."

At Mount Fuji a pure white snow had fallen, even though it was the end of the Fifth Month.'

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Tales of Ise Toki shiranu Yama wa Fuji none Itsu tote ka Ka no ko madara ni Yuki no fururan.

Fuji is a mountain That knows no seasons. What time does it take this for, That it should be dappled With fallen snow?"

To speak in terms of the mountains hereabout, Mount Fuji is as tall as twenty Mount Hiei's piled on top of one another." In shape it resembles a salt~cone.' Continuing on their way, they came to a mighty river flowing between the provinces of Musashi and Shimosa. It was called the Sumidagawa." The travelers drew together on the bank, thinking involuntarily of home. "How very far we have come I" The ferryman interrupted their la~ ments: "Come aboard quickly; it's getting late." They got into the boat and prepared to cross, all in wretched spirits, for there was not one among them who had not left some~ one dear to him in the capital. A bird about the size of a snipe-white, with a red bill and red legs-happened to be frolicking on the water as it ate a fish. Since it was of a species unknown in the capital, none of them could identify it. They consulted the ferry~ man, who replied with an air of surprise, "It is a capital~ bird, of course."" Then one of the travelers recited this poem: Na ni shi owaba Iza koto towamu Miyakodori Wa ga omou hito wa Ari ya nashi ya to.

If you are what your name implies, Let me ask you, Capital~bird,

Does all go well With my beloved?'"

Everyone in the boat burst into tears.

Tales of lse IO

A certain man, having reached the province of Musashi in his wanderings, began to court a Musashi girl. Her father told him that she was intended for someone else, but her mother was delighted by the prospect of such an elegant son-in-law. (Although the father came of ordinary stock, the mother was a Fujiwara, and thus she considered a match with a nobleman entirely suitable and most desirable.) She sent the suitor this poem. The family lived in Miyoshino Village1 in Iruma District. Miyoshino no Tanomu no kari mo Hitaburuni Kimi ga kata ni zo Yoru to naku naru.

The wild goose that shelters On Miyoshino's fields Cries that it looks In your direction And in no other.•

His reply: Wagakatani Yoru to naku naru Miyoshino no Tanomu no kari o Itsu ka wasuren.

When should I forget The wild goose that shelters On Miyoshino's fields, Crying that it looks In my direction ?8

Even in the provinces this man did not depart from his customary behavior. II

Once a man journeying toward the east sent some of his friends this poem, composed on the way:

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Tales of Ise Wasurunayo Hodo wa kumoi ni Narinu tomo Sora yuku tsuki no Meguriau made.

Though I am as far away As the realm of clouds, Remember me until I come again, Even as the moon returns From its celestial journeying.1 12

Once there was a man who abducted someone's daughter. He was on his way to Musashi Plain1 with her when some provincial officials arrested him for theft. He had left the girl in a clump of bushes and run off, but the pursuers felt certain that he was on the plain, and prepared to set fire to it. In great agitation the girl recited this poem: Musashino wa Kyo wa na yaki so Wakakusano Tsuma mo komoreri Ware mo komoreri.

Do not set fire today To Musashi Plain, For my beloved husband Is hidden here, And so am I."

They heard her, seized her, and marched the two off together.3

13 Once a man who was staying in Musashi wrote to a lady in the capital, "If I write to you frankly, I shall feel embarrassed; if not, I shall be miserable."1 On the outside of the letter he inscribed the phrase "Musashi stirrups."" After that there was no further word from him. At length the lady sent this from the capital:

Tales of Ise

Musashi abumi Sasuga ni kakete Tanomuni wa Towanu mo tsurashi Tou mo urusashi.

Loving you in spite of all, My trust still undestroyed, I think your silence cruel indeedyet I should find it most unpleasant Were you to ask for news of me.8

The man, frantic with anxiety, replied, Toebaiu Towaneba uramu Musashi abumi Kakaru ori ni ya Hi to wa shinuran.

If I write, you will be angry; If not, you will hate me. Surely it is at such times That men die Of broken hearts.'

I4 Once in the course of his wanderings, a man found himself in Michinoku. A girl of the province, who was no doubt unaccustomed to meeting people from the capital, fell head over heels in love with him and sent him a poem as countrified as she was: Nakanakani Koi ni shinazu wa Kuwakonizo Narubekarikeru Tama no o bakari.

Better it were To be a silkworm, Though its life soon ends, Than to be tortured to death By a rash love.'

He must have pitied her in spite of her crudity, because he went to her house and slept with her. He left in the middle of the night," whereupon she sent him this:

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Tales of lse

Yomoakeba Kitsu ni hamenade Kutakakeno Madaki ni nakite Sena o yaritsuru.

When daylight comes I shall toss him in the cisternThat miserable rooster Who crows too soon And drives my lover away."

Presently the man sent word that he was returning to the capital. His poem: Kurihara no Aneha no matsu no Hitonaraba Miyako no tsuto ni Iza to iwamashi o.

If the Pine of Aneha at Kurihara Were but a person Long awaited, I would say, "Come with me as a souvenir To the capital."'

The girl was overjoyed. "He must be in love with me," she said.

15 Once in Michinoku a man began to visit the wife of a commonplace fellow, and discovered to his surprise that she was not at all the ordinary sort of person he had expected. He sent her this: Shinobuyama Shinobite kayou Michi mo gana Hito no kokoro no Oku mo mirubeku.

Would that I possessed a wayA path to travel unobserved, Secret as Mount Shinobu's nameTo behold the innermost recesses Of your heart.'

The lady was immensely flattered. But what would happen, she wondered, when he found that it was after all nothing but the heart of a simple rustic.'

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Tales of lse

r6 Once there was a man named Ki no Aritsune, who served three emperors.' For a time he prospered, but later there were changes, and he found himself less well off than even an average courtier. Aritsune was a person of exceptional sensibility and refinement. Despite his poverty, he retained the tastes and attitudes of his more affiuent days, paying no attention to the problems of everyday life. He and his wife of many years gradually drew apart, and at length his wife resolved to become a nun and go to live with her elder sis~ ter, who had already taken holy orders. Though she and Aritsune had not been intimate for a long time, he was deeply moved as she prepared to leave, but he was too poor to give her a farewell present. In great distress he wrote of her decision to an old friend. "She is leaving forever, and I must send her off without so much as a trifling gift." He ended with this poem: Te oorite Aimishi koto o Kazoureba To to iitsutsu Yotsu wa henikeri.

Bending my fingers, I count The decades Of our life togetherThey are four."

His friend found it most touching. He sent him not only a robe but a quilt as well, with this poem: Toshi dani mo To tote yotsu wa Henikeru o Ikutabi kimi o Tanomikinuran.

In the four decades That have elapsed, How many times She must have come Seeking your aid."

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Tales of Ise Aritsune replied, Koreyakono Ama no hagoromo Mube shi koso Kimi ga mikeshi to Tatematsurikere.

Can this be a famed Feather robe from heaven? A garment so splendtd Must indeed have been designed For your own wear.'

So great was his joy that he sent another poem: Aki ya kuru Tsuyu ya magau to Omou made Aru wa namida no Furu ni zo arikeru.

Has autumn perchance arrived? Or the dew lost its way? So might one wonder, Seeing my sleeve Wet with tears of joy."

I7 After staying away for months, a man once visited a certain house to see the cherry trees in bloom. The lady who lived there composed this poem: Adanari to Na ni koso tatere Sakurabana Toshi ni mare naru Hito mo machikeri.

People call them evanescent, These cherry blossomsyet they have waited For someone whose visits Are months apart.'

His reply: Kyokozu wa Asu wa yuki to zo Furinamashi Ktezu wa ari tomo Hana to mimashi ya.

If I had not come today They would have fallen tomorrow Like snow. Though they have not yet melted away, They are scarcely true flowers."

Tales of Ise

18 Once there was a rather shallow lady who wished to be thought elegant. A certain man lived nearby. Since the lady was fond of versifying, she decided to test the man's feelings with this poem, which she attached to a faded chrysanthemum: Kurenai ni Where can it beThe reddish tinge? Niou wa izura What I have seen Shira yuki no Is like fallen white snow Edamotooni Furu ka to mo miyu. Bending the branches.' The man pretended not to understand. He answered, Kurenai ni Niou ga ue no Shiragiku wa Orikeru hito no Sode ka to mo miyu.

The white chrysanthemumIts lower petals Tinged with redIs it not like the sleeve Of the lady who plucked it?'

I9 A man in the service of an imperial consort once began to make love to one of the lady's attendants. Presently, however, the affatr came to an end. Since the two served in the same household, they were always meeting, but though the woman saw the man plainly enough, he behaved as though she were not present. She sent him this poem:' Amagumo no Yoso ni mo hi to no Nariyuku ka Sasuga ni me ni wa Miyuru mono kara.

I still see you, And yet You have grown distant As a cloud In the heavens.

Tales of lse

His reply: Amagumono

That I am ever distant

Yoso ni nomi shite

As a cloud

Furukotowa Wa ga iru yama no Kaze hayami nari.

In the heavens Is the fault of the gales At my mountain home.

He meant that another man had been visiting her. 20

Once a man met, courted, and won a lady who lived in Yamato. After a time he was obliged to return to the capital, where he served an imperial personage. On the way he noticed a maple tree whose leaves were red, even though it was then the Third Month. The sight was most intriguing, he thought, and he broke off a branch and sent it to the lady with this poem: Kimi ga tame Though it is spring, Taoreru eda wa The bough I have broken Because of you Haru nagara Kaku koso aki no Has taken on Momiji shinikere. The flaming hue of autumn.' Her answer came after he had reached the capital: ltsu no rna ni How quickly Utsurou iro no The color must have changed. Tsukinuran There is, it seems, Kimi ga sato ni wa No spring Haru nakarurashi. In the place where you live." 2I

There were once a man and woman who loved one another dearly. I am not sure what happened-nothing of any im-

Tales of lse

portance-but the woman grew unhappy with the relationship and decided to go away. She left behind this poem, scribbled on something in the house: Idete inaba Kokoro karushi to Ii ya sen Yo no arisama o Hito wa shiraneba.

If I leave you I shall doubtless Be called fickle: Others do not know What has happened between us.1

The man was astonished and bewildered that she should have written thus, for he could think of nothing at which she might have taken offense. He went outside the gate, weeping bitterly and wondering where to search first, but though he looked this way and that, he had no notion of where to start, and he finally went back inside. He recited this poem: Omoukai Naki yo narikeri Toshitsuki o Ada ni chigirite Ware ya sumaishi.

In our marriage My love meant nothingyet for all those years Was I ever False to my vows?

Then he sat staring into space. He also composed this: Hitowaisa Omoi ya suran Tamakazura Omokage ni nomi Itodo mietsutsu.

I wonder if you Perhaps think of me. The shadow of your face, Luminous as a gemmed fillet, Haunts my vision."

After a long time the woman sent him this (possibly because she could no longer control her feelings) :

ss

Tales of Ise Ima wa tote Wasururu kusa no Taneodani Hito no kokoro ni Makasezu mo gana.

Perhaps you think it time now To forget me. Yet I should like to stop The "forgetting-grass" seed From being planted in your heart."

His reply: Wasuregusa Uu to dani kiku Mononaraba Omoikeri to wa Shiri mo shinamashi.

If you have heard That I am planting Forgetting-grass, Can you not tell That I have been thinking of you?'

With that began a new intimacy even closer than the old. One day the man composed this poem: W asururan to Omou kokoro no Utagai ni Arishi yori ke ni Mono zo kanashiki.

Because of doubt Lest you again Put me from your thoughts, I feel a sadness Unknown in the past."

She replied, Nakazorani Tachiiru kumo no Atomonaku Mi no hakanaku mo Narinikeru kana.

As a cloud Hanging in midair Dissolves without a trace, So indeed must end This evanescent life."

But in the end they found new partners and became estranged. 22

Once there were two people who separated for no very good reason. The woman, who had no doubt found it difficult to forget the past, sent the man this poem:

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Ukinagara Hi to o ba e shi mo Wasureneba Katsu uramitsutsu N ao zo koishiki.

Cruel though you have been, I cannot put you From my mind, And thus my bitterness Is tempered with love.'

"Just as I anticipated!" said the man. He sent her this: Aimite wa Now that we two have met, Kokoro hitotsu o May our hearts be inseparable Kawashima no As the waters of a streamMizu no nagarete Riven by islands, Taeji to zo omou. But flowing reunited forever." Nevertheless he went to her that very night. They talked of what had happened and of the future, and presently he recited, Akinoyono Would I be satisfied Chiyo o hitoyo ni If I might count A thousand autumn nights as one, Nazuraete Yachi yo shi neb a ya And sleep with you Eight thousand nights?" Aku toki no aran. She replied, Aki no yo no Chiyo o hitoyo ni Naseri tomo Kotoba nokorite Tori ya nakinan.

Were we to make A thousand autumn nights Into one, There would still be things to say At cockcrow.'

From then on he visited her more faithfully than ever.

23 A boy and a girl, the children of two men who traveled over the countryside, once used to play together beside a well. As they grew up they both felt rather self-conscious

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about continuing the old relationship, but the boy had set his heart on marrying the girl, and she too was determined that she would be his wife, and refused to agree when her father tried to betroth her to someone else. The boy sent the girl this poem: Tsutsui tsu no Izutsu ni kakeshi Maroga take Suginikerashi na Imo mizaru rna ni.

My height that we measured At the well curb Has, it seems, Passed the old mark Since last I saw you.'

She replied, Kurabekoshi Furiwakegami mo Kata suginu Kimi narazu shite Tare ka agubeki.

The hair parted in the middle That I measured against yours Now hangs below my shoulders. For whom shall it be put up, If not for you?

After many such poems had passed between them, their wishes came true and they became man and wife. Some years later the wife's father died, leaving her without support," and the husband, tired of living with her in poverty, took to vis1ting a woman in the district of Takayasu" in Kawachi Province. The wife saw him off with so little apparent resentment that he began to suspect her of having a lover. One day, pretending to set out for Kawachi, he hid in the shrubbery and watched her. After making up her face with meticulous care, she recited this poem, staring into space: Shall you be crossing Kazefukeba Tatsutayama Okitsu shiranami Quite alone by night?' Tatsutayama Yowa ni ya kimi ga Hitori koyuran.

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Tales of lse His heart swelled with love for her, and his visits to Ka~ wachi ceased. On the rare occasions when he did go to Takayasu, he observed that the woman there, who had at first taken great pains to make a good appearance, now had aban~ cloned all decorum. Watching as she seized the rice ladle and heaped her bowl to overflowing, he felt quite disen~ chanted, and at length he severed the connection corn~ pletely. One day the woman in Kawachi composed this poem, gazing in the direction of Yarnato: Kimi ga atari Though rain may fall, Mitsutsu o oran I forbid you, clouds, To veil Mount Ikorna, Ikornayama Kurno na kakushi so For I live only To gaze toward my beloved." Arne wa furu torno. She stared constantly in the man's direction. At length he sent word that he would come, but though she waited joy~ fully he failed to appear. After the same thing had hap~ pened several times, she sent him this poem: Kimi kornu to Waiting in vain lishi yogoto ni Night after night Suginureba For the visits you promise, Tanornanu mono no I no longer trust you, Yet my love lives on." Koitsutsu zo furu. But he never carne again.

24 There was once a man who lived in a remote country dis~ trict. One day he bade his wife an affectionate farewell and set off for the capital to try to enter the service of an arist~ cratic house. When three years had passed with no sign of him, his wife, tired of waiting, promised to marry someone

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who had been wooing her with great persistence.' But on the very night she had selected for the .first meeting, her husband appeared and knocked on the door to be let in. Instead of opemng, she wrote this poem and passed it out: Aratama no After three long years Toshi no mitose o I have grown weary Machiwabite Of waitingTada koyoi koso This very night Niimakura sure. I am to wed another." He replied, Azusayumi Mayumi tsukiyumi Toshi ohete Wa ga seshi ga goto Uruwashimi seyo.

Love your new husband As I have loved you All these years."

Then he started to leave. His wife recited, Azusayumi No matter whether others Hikedo hikanedo Seek my love, Mukashi yori From the very beginning My heart has always Kokoro wa kimi ni Inclined toward you.' Yorinishi mono o. But he set out all the same. His wife went after him in great distress but could not overtake him, and at length she fell prostrate beside a clear spring. Using blood from her .finger, she inscribed this poem on a rock: Aiomowade Unable to detain Karenuru hito o The man who has left, Todomekane Rejecting my love, W a ga mi wa ima zo I feel that soon Kiehatenumeru. I shall perish. And there she died.

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25 Once a man sent this poem to a rather coy lady who seemed unable to make up her mind about meeting him: Aki no no ni Sasa wakeshi asa no Sodeyori mo A wade nuru yo zo Hijimasarikeru.

On nights when I sleep without meeting you, My sleeves are wetter Than when of a morning I have pressed through bamboo grass Crossing the fields in autumn.'

The coquettish lady responded, Mirume naki Wa ga mi o ura to Shiraneba ya Karenade ama no Ashi tayuku kuru.

In this bay There is no seaweed. Does he not know itThe fisherman who persists in commg Until his legs grow weary?"

26 Once a man sent this poem as a reply to someone who commiserated with him because he had failed to win a lady living in the Fifth Ward: Omoezu As when a great ship Sode ni minato no Coming into port Dashes waves against the shore, Sawagukana Morokoshibune no So has your letter drenched my sleeve Yorishi bakari ni. With sudden tears.'

27 Once a man spent a single night at a lady's house and then did not go there again. The lady took the lid from the tub 91

Tales of Ise where she washed her hands, gazed at her reflection in the water, and recited to herself,

Ware bakari Mono omou hito wa Mata mo araji To omoeba mizu no Shita ni mo arikeri.

No one else, I had thought, Could be so miserable as IYet there is another Under the water.

The man heard about the poem and composed this: Minakuchi ni You will see me Ware ya mi yuran In that pool, Kawazu sae For even frogs Mizu no shita nite Cry in pairs Under the water.• Morogoe ni naku.

28 Once a fickle woman left a man. He wrote, Nadote kaku Why is it now Au go katami ni Impossible for us to meetNariniken We who are bound together Mizu morasaji to Like the strands of a close-woven basket Musubishi mono o. Impermeable to water.•

29 Once a man composed this poem when he was invited to a cherry blossom. birthday celebration in the apartments of the Mother of the Crown Prince :1 Hana ni akanu I have always grieved Nageki wa itsu mo Not to have had enough Seshikadomo Of the blossomsyet tonight I feel it Kyo no koyoi ni As never before." Niru toki wa nashi.

Tales of Ise Once a man sent this poem to a lady who would seldom agree to meet him: Aukotowa Tama no o bakari Omoete Tsuraki kokoro no Nagaku miyuran.

Our meetings are short As the spaces between The gems of a necklace. Longer~lasting indeed Is your heartlessness.1

Once when a man was passing the apartment of a certain palace attendant, the lady, who seems to have regarded him as an enemy, called out, "Very well, blade of grass! Wait and see what becomes of youl"1 He retorted, Tsumi mo naki Hi to o ukeeba Wasuregusa Ono ga ue ni zo Ou to iu naru.

For getting~grass, So one is told, Springs up around The person who curses A blameless man."

The lady's friends found it most provoking.

32 Once a man sent this poem to a lady with whom he had been intimate several years earlier: Is there no way Inishie no To make the past the presentShizu no odamaki Kurikaeshi To be repetitious as the revolutions Mukashi o ima ni Of a ball of yarn Nasu yoshi mo gana. Wound for the shizu cloth of old?' Apparently it made no impression.

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33 Once a man was paying visits to a lady who lived in Mubara Distrid in the province of Settsu. On a certain occasion the lady seemed to be afraid that he would never come again. He recited, Ashibe yori Michikuru shio no Iyamashini Kimi ni kokoro o Omoimasu kana.

My love for you Ever increases, Like a salt tide Flooding in Across a reed-fringed shore."

Her reply: Komorieni Omou kokoro o Ikadeka wa Fune sasu sao no Sashite shirubeki.

Can I, like a boatman Sounding with his pole, Sound out the thoughts Concealed in a mind Secret as a hidden inlet ?'

Are we to call the lady's poem a creditable performance for someone living in the provinces?

34 Once a man sent this poem to a hard-hearted lady: leba eni Iwaneba mune ni Sawagarete Kokoro hitotsu ni Nageku koro kana.

When I would speak of it, I cannot; When I resolve to say nothing, I am utterly distraught. These days I can but grieve In my innermost heart.'

He had, it would seem, quite lost his sense of shame.

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35 Once a man sent this poem to a lady from whom he had involuntarily become estranged: Tamanooo Awao ni yorite Musubereba Taete no nochi mo Awamu to zo omou.

Our lives are intertwined Like the ends of a string of gems Fashioned in a loose braidThough the knot be dissolved, It will surely be tied again.'

36 Once a man sent this to a lady who had accused him of forgetting her: Tani sebami Mine made haeru Tamakazura Taemu to hito ni Wa ga omowanaku ni.

Why need you question A love that I would have Long-lived as a vine Creeping toward a mountain top From a narrow gorge?'

37 Once a man was visiting a rather flirtatious lady. Perhaps because he did not quite trust her, he wrote, Ware narade Shitahimo toku na Asagao no Yiikage matanu Hana ni wa ari tomo.

Though your affections be ephemeral As the morning glory's flower, Gone before sunset, Do not loosen your undet-sash For anyone but me.'

Her reply:

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Tales of Ise Futari shite Musubishi himo o Hitori shite Aimiru made wa Tokaji to zo omou.

Until we meet again, Never shall I Loosen by myself The sash We tied together."

Once a man went to call on Ki no Aritsune. Aritsune had gone off somewhere and was late in getting home. The man sent him this poem: Thanks to you, Kimi ni yori I have learned somethingOmoinarainu No doubt this feeling Yo no naka no Of longing to see someone Hi to wa kore o ya Is what people call love: Koi to iuran. Aritsune replied, Narawaneba Yo no hitogoto ni Naniokamo Koi to wa iu to Toishi ware shi mo.

How should I Have taught you? I who through ignorance Have constantly asked others What love might be.

39 Once a sovereign known as the Emperor of the Western Palace1 had a daughter, Princess Shiishi, who died." On the night of the funeral a man who lived nearby drove out with a lady in her carriage to watch the procession. A long time passed with no sign of the coffin, and the man, feeling that his tears had shown his sympathy, decided to give up and go home. Just then the famous gallant Minamoto Itaru,"

Tales of lse who was also there to view the procession, came up to the carriage and began to flirt with the lady he imagined to be alone inside. Presently he caught a firefly and thrust it into the carriage. The lady started to extinguish it lest she be seen by its light-whereupon the man who was with her recited, Idete inaba Kagiri narubemi Tomoshi kechi Toshi henuru ka to Naku koe o kike.

When the princess emerges It will be for the last time. You would do well to heed The voices that lament This light's untimely extinction.

Itaru replied, Ito aware Naku zo kikoyuru Tomoshi kechi Kiyuru mono to mo Ware wa shirazu na.

It is most affecting; I do indeed hear the weeping. But I am not aware That a light Has been extinguished.'

It was a mediocre verse for a man of his reputation." Itaru was Shitago's grandfather. His behavior was scarcely what the princess would have wished it to be:

40 Once a young man took a fancy to a girl who was really quite acceptable, but his parents, a conceited pair, decided to send the girl away before the attachment became serious -or so they said, for at first they did nothing but talk. The boy was unable to oppose them, since he was dependent on them and still had no strong will of his own, and the girl, being of low birth, was equally powerless; the two merely fell deeper and deeper in love. Quite abruptly the parents

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Tales of Ise resolved to get rid of the girl. The boy had no way of stop~ ping them, though he wept bitterly, and so she was carried off. The sobbing boy composed this poem: Idete inaba Tare ka wakare no Katakaran Arishi ni masaru Kyo wa kanashi mo.

It would not be hard To part from someone Who wished to leave, But how much my suffering Has increased today 11

Then he lost consciousness. His parents were terribly up~ set. They had, after all, spoken only through concern for his welfare, never dreaming that the affair was so seriousyet there he lay in a genuine faint. They offered agitated prayers to the gods and buddhas. Although the boy had fainted at sunset, it was the Hour of the Dog" on the next day before he finally came around. Such were the depths of feeling that the young were once capable of. Sensibility of that order is not to be found now~ adays even among older people.

41 Once there were two sisters, one married to an impover~ ished man of inferior rank and the other to a man of con~ sequence. Toward the end of the Twelfth Month in a cer~ tain year, the wife of the low~ranking man washed his for~ mal cloak and personally stretched it out to dry. She was very careful, but being unaccustomed to such menial labor she stretched the material too far and split the shoulder. There was nothing to be done; she could only sit and weep. When the man of high rank heard about it, he found her plight most affecting. He got hold of a handsome blue cloak1 and sent it to her with this poem:

Tales of Ise Murasakino Iro koki toki wa Memoharuni No naru kusaki zo Wakarezarikeru.

When the murasaki's hue Is strong and deep, One can distinguish No other plant On the vast plain."

No doubt he was thinking of the poem about Musashi Plain."

42 A certain man once exchanged vows with a lady he knew to be something of a flirt, and found her most attractive in spite of her reputation. He began to visit her constantly, always worrying about her fickleness and yet never able to give her up, for he felt that life would be insupportable without her. Once when he had been prevented from visiting her for two or three days, he sent th1s poem: ldete koshi Ato dani imada Kawarajio Ta ga kayoiji to Ima wa naruran.

Who, I wonder, Treads your path While the very footprints Linger From my last visit.'

43 Once an emperor's son, Prince Kaya/ took a liking to a girl and gave her a good position in his service. Presently another man began to make advances to her. There was still a third man who had been under the impression that the girl belonged to him. When he heard about the second man, he sent the girl this poem in a letter containing a drawing of a hototogisu :" 99

Tales of Ise Hototogisu Na ga naku sato no Amata areba Nao utomarenu Omou mono kara.

Too many, hototogisu, Are the houses Where you sing; Though I love you, We are drifting apart."

She tried to placate him with this: Na nomi tatsu Shide no taosa wa Kesa zo naku Iori amata to Utomarenureba.

This morning The rejected hototogisu Cries mournfully, Falsely accused of dwelling At too many cottages.'

It was then the Fifth Month.6 The man replied, Iori oki Shide no taosa wa Naotanomu Wa ga sumu sato ni Koe shi taezu wa.

While you continue to sing At the house where I live, I shall still trust you, hototogisu, Though you dwell By many cottages."

44 Once a man knew someone who was going out to the provinces. He decided to invite him to his house to say farewell, and also, since the person was a particular friend, to have his wife serve the wine. He further arranged to give him a lady's costume,1 and composed a poem for his wife to tie to the belt of the train: Ideteyuku Kimi ga tame ni to Nugitsureba Ware sae mo naku Narinubeki kana. 100

Since this train Has been taken off For you who depart, Should not you and I both Be free of misfortune?"

Tales of Ise This is a most interesting poem; it should be read attentively and savored in silence.

45 Once there was a carefully reared girl who longed desperately to tell a certain man of her love for him. At length she fell ill-broken hearted, perhaps, because she could devise no way of letting him know-and as she lay dying she confessed her attachment. When her father learned of it he sent word to the man, weeping bitterly. The man hurried to the house, only to find the girl dead. Feeling strangely bereaved, he stayed to mourn for her. It was late in the Sixth Month and exceedingly hoe Music was performed in the evening to comfort the departed spirit, and as the night deepened a cool breeze began to stir. Fireflies danced high in the air. Staring out at the insects from where he lay, the man recited, Yuku hotaru Dancing fireflies, Kumo no ue made If you can soar Inubeku wa Above the clouds, Akikaze fuku to Tell the wild goose Kari ni tsugekose. Of the autumnal breeze." Kuregataki Natsu no higurashi Nagamureba Sono koto to naku Mono zo kanashiki.

Lost in revery Throughout this interminable Summer day, I have grown sad, Scarcely knowing why."

46 Once a man had a friend to whom he was much attached. The two were always together and always on the best of IOI

Tales of Ise

terms. But then the friend was obliged to go to the provinces, and they parted with many laments. After some time a letter came: "How long it has been since our last meeting! I am terribly afraid that you will have forgotten me. It is after all only human to forget someone who is never around." The man composed this poem and sent it to him: I cannot believe that you Mekaru to mo Omoenaku ni Are far away, Wasuraruru For I can never forget you, Toki shi nakereba And thus your face Omokage ni tatsu. Is always before me.1

47 Once a man was eager to find a means of exchanging vows with a certain lady, but the lady, having heard that his affections were rather indiscriminately bestowed, grew if anything colder as time went on. She sent him this poem: Onusa no Many as the hands Hiku te amata ni Pulling at sacred wands Narinureba Are those that tug at you. Omoedo e koso I find you most attractive, Tanomazarikere. But you are not to be trusted.' His reply: Onusa to Na ni koso tatere Nagaretemo Tsui ni yoru se wa Ari to iu mono o.

I am indeed reputed To resemble a sacred wandyet when its drifting is done Is there not a shoal Where the wand comes to rest?"

48 Once a man planned an entertainment for someone who was going away, but the guest failed to come. The man sent him this: 102

Tales of Ise lma zo shiru Kurushiki mono to H1tomatamu Sato o ba karezu Toubekarikeri.

Now that I know How hard it is to wait, I shall call faithfully At houses Where I am expected.'

49 Once a man, stirred by the beauty of his younger sister, composed this poem :1 Ura wakami Neyoge ni miyuru Wakakusa o Hito no musubamu Koto oshi zo omou.

How regrettable it is That someone else Will tie up The young grass So fresh and good for sleeping."

She replied, Hatsukusa no Nado mezurashiki Kotonohazo Ura naku mono o Omoikeru kana.

Why do you speak of me In words novel as the first Grasses of spring? Have I not always loved you Quite without reserve?"

so Once a man who was nettled by a lady's reproaches composed this poem: Torinokoo To zutsu to wa Kasanu tomo Omowanu hito o Omou mono ka wa. She replied,

How can I love someone Who would care nothing for me Even were I able To pile up hens' eggs Ten high and ten wide?'

Tales of Ise Asatsuyu wa Kienokorite mo Arinubeshi Tare ka kono yo o Tanomihatsubeki.

Of the morning dew An occasional drop May perhaps remain, But a relationship with you Is ephemeral indeed."

Then he wrote, Fukukazeni Kozo no sakura wa Chirazu tomo Ana tanomigata Hi to no kokoro wa.

That you should be trustworthy Is less likely Than that the winds Should have spared Last year's cherry blossoms.8

The lady's rejoinder: Yuku mizuni Kazu kaku yori mo Hakanaki wa Omowanu hito o Omou narikeri.

To love Unloved Is more futile Than to write On a flowing stream.'

The man: Yukumizu to Suguru yowai to Chiru hana to Izure mate cho Koto o kikuran.

Flowing waters, Passing years, Scattering blossomsWhich of them will listen If someone cries "Wait" ?

In spite of their mutual accusations of infidelity, both were quite likely involved in secret affairs with other people.

5I Once a man set out a chrysanthemum plant in someone's garden. He composed this poem:

Tales of Ise Ue shi ueba Aki naki toki ya Sakazaran Hana koso chirame Ne sae kareme ya.

If it has been well planted, It will fail to bloom Only if autumn should fail to come, And though the petals scatter The roots will never die.'

52 Once a man sent someone a pheasant in return for a gift of decorated rice dumplings.' His poem: You have trudged Ayame kari marshes Through zo ni Kimi wa numa Cutting sweet-flags, Madoikeru While I have gone forth to the Ware wa no ni idete fields. Karu zo wabishiki. Toilsome indeed, this hunting! 2

53 Once a man visited a lady whom he ordinarily found it difficult to meet. The two talked of many things, and presently a cock began to crow. The man composed this: Ika de ka wa Tori no nakuran Hito shirezu Omou kokoro wa Mada yo fukaki ni.

Why does the cock Herald the dawn When the night is yet Deep as this love of mine, Unknown to others?'

54 Once a man sent this to a hard-hearted lady: Is it dew from heaven Yukiyaranu That wets the sleeve Yumeji o tanomu Of one seeking in vain Tamotoniwa To journey along Amatsusora naru The path of dreams?' Tsuyu ya okuran. 105

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55 Once it began to seem unlikely that a man would win a lady with whom he had fallen in love. He wrote, It is true, I suppose, Omowazuwa That you care nothing for meAri mo suramedo And yet I feel hope Kotonohano Whenever I hear Orifushi goto ni Your least word.1 Tanomaruru kana.

56 Once a man was tortured by love day and night. When his suffering seemed beyond endurance he wrote, My sleeve of course is not W a ga sode wa A simple hut Kusa no iori ni Thatched with grassAranedomo Yet how the dew clings to it Kurureba tsuyu no As night closes in.1 Yadori narikeri.

57 Once a man sent this to an unresponsive lady with whom he was secretly in love: Tormented by love, Koiwabinu I break under strains self-imposed, Ama no karu mo ni Like the shell of the warekara Yadoru cho Clinging to seaweed Warekara mi o mo The .fisherfolk reap. Kudakitsuru kana. 1

58 A man who was a great gallant once built himself a house at Nagaoka and took up residence there.1 Several very attractive ladies were in service at a neighboring imperial

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Tales of lse establishment," and one day some of them caught sight of the man as he was superintending the rice harvest in his fields-it was after all a rural spot. The ladies came trooping m, calling, "Isn't this a rather odd occupation for a famous lover?" The man retreated in confusion to the privacy of an inside room, whereupon one of his tormenters recited this poem: Arenikeri Poor neglected house I No doubt it has seen Aware ikuyo no Many generations pass Yadonareya Sumiken hito no And thus its former resident No longer cares to come here." Otozure mo senu. They were by then clustered around the mansion itself. The man sent out this reply: Mugura oite The fiends who swarm around Aretaru yado no At the least opportunityUretaki wa They are what is disagreeable Kari m mo oni no About the ruined house Sudaku narikeri. Choked with weeds.' "Would you like us to pick up the gleanings for you?"" the ladies asked next. He retorted, Uchiwabite Ochibo hirou to Kikamaseba Ware mo tazura ni Yukamashi mono o.

If I were to learn That poverty impelled you To pick up fallen ears, I should be most happy To join you in the fields."

59 Once a man took it into his head to live in the Eastern Hills.' (What can he have been thinking about the capital?) He wrote this poem:

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Sumiwabinu Ima wa kagiri to Yamazatoni Mi o kakusubeki Yado motometen.

I shall no longer Live here in misery. Let me seek shelter In some mountain village Where I can sink from sight."

Thus he left the capital. Presently he fell ill and lapsed into a deathlike coma. His people sprinkled his face with water, whereupon he revived and recited, Wagaueni Tsuyu zo oku naru Amanokawa To wataru fune no Kai no shizuku ka.

Something like dew Touches my face. Can it be spray from the oars Of the boat that crosses The Straits of the River of Heaven?"

6o Once there was a man whose palace duties kept him so busy that his wife, tired of being neglected, ran off to another province with someone who had promised to treat her better. Some time later the first man was appointed Messenger to Usa.' As he was journeying toward the shrine he learned that his former wife was now married to one of the local officials responsible for providing him with accommodations on the way. He gave orders that the lady was to serve his wine. "Otherwise I shall not drink it," he said. When she presented the cup, he took a tangerine from a dish of relishes and recited this poem: Satsuki matsu Hanatachibana no Ka okageba Mukashi no hito no Sode no ka zo suru.

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Scenting the fragrance Of tangerine flowers Blossoming in the Fifth Month, I recall the perfumed sleeves Of someone I loved."

Tales of Ise The lady, deeply ashamed, became a nun and entered a mountain retreat.

61 Once when a certain man had journeyed to Tsukushi,' he heard a lady say from behind a blind, "That fellow is a dyed-in-the-wool flirt." He recited, Somegawao W ataramu hi to no Ikadeka wa Iro ni naru cho Koto no nakaran.

When one crosses The "River of Dyes," Is there a way To prevent oneself From falling in love?"

She replied, Na ni shi owaba Ada ni zo arubeki Tawarejima Nami no nureginu Kiru to iu nari.

Judged solely by name, "Flirtation Island" Were fickle indeedBut there it is simply a matter Of wave-drenched clothes."

62 Once there was a woman whose husband had neglected her for years. Perhaps because she was not clever, she took the advice of an unreliable person and became a domestic in a provincial household. It happened one day that she served food to her former husband. That night the husband told the master of the house to send her to him. "Don't you know me?" he asked. Then he recited, Inishie no Nioi wa izura Sakurabana Kokeru kara to mo Narinikeru kana.

Where is the beauty Of yesteryear? Of cherry blossoms This tree's branches Are now quite bare.'

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Tales of Ise The woman, acutely embarrassed, made no reply. "Why don't you answer me?" he demanded. "I am blind and speechless with tears," she said. He recited, Kore ya kono Here is someone Ware ni au mi o Who has wished to be free Nogaretsutsu Of her ties to me. Toshitsuki furedo Much time has passed, Masarigao naki. Yet her lot is little improved. He removed his cloak and gave it to her, but she left it and ran off-nobody knows where.

63 Once a lonely lady longed desperately to meet a man who would love her. Since it was not something she could talk about, she pretended to have had a certain dream, which she described to her three sons. Two of the sons made noncommittal replies and let the matter drop, but to her delight the youngest said, "This means that you are going to find a good husband." "Most men have little capacity for honest affection. If only I could arrange for her to meet Ariwara Narihira," the third son thought. One day when Narihira was on a hunting excursion, the boy intercepted him, caught hold of his horse's bridle, and poured out the story. Narihira found it so touching that he went to the lady's house and slept with her. But afterward he failed to reappear. At length the lady went to his house and peered in. He half glimpsed her and recited, Momotoseni The lady with thinning hairBut a year short Hitotose taranu Of a hundredTsukumogami Must be longing for me, Ware o kourashi For I seem to see her face.' Omokage ni miyu. IIO

Tales of lse Then he began to get ready to go out. The lady rushed home, bumping into brambles and briers, and retired to her bed. After a time Narihira arrived and began to peep in from a sheltered spot, just as she had done. She had stopped expecting him and was disconsolately composing hcmelf for sleep. She recited, Samushiro ni Must I again tonight Koromo katashiki Spread a single sleeve Koyoimoya On the narrow mat Koishiki hito ni And sleep without My beloved ?• A wade nomi nemu. Moved by pity, he spent the night with her. Most men show consideration for the women they love and disregard the feelings of the ones who fail to interest them. Narihira made no such distinctions."

64 Once a man received some letters from a lady who showed no inclination to arrange a private meeting with him; furthermore he was not at all sure who she was. He sent her this poem: Fukukazeni Wa ga mi o nasaba Tamasudare Hima motometsutsu Irubeki mono o.

Were I but The whistling wind, Then might I seek you out And enter through a crack In those elegant blinds.1

Her reply: Toritomenu Kaze ni wa ari tomo Tamasudare Ta ga yurusaba ka Hima motomubeki.

Though you were the wind No hand can grasp, Who would permit you To find a crack In these blinds? III

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6s Once there was a lady whom an emperor had noticed, taken into his service, and permitted to wear the forbidden colors.' (She was his mother's cousin.) She became involved in an affair with a courtier from the Ariwara family" -someone who was still a boy-and this youth, who had free access to the chambers used by the ladies in waiting, fell into the habit of seeking her out and monopolizing her company. "This kind of behavior is most improper and can only lead to the gravest difficulties for both of us; you must stop it," she said. He replied, Caution has been vanquished Omouniwa Shinoburu koto zo By loveLet me but see you Makenikeru And I shall be content, Au ni shi kaeba Happen what may." Sa mo araba are.

If she retired to her private apartments, he would chase after her as usual, with no attempt at concealment, and when she retreated in confusion to her own home he visited her there, apparently considering the new arrangement even more convenient than the old. Everyone heard about it and found it most entertaining. He would return to the palace in the early hours of the morning, ignoring the stares of the Intendance Bureau functionaries,' and toss his shoes well inside before entering." Fearful lest he lose his official position and be ruined if his indiscretions continued, he implored the gods and buddhas to make him fall out of love, but instead his passion became an obsession. Once he summoned diviners and priestesses, told them to prepare purification offerings to rid him of all affection for the lady, and went with them to the river, but after the purification his agony merely II2

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increased-his passion was stronger than before. As he left the river he recited this poem: Koiseji to Alas! The gods have rejected Mitarashigawa ni The ritual of ablution Seshi misogi Performed at the Stream Of Purification Kami wa ukezu mo To win surcease from love: Narinikeru kana. The emperor was a most handsome man. Listening to him chant the sacred name of the Buddha with impressive reverence and dignity, the lady shed bitter tears. "What a cruel karma it is that binds me to someone else instead of letting me serve such a sovereign," she sobbed. In time the emperor learned of the affair and banished the youth.' The lady's cousin, the emperor's mother, made the lady leave the palace, and shut her up in a back room to punish her. The weeping lady composed this poem in her prison: Amanokaru I weep aloud Mo ni sumu mushi no For my own fault, Warekara to Blaming no other." Ne o koso nakame Yo o ba uramiji. Each night the youth returned from his place of exile, played his flute with great feeling, and sang melancholy ballads in a moving voice. The lady, listening from her back-room prison, knew that it must be her lover but had no way of meeting him. A poem came to her mind: Sari tomo to How pitiful! Omouran koso He comes hoping Kanashikere Against hope, Aru ni mo aranu Not knowing that I now Mi o shirazu shite. Scarcely exist." 113

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The youth, frustrated in his attempts to see the lady, had no recourse but to continue his nightly pilgrimages. Back in his place of exile he wrote, Though it be in vainItazura ni Yukite wa kinuru This going and comingMonoyueni My longing to see her Mimaku hoshisa ni Draws me back Izanawaretsutsu. Again and again.'" These things happened, one may assume, during the reign of the Mizunoo Emperor. "The emperor's mother" must mean the Empress from Somedono, or perhaps the Empress from the Fifth Ward.u

66 A man who owned property in the province of Settsu once went to a spot near Naniwa' with his brothers and some friends. Gazing at the shore fringed with boats, he recited, This morning at last Naniwazuo Kesa koso mitsu no I behold Naniwa Harbor: Are those innumerable boats, Ura gotoni Kore ya kono yo o I wonder, Umi wataru fune. The craft that journey wearily Through the sea of this world ?" The others, deeply moved, went home without composing poems.

Around the Second Month' of a certain year, a man set out with a group of companions on a pleasure jaunt to the province of Izumi. Mount Ikoma" in Kawachi, swathed in restless, billowing clouds, slipped in and out of sight as they

Tales of lse traveled. After an overcast morning, the sky cleared around noon, and they saw fallen snow, pure and white, blanketing the treetops. Gazing at the scene, one of the company recited, Kino kyo Kuma no tachimai Kakurou wa Hana no hayashi o U shi to narikeri.

It was through reluctance To reveal the woods in bloom That yesterday and today Clouds soared and swirled And the mountain hid itself."

68 Once a man made a trip to the province of Izumi. As he traveled along the Beach of Sumiyoshi at Sumiyoshi Village in Sumiyoshi District,' he dismounted again and again to sit quietly and enjoy the glorious view. "Let us compose poems using the phrase 'the Beach of Sumiyoshi,' " some. one proposed. The man recited, Kari nakite Kiku no hana saku Aki wa aredo Haru no umibe ni Sumiyoshi no hama.

In autumn the wild geese cry And chrysanthemums are in flower, Yet how pleasant to dwell By the sea in spring On the Beach of Sumiyoshi."

The others refused to attempt poems of their own.

69 Once a man went to the province of Ise as an Imperial Huntsman: The Ise Virgin's mother had sent word that he was to be treated better than the ordinary run of imperial representatives, and the Virgin accordingly looked after his needs with great solicitude, seeing him off to hunt

us

Tales of Ise in the morning and allowing him to come to her own residence when he returned in the evening." On the night of the second day of this hospitable treatment, the man suggested that they might become better acquainted. The Virgin was not unwilling, but with so many people about it was impossible to arrange a meeting in private. However, since the man was in charge of the hunting party, he had not been relegated to some distant quarter, but had been lodged rather close to the Virgin's own sleeping chamber, and so the Virgin went to his room around eleven o'clock that night, after the household had quieted down. He was lying on his bed wide awake, staring out into the night. When he saw her by the faint light of the moon, standing with a little girl in front of her, he led her joyfully into the bedchamber; but though she stayed from eleven o'clock until two-thirty, she took her leave without exchanging vows with him. The man, bitterly disappointed, spent a sleepless night. The next morning, despite his impatience, he could not very well send a message, and was obliged to wait anxiously for word from the Virgin. Soon after dawn she sent this poem without an accompanying letter: Kimi ya koshi Did you, I wonder, come here, Or might I have gone there? Ware ya yukikemu Omoezu I scarcely know ... Yume ka utsutsu ka Was it dream or realityNete ka samete ka. Did I sleep or wake?" Shedding tears of distress, he sent her this: Kakikurasu I too have groped Kokoro no yami ni In utter darkness. Madoiniki Can you not determine tonight Yume utsutsu to wa Which it might have beenKoyoi sadameyo. Whether dream or reality?'

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Tales of Ise Then he went off on a hunting excursion. As he galloped over the plain his thoughts strayed to the coming night. Might he not hope to meet the Virgin as soon as the others had gone to bed ? But word of his presence had reached the governor of the province, who was also in charge of the Virgin's affairs, and that official proceeded to entertain him at a drinking party that lasted all night. It was impossible to see the Virgin, and since he was to leave at dawn for Owari Province there could be no further opportunity, even though he was quite frantic with longing, as indeed was the Virgin. As dawn approached, the Virgin sent him a farewell cup of wine with a poem inscribed on the saucer. He picked up the vessel and examined it. Kachibito no Since ours was a relationship no Wataredo nurenu deeper E ni shi areba Than a creek too shallow To wet a foot-traveler's garb ... The last two lines were missing. He took a bit of charcoal from a pine torch and supplied them: Mata Ausaka no I shall surely again cross Seki wa koenan. Osaka Barrier." At daybreak he set out toward the province of Owari. The Virgin was the one who served during the reign of Emperor Seiwa; she was a daughter of Emperor Montoku and a sister of Prince Koretaka.8

70 Once a man lodged at Oyodo Crossing1 on his way back from a mission as Imperial Huntsman. He recited this poem to one of the Ise Virgin's child attendants:

Tales of Ise Mirumekaru Kata ya izuko zo Sao sashite Ware ni oshieyo Ama no tsuribune.

Point with your oar, Fishing boat, And show me Where to reap The seaweed called "Seeing.""

71 Once a man visited the Ise Virgin1 as an imperial envoy. One of the princess's ladies, who was rather romantically inclined, took it upon herself to send him this poem: To see this person Chihayaburu From the imperial court, Kami no igaki mo I should be willing Koenubeshi To cross the sacred fence 6miyabito no Of the mighty gods." Mimaku hoshisa ni. His reply: Koishiku wa Kite mo miyo kashi Chihayaburu Kami no isamuru Michi naranaku ni.

If you are so inclined, Pray come, For the mighty gods Forbid no one To travel the path of love:

72 There was once a man who had been unable to arrange a second meeting with a certain lady in Ise, and who thus felt exceedingly disgruntled as he prepared to depart for another province. The lady sent him this poem: The pine of Oyodo 6yodo no Is not inaccessible; Matsu wa tsuraku mo The resentful waves are themAranaku ni selves to blame,

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Tales of Ise Uramite nomi mo Kaeru nami kana.

For they come no closer than the beach And then go back again.1

73 Once a man wrote this, thinking of a lady to whom he could not so much as address a message, even though he had managed to find out where she was living: Me ni wa mite My love is like Te ni wa torarenu The cinnamon tree That grows on the moonTsuki no uchi no Katsura no gotoki Though one may see her Kimi ni zo arikeru. She is untouchable.'

74 Once a man felt that he had been shabbily treated by a certain lady. He wrote, You and I are separated Iwanefumi Kasanaru yama ni By no craggy mountains Aranedomo Rising one above the otheryet how many are the miserable Awanuhioku Koiwataru kana. days I must spend without seeing you.'

75 Once a man proposed to a lady that he take her to live with him in the province of Ise. Her reply was more discouraging than anything she had thus far said: Oyodo no Though we have not exchanged Hama ni ou cho vows, Miru kara ni The pleasure of seeing you Kokoro wa naginu Has made me quite content.1 Katarawanedomo.

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Tales of Ise He wrote, Sode nurete Ama no karihosu Watatsuumi no Miru o au nite Yamamu to ya suru.

Do you propose merely To substitute Seeing For meeting?"

The lady: Iwama yori Ouru mirume shi Tsurenaku wa Shio hi shio michi Kai mo arinan.

Who is to say? If we continue To see one another, Something may come of it."

The man: Namidanizo Nuretsutsu shiboru Yonohitono Tsuraki kokoro wa Sode no shizuku ka.

Wringing my tear-drenched sleeves, I wonder 1f perhaps Your icy heart Has been transformed Into those drops of moisture.'

She was indeed a most unapproachable lady.

Once in the days when the Empress from the Second Ward' was still known as the Mother of the Crown Prince, she made a pilgrimage to the shrine of her ancestral deity." When presents were distributed to the people in her party, a certain elderly Imperial Guards officer" received his gift directly from her carriage. He composed this poem: 120

Tales of lse Ohara ya Oshio no yama mo Kyokosowa Kamiyo no koto mo Omoiizurame.

On this auspicious day The divinity of Mount Oshio at Ohara Will surely remember What happened long ago In the Age of the Gods.'

Perhaps she felt a pang of sorrow-but that is something we have no way of knowing."

77 During the reign of the Tamura Emperor,' there was an imperial consort called Takakiko." The lady died, and Buddhist services were held for her at Anjoji Temple." Offerings presented by various people, a thousand or more in all, were displayed on branches of trees, which were set in front of the hall, creating the effect of a sudden invasion of forested hills. After the sacred texts had been expounded, Fuj1wara Tsuneyuki,' the Captain of the Right, assembled a group of poets and called for poems that would commemorate the ceremonies while evoking the atmosphere of spring. The aged Commander of the Right Horse Bureau" mistook the artificial trees for real ones and recited, Yamanomina Utsurite kyo ni Aukotowa Haru no wakare o Tou to narubeshi.

That all the mountains Have moved To attend today's rites Is surely because they mourn This springtime parting."

His poem no longer strikes anyone as particularly praiseworthy. Possibly it impressed people at the time because it was better than the others. 121

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78 Once there was an imperial consort called Takakiko.1 She died, and Forty-ninth Day ceremonies" were held for her at Anjoji Temple: On his way back from the services, a Captain of the Right named Fujiwara Tsuneyuki• went to the Yamashina" residence of a certain monk-prince" who had a most interesting garden with an artificial waterfall and stream. "For years I have admired and respected you from a distance," Tsuneyuki said to the prince, "but I have never placed myself at your immediate disposal. May I offer my services tonight?" The prince, greatly pleased, began to make arrangements for Tsuneyuki's entertainment, and Tsuneyuki excused himself to consult with his attendants. "I should like to do something rather out of the ordinary to mark my first service to the prince," he said. "When the emperor was preparing to visit the Third Ward/ someone gave my father a handsome rock from the Beach of Chisato" in Kii Province, but it arrived too late for the occasion and was deposited in a watercourse facing one of the ladies' apartments. Since the prince likes gardens, I shall give it to him." He sent some of his escorts and attendants to fetch the rock, and presently they returned bearing it. It was an even finer specimen than he had heard. Merely to say of such an object, "Here it is; take it," would, he thought, be tasteless. He called on his attendants to write poems, selected the composition of the Commander of the Right Horse Bureau, and scraped away the green moss from the rock until the Commander's words stood out like the raised design on a piece of lacquerware." Then he presented it to the prince. 122

Tales of Ise Akanedomo Iwa ni zo kauru Iro mienu Kokoro o misemu Yoshi no nakereba.

Inadequate though it be, This rock must represent Those feelings that by their nature Have no color to arrest the eye And thus cannot be made visible.

79 Once a daughter of a certain house' bore an imperial prince. Among the poems composed for the birth celebrations was this one, written by the baby's elderly great-uncle: Wa ga kado ni Chihiro aru kage o Uetsureba Natsu fuyu tare ka Kakurezarubeki.

Now that a mighty bamboo Has been planted At our gate, We shall all find shelter Summer and winter."

The child was Prince Sadakazu. People said at the time that he was the Middle Captain's son." The mother was the daughter of Middle Counselor Yukihira, the Middle Captain's elder brother.'

So Once there was a man, rather down on his luck, who owned a flowering wisteria vine. On a drizzly day late in the Third Month, he decided to pick some of the blossoms and send them off as a gift to a certain personage. He composed this poem: Though I got wet, Nuretsutsu zo I was determined to pluck them, Shiite oritsuru Mindful Toshi no uchi ni Haru wa ikuka mo That of this year Araji to amoeba. But few spring days remain.' 123

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8r A certain Minister of the Left' once lived in a very interesting house on the bank of the Kamo River near Rokujo Avenue. Late in the Tenth Month one year, when the white chrysanthemums had taken on a reddish tinge and all the trees and bushes blazed in autumn hues, the minister invited some imperial princes to visit him for a night of wine and music. As dawn approached, the guests fell to composing poems in praise of the mansion's elegance. A humble old fellow who had been creeping about below the veranda recited this after the others had finished: Shiogama ni Itsu ka kinikemu Asanagi ni Tsuri suru fune wa Koko ni yoranan.

When might I have come To Shiogama? How pleasant it would be Were .fishing boats to approach In the morning calm."

A traveler to Michinoku Province .finds countless unusual and intriguing places. In all the sixty and more provinces of our country there is nothing quite like Shiogama; thus to praise the host's garden, the old man made use of the lines, "When might I have come / To Shiogama ?"

82 There was once an imperial prince named Koretaka.1 He owned a house at Minase, beyond Yamazaki,2 where he went each year when the cherry trees were in full bloom, always taking with him a man who served as Commander of the Right Horse Bureau. (It was so long ago that I have forgotten the man's name.) Though the prince would go out hawking during these visits, the hunts themselves did 124

Tales of Ise not greatly interest him, and were indeed little more than pretexts for sipping wine and composing verses. On one ex~ cursion, he noticed some exceptwnally lovely cherry bios~ soms at the Nagisa House in Katano." He and some of the others dismounted, seated themselves under the trees, dec~ orated their caps with sprays of flowers, and began to com~ pose poems. The Commander of the Right Horse Bureau recited, Yononakani Taete sakura no Nakariseba Haru no kokoro wa Nodokekaramashi.

If this were but a world To which cherry blossoms Were quite foreign, Then perhaps in spring Our hearts would know peace.'

Someone else retorted, Chireba koso Itodo sakura wa Medetakere Ukiyo ni nani ka Hisashikarubeki.

It is precisely because Cherry blossoms scatter That we find them appealing. Does anything endure for long In this world of sorrows ?"

At dusk, just after they had left the trees to ride in the direction of Minase, the rest of the prince's attendants came over the fields toward them with servants bearing wine, and the party continued together, looking about for an attractive spot in which to drink. Presently they arrived at a place called Amanogawa,• and there the Commander of the Right Horse Bureau started to offer the prince a cup. "When you present the wine," the prince said, "recite a poem on the theme 'Coming to Amanogawa after a hunt at Katano.' " The Commander recited, 125

Tales of lse Karikurashi Tanabatatsume ni Yadokaramu Ama no kawara ni Ware wa kinikeri.

Having hunted until dark, Let us borrow a lodging From theWeaver Maid, For we have come to the banks Of the River of Heaven:

After the prince had chanted the poem several times without hitting on a reply, Kino Aritsune," who was one of the party, responded thus: Hitotose ni There is, I suspect, Hitotabi kimasu No other man Kimimateba Who will be granted a lodging Yado kasu hi to mo By the maiden who awaits Araji to zo omou. Her lover's yearly visit." Back at the mansion, they drank and spun yarns far into the night. When the prince, somewhat befuddled, finally prepared to retire, the eleven-day-old moon was just ready to disappear behind the hills. The Commander of the Right Horse Bureau recited, Must the moon disappear Akanakuni In such haste, Madaki mo tsuki no Leaving us still unsatisfied? Kakururuka Would that the mountain rim Yama no ha nigete might flee Irezu mo aranan. And refuse to receive her.'" Kino Aritsune answered for the prince: Oshinabete Would that all peaks Mine mo taira ni Everywhere Narinanamu Might become flat, Yama no ha naku wa For without ridges The moon could not hide.u Tsuki mo iraji o. 126

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83 Once an elderly Commander of the Right Horse Bureau' went along on one of Prince Koretaka's frequent hunting excursions to Minase." The prince returned to his palace in the capital a few days later, but instead of dismissing the Commander (who had intended to see him home and then go to his own house), he detained him, saying that he wanted to drink with him and give him a present. The Commander, impatient to be off, recited, Makura tote Kusa hikimusubu Kotomo seji Aki no yo tc dani Tanomarenaku ni.

I shall pull up No grasses to bind Into a pillow. It is not as though one might expect An autumn night .. :

(It was late in the Third Month.) Nevertheless, the prince stayed up the whole night. Such was the manner in which this Commander made himself useful to the prince; but one day, while he was still in constant attendance at the palace, he was astonished to learn that his patron had become a monk. When the First Month came around, he resolved to go and pay his respects to him at Ono,' a place blanketed with snow at the foot of Mount Hiei." With much difficulty he made his way to the hermitage, and found the prince looking bored and forlorn." He lingered on and on, reminiscing about the past; but though he would have liked to remain still longer, his official responsibilities obliged him to start back at nightfall. As he set out he recited, 127

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Wasuretewa Yume ka to zo omou Omoiki ya Yuki fumiwakete Kimi o mimu to wa.

When for an instant I forget, How like a dream it seems ... Never could I have imagined That I would plod through snowdrifts To see my lord.'

He went back to the capital in tears.

Once there was a man of rather low rank whose mother was an imperial princess.' The mother lived at Nagaoka: and since the son was in imperial service at the capital, he found it hard to visit her as often as he would have liked. He was her only child, and she loved him dearly." In the Twelfth Month of a certain year a letter came from her; it was, according to the messenger, a matter of the utmost urgency. In great alarm the man opened it and read this poem: Oinureba Saranu wakare no Ari to ieba Iyoiyo mimaku Hoshiki kimi kana.

More than ever I yearn to see you, For old age is said to bring A parting None can evade.'

Weeping bitterly, the son wrote, Yo no naka ni Saranu wakare no Nakumogana Chiyo mo to inoru Hi to no ko no tame.

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For the sake of sons Who pray that their parents May live a thousand years, Would that in this world There were no final partings.5

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Bs Once there was a man who called on his former patron, a Buddhist monk, during the First Month of each year. He had attended this personage since his childhood; and though he was now in service at court and could not visit him regularly, he made his annual pilgrimage with un~ diminished loyalty. One year the hermitage was crowded with gentlemen and monks, all former attendants of the owner, and since the New Year was a special occasion the host served wine, while outside a heavy snow fell hour after hour. Somewhat tipsily, the company began to compose verses on the theme "Snowbound." The man of whom I speak recited, Omoedomo It pleases me Mi o shi wakeneba To see the snow Mekaresenu Fall and fall, and pile in drifts, Yuki no tsumoru zo For though I think of you always, Wa ga kokoro naru. A man's body cannot be split in two." The prince, deeply moved, took off his robe and gave it to him:

86 Once a very young man and a young girl fell in love, but since both were afraid of their parents, they concealed their relationship and finally broke it off altogether. Some years later the man sent the girl this poem-perhaps because one of them wanted to revive the old affair. Imamadeni There is, I suppose, no one Wasurenu hito wa Who would still remember, Yo ni mo araji Now that years have passed And each has gone Ono ga samazama Toshi no henureba. His own way.' 129

Tales of Ise Both the man and the girl were by then in service in the same imperial household.

87 Once a man went to stay on an estate that he owned at the village of Ashiya, in Mubara District' in Settsu, the very one described in the old poem, Ashinoya no Tending salt-fires by the wild sea Nada no shioyaki Fringed with reed-thatched huts, Itoma nami The fisher girls have no leisure Tsuge no ogushi mo Even to dress their hair Sasazu kinikeri. With simple wooden combs." (From this the place came to be called Ashiya-no-nada, "Sea Bordered by Reed-thatched Huts.") The man held a minor official post, which involved no onerous duties, and certain Assistant Guards Commanders used the connection as an excuse for joining him." His older brother was a Guards Commander.' One day as the gentlemen were cantering on horseback across the beach in front of the host's house, with no particular destination in mind, someone proposed an ascent into the mountains for a view of Nunobiki Falls." The falls were spectacular-a rock face 200 feet high and so feet across, swathed, it seemed, in white silk. From the top jutted a rock the size of a straw cushion," against which the rushing waters dashed and shattered in cascades of globules as big as tangerines and chestnuts. The host called for waterfall poems, and the Guards Commander recited, Which, I wonder, is higherWa ga yo o ba Kyo ka asu ka to This waterfall or the fall of my tears Matsu kai no As I wait in vain, Namida no taki to Hoping today or tomorrow Izure takaken. To rise in the world:

Tales of lse Next the host composed this: Nukimidaru Hito koso arurashi Shiratama no Ma naku mo chiru ka Sode no sebaki ni.

It looks as though someone Must be unstringing Those clear cascading gems. Alas! My sleeves are too narrow To hold them all."

The others seem to have been much amused. They all praised the poem and refused to go on wtth their versifymg. The return journey was long, and twilight was falling as they reached the dwelling that had belonged to Mochiyoshi, the late Minister of the Imperial Household." Gazing ahead toward the Ashiya house, they saw the fires of thickly clustered fishing craft. The host recited, Haruru yo no Hoshi ka kawabe no Hotaru kamo Wa ga sumu kata no Ama no taku hi ka.

Might they be the clear night's stars, Or fireflies by the river bank, Or perhaps fires Kindled by the fisherfolk Near my dwelhng ?'"

So they returned. During the night the waves reared and tossed, whipped by a south wind, and early the next morning servant girls went out to gather the floating seaweed that had been washed ashore. The lady of the house arranged some on a pedestal tray and presented it to the guests, covered with an oak leaf on which she had scribbled this poem: W atatsumi no Kazashi ni sasu to Iwaumomo Kimi ga tame ni wa Oshimazarikeri.

For these lords The god of the sea Has gladly relinquished The seaweed he treasures To adorn his head." 131

Tales of Ise How are we to judge this it good or bad ?

country~dweller's

poem? Was

88 Once a group of friends, no longer very young, were miring the moon together. One of them recited, 6kata wa Tsuki o mo medeji Korezokono Tsumoreba hi to no Oi to naru mono.

ad~

As a general thing I have but little heart For praise of the glorious moon Whose every circuit Brings old age closer.'

Once a man of quite respectable rank had for many years been hopelessly in love with a lady whose status was higher than his. Hito shirezu Ware koishinaba Ajtki naku Izure no kami ni N aki na osen.

Were I to die Of this hidden love, What innocent god W auld be subjected To unjust accusations?'

go Once there was a man who for some time had been trying desperately to win an unresponsive lady. Moved perhaps by pity, the lady at length agreed to receive him on the following night with only a screen between them. The man was overjoyed, but he could not help worrying lest she change her mind. He sent her this poem attached to a gorgeous spray of cherry blossoms:

Tales of Ise Sakurabana Kyo koso kaku mo Nioutomo Ana tanomigata Asu no yo no koto.

Alas I Could one but feel certain That the cherry blossoms So radtant today Would still be the same Tomorrow night.

No doubt his fears were justified.

91 Once there was a man who had been much depressed merely by the passage of time.' Toward the end of the Third Month he composed this poem: Oshimedomo Haru no kagiri no Kyo no hi no Yiigure ni sae Narinikeru kana.

With all my heart I willed it otherwise, Yet now it has grown dark On this, The last day of spring."

92 Once a man, deeply in love, journeyed time and again to the neighborhood where a certain lady lived, but was always obliged to go home without seeing her. He could not even send her a letter. At length he wrote this poem: Ashibe kogu Tananashiobune Ikusotabi Yukikaeruran Shiru hito mo nami.

How many dozens of times The httle boat, Rowing among the reeds, Goes and returns Unknown to anyone.'

93 Once a man of humble position fell in love with a lady who belonged to the very highest rank. Can it be supposed

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that he had cause for optimism? He thought of her waking and sleeping, and one day, feeling utterly wretched, he composed this poem: 6naona Omoi wa subeshi Nazoenaku Takaki iyashiki Kurushikarikeri.

One should love According to one's station, For bitter it is indeed To join the extremes Of high and low.'

Even in earlier times, it seems, such unhappy attachments were not uncommon.

94 Once there was a man who for some reason stopped visiting a certain lady. She formed another alliance, but since she had borne him a child he continued to send her an occasional letter, though with no great display of ardor. One day he asked her to paint him a picture-she was something of an artist-but she replied that her new husband was with her just then. After first one day and then a second had passed with no sign of the painting, he wrote in considerable irritation, "It is, I suppose, quite natural that you have not yet bothered to do as I wished, but you will understand that I find it annoying." He sent along a sarcastic poem (the season was autumn): Akinoyowa Haruhi wasururu Mononareya Kasumi ni kiri ya Chie masaruran.

134

Autumn nights, it appears, Have made you forget The days of springElse why should fog be deemed So vastly superior to mist?'

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The lady's reply: Chiji no aki H1totsu no haru ni Mukawameya Momiji mo hana mo Torno ni koso ch1re.

Can a thousand autumns Equal a single spring? Yet when 1t comes to scattenng There is little difference Between maple leaves and cherry blossoms."

95 Once there was a man who was in the service of the Empress from the Second Ward. For some time he had been in love with a lady in waiting whom he encountered constantly, and finally he begged to be allowed to visit her, keeping her curtains between them if necessary, "for I should like to try to clear up a matter that has been very much on my mind." The lady received him, taking great pains not to be observed. He chatted awhile and then recited this poem: Hikoboshi ni Koi wa masarinu Amanokawa Hedatsuru seki o Ima wa yameteyo.

More cruel than the Herdsman Star's Is the love that consumes me. Pray give it up nowThe barrier that stands between us Like the River of Heaven.'

Deeply affected, the lady drew aside the curtains.

Once there was a man who wooed a lady with such persistence that she gradually began to return his affection. (Not being made of stone or wood, she could scarcely have

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helped feeling sorry for him.) Unfortunately, it was by then the middle of the Sixth Month, and a boil or two had appeared on the lady's skin. "Though I think of no one but you, I am suffering from a boil or two just now-and then, too, it is so frightfully hot. I promise that we shall meet as soon as the autumn winds begin to blow," she sent him word. But wh1le she was waiting for autumn to arrive, some of the people around her started to complain that she intended to go off with the man, and her older brother suddenly came to take her away. The lady ordered a servant to gather some maple leaves that were just turning red. Then she composed a poem: Akikakete Iishinagara mo Aranakuni Ko no ha furishiku E ni koso a,rikere.

"In autumn ..."I said, But it was not to beOur relationship has proved no deeper Than a shallow creek Strewn with fallen leaves.'

She scribbled the poem on a bit of paper, attached it to the leaves, and left it behind as she set out. "If anyone comes from there, give him this," she said. To this very day no one knows what became of her-whether she was happy or miserable, or even where she went to live. The man is reported to have clapped his hands and uttered bloodcurdling imprecations. "We shall soon learn," he said, "whether one human being has the power to injure another through curses."

97 There was once a personage known as the Minister of State from Horikawa.1 On the day of a banquet celebrating

Tales of lse the minister's fortieth birthday, held at the Ninth Ward House," an elderly Middle Captain• composed this poem: Sakurabana Scatter in clouds, Chuikaikumore Cherry blossoms, Oirakuno That you may hide the path Komu to iu naru By which old age Michi magau ga ni. Is said to approach.'

One year during the Ninth Month, a man who served a certain Chancellor' attached a pheasant to a branch of artificial plum blossoms and presented it to his master with this poem: Waga tanomu Kimi ga tame ni to Oruhana wa Toki shi mo wakanu Mono ni zo arikeru.

Just as my devotion Is ever unchanging, So to these blossoms Plucked for my lord All seasons are alike."

The Chancellor, pleased by the conceit, gave the messenger a reward.

99 On the day of an archery meet at the riding grounds of the Imperial Guards of the Right, a certain Middle Captain glimpsed a lady's face through the silk curtains of a carriage opposite him. He sent her this poem: Mizu mo arazu Bewitched by someone Mi mo senu hito no Not unseen Koishiku wa Nor yet quite seen, Must I to no purpose spend this day Aya naku kyo ya Nagamekurasan. Lost in melancholy revery?' 1

37

Tales of Ise Her reply: Shiru shiranu Nani ka aya naku Wakiteiwan Omoi nomi koso Shirube narikere.

Why for no reason Must one construct distinctions Between knowing and not knowing? The heart alone Can serve as guide.2

Later he found out who she was. 100

One day as a man was walking along the corridor between the Koroden and the Se1ryoden,' a hand thrust out a sprig of greenery from inside a h1gh-ranking lady's apartment. "Can forgetting-grass" be called 'herb of remembrance'?"" a voice asked. He took the plant and replied, Wasuregusa Ouru nobe to wa M1ruramedo Ko wa shinobu nari Nochi mo tanoman.

Though the fields may seem O'ergrown w1th forgetting-grass, This is the herb of remembranceAnd remembering, I look to the future.' 101

There was once a man called Ariwara Yukihira, the Commander of the Military Guards of the Left.' A group of courtiers, learning that Yukihira's household had produced some excellent wine, VlSlted him one day to sample it, and he entertained them with a feast at which Fujiwara Masachika, the Middle Controller of the Left, was designated as guest of honor." It happened that Yuklhira, whose tastes were most refined, had arranged several sprays of flowers in a vase, among them a remarkable cluster of Wisteria blooms over three feet long. The guests began to compose poems about the wisteria, and were just finishing when the

Tales of Ise host was joined by his younger brother, who had been told of the festivities. They caught hold of the newcomer, demandmg a poem. At first he tried to decline, since he knew little of the art of poetry, but they refused to let him off. He recited, Sakuhanano Shita ni kakururu Hitooomi Arishi ni masaru Fuji no kage kamo.

Longer than ever before Is the wisteria's shadowHow many are those Who shelter beneath Its blossoms I"

"What is the point of your poem?" someone asked. "I was thinking about the Chancellor's brilliant career and the splendid accomplishments of other members of the Fujiwara family," he replied. The critics were satisfied. 102

There was once a man who understood human emotions rather well, even though he was not much of a poet.' He sent this poem to a h1gh-born lady (one of his kinswomen) who had become a nun and gone to a remote mountain village to get away from the capital and its society: Somuku tote Kumo ni wa noranu Mononaredo Yo no uki koto zo Yoso ni naru cho.

One cannot hope to ride a cloud Merely by renouncing the worldAnd yet, I am told, One is no longer afflicted By the sorrows of life."

That was the princess who had served as lse Virgin."

103 There was once a man, most honorable, upright, and faithful, who served the Fukakusa Emperor.' Through some misunderstanding, perhaps, he exchanged vows with a 139

Tales of Ise lady favored by one of the imperial princes. The next morning he sent her this poem: Grieved by the insubstantiality Nenuru yo no Yume o hakanami Of last night's dream, Madoromeba I seek to recapture it Iya hakana ni mo By dozing off againNarimasaru kana. Yet it grows ever more unreal." Hardly an admirable poem! !04

Once there was a lady who for no very good reason had renounced the world. But though she had put on a nun's somber garb, she had, it seems, retained an interest in mundane things, for she went out one day to view the Kamo Festival: A certain man sent her this poem: Yo o umi no Weary of the world, You have become a nunAma to shi hi too Miru kara ni Yet seeing you a spectator here Me kuwaseyo to mo I cannot but hope Tanomaruru kana. For a sidelong glance.• (It is said that the lady was the Ise Virgin, and that she stopped watching and went home after the man sent the poem to her carriage.) • IOS

Once a man sent word to a lady, "I shall surely die if things continue thus." She answered, If the clear dew must vanish Shiratsuyu wa Kenaba kenanan Then let it vanish. Even were it to linger, Kiezu tote No one would wish Tama ni nukubeki To string the drops like gems.' Hito mo araji o.

J40

Tales of Ise The man considered it a most discourteous reply, but nevertheless his love for her increased.

106 A certain man, off on an excursion with some imperial princes, once composed this poem on a bank of the Tatsuta River:' Chihayaburu Kamiyo mo kikazu Tatsutagawa Karakurenai ni Mizu kukuru to wa.

Unheard of Even in the age Of the mighty godsThese deep crimson splashes Dyed in Tatsuta's waters." 107

Once a Private Secretary named Fujiwara Toshiyuki' began to court a girl who served a certain nobleman. The girl was still too young to write a decent letter or express herself properly-much less compose a poem-and so her master wrote something for her to copy out and send. Toshiyuki, quite dazzled, responded with this poem: Tsurezure no Nagame ni masaru Namidagawa Sode nomi hijite Au yoshi mo nashi.

Unable to meet you, I lose myself in idle revery, My sleeves drenched with tears Abundant as the waters of a river Swollen by long rain."

The girl's master composed her reply: Asamikoso Sode wa hizurame Namidagawa Mi sae nagaru to Kikaba tanomamu.

Shallow indeed the river of tears That drenches sleeves alone! I shall believe in your sincerity When I hear that you yourself Are being carried away."

Tales of lse Toshiyuki is said to have been so impressed that he rolled up the poem and put it in his letter box, where it remains to this day. Somewhat later, after Toshiyuki had succeded in winning the girl, he sent her a letter: "I am much disturbed to see that it seems likely to rain. If I am lucky it won't." The girl's master wrote this poem for her to send him: I have been powerless to gauge Kazukazuni Omoi omowazu The measure of your love, Toigatami But harder and harder Mi o shiru arne wa Falls the rain That must reveal the truth.' Furi zo masareru. Toshiyuki went rushing off to see her without even stopping to put on a raincoat or hat, and arrived soaking wet. 108

Once a lady who was embittered by a man's lack of affection fell into the habit of repeating this poem: Kaze fukeba These sleeves of mine, Towa ni nami kosu Never dryIwa nare ya One might think them rocks Wa ga koromode no Eternally submerged Kawaku toki naki. By wind-tossed waves.' The man felt rather guilty when he heard about it. He sent her this: Yoi gotoni Kawazu no amata Naku tani wa Mizu koso masare Arne wa furanedo.

Though no rain falls, Water rises in the fields Where the singing frogs Wail in doleful chorus Night after night."

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Once a man sent this to a friend who had lost someone he loved: Hanayorimo Hito koso ada ni Narinikere Izure o saki ni Koin to ka mishi.

Which had you thought To mourn firstThe cherry blossoms Or that lady, shorter-lived Than the flowers themselves?' 110

A certain man was visiting a lady in secret. Once she sent him word that he had appeared to her in a dream that night, whereupon he replied, Omoiamari Idenishi tama no Arunaran Yo fukaku mieba Tamamusubt seyo.

It must have been my spirit Venturing out alone Because I miss you so. If you should see it later on, Pray cast a spell and catch it. III

Once a man sent this poem to a high-born lady, supposedly as an expression of sympathy prompted by the death of someone close to her: Inishie wa Ari mo ya shiken Ima zoshiru Mada minu hito o Kouru mono to wa.

Such things perhaps occurred In days gone by, But only now have I learned That a man can love someone He has never seen.'

Her reply: 1 43

Tales of Ise Shitahimo no Shirushi to suru mo Tokenakuni Kataru ga goto wa Koizu zo arubeki.

I do not think your love Is as you profess, For there has been no loosening Of my under-sash To prove it."

His rejoinder: Koishi towa Sara ni mo iwaji Shitahtmo no Tokemu o hito wa Sore to shiranan.

I shall not say again That I love youBut should you find Your under-sash loosening, You will know the reason." II2

After many earnest declarations of devotion to a certain man, a lady fell in love with someone else. The first man composed this poem: Suma no ama no Shio yaku keburi Kaze oitami Omowanu kata ni Tanabikinikeri.

Captured by the gale, The smoke from the salt-fires Of the fisherfolk at Suma Has drifted off In an unforeseen direction.' II3

A poem composed by a man who had been left to live alone: Nagakaranu Inochi no hodo ni Wasururu wa Ika ni mijikaki Kokoro naruran.

144

How deficient in feeling Is the heart That can forget In the short span Of a human life.'

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114 Once the Ninna Emperor' commanded a certain man to handle a falcon on an outing" to the Serikawa River"someone who had done such work in the past but who now considered himself beyond an age when he could with dignity undertake it. The man appeared for the hunt in a figured costume with this poem on the sleeve: Okinasabi Let none find fault Hito na togame so With an old man's appearance, Karigoromo For he who wears this hunting Kyo bakari to zo costume Tazu mo naku naru. Shares the plaint of the crane"Today must be the end."• The poem put the emperor quite out of sorts. The poet had been thinking of his own advancing years, but to others who were no longer young the words struck home with disagreeable force.

115 A man who had been living with a woman in the province of Michinoku announced one day that he intended to leave for the capital. The woman, in great distress, begged him to at least stay for a farewell dinner. At a place called Okinoite Miyakojima,' she served him wine and recited this poem: Oki noite More bitter than the anguish Mi o yaku yori mo Of flesh seared by fiery coals Kanashiki wa Is this parting at Miyakoshima, Miyako shimabe no One to go to the capital And one to remain on a lonely W akare narikeri. shore:

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n6 Once there was a man who for no particular reason had wandered all the way to the province of Michinoku. He sent this poem to a lady in the capital with whom he was in love: How long it has been Namima yori Since last we metMtyuru kojima no Long as the eaves of a cottage Hamabisashi By the shore of a tiny island Hisashiku narinu Glimpsed between waves.' Kimi ni aimide. "I have," he added, "become quite a paragon of virtue."

IIJ Once an emperor journeyed to Sumiyoshi.' Ware mite mo Hisashiku narinu Sumiyoshi no Kishi no himematsu Ikuyo henuran.

When I recall the long years Since I myself beheld it firstCountless indeed the generations Witnessed by this beautiful pine On the beach at Sumiyoshi."

The god of Sumiyoshi manifested himself and recited, Mutsumashi to Do you not know Of the tie that unites us? Kimi wa shiranami Since times as ancient Mizugaki no As my sacred fence Hisashiki yo yori Have I protected you.' Iwaisometeki.

n8 After a prolonged silence, a man once sent word to a lady that he had not forgotten her and intended to visit her soon. She composed this poem:

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Tales of Ise Tamakazura Hau ki amata ni Narinureba Taenu kokoro no Ureshige mo nashi.

I can find no happiness In talk of devotwn From one who has become A vine that creeps To tree after tree after tree.1

II9 Once a lady composed this poem while gazing at some objects left behind as keepsakes by a fickle man: These very keepsakes Katami koso Are now a source of misery, Ima wa ada nare For without them Korenaku wa There would perhaps be times Wasururu toki mo When I might forget.1 Aramashi mono o. 120

Once a man learned that a certain lady, whom he had sup~ posed to be quite without experience in matters of the heart, had secretly exchanged vows with another suitor. Some time later he sent her this poem: Would that the festival 6mi naru Tsukuma no matsuri Of Tsukuma in 6mi Might soon take place, Toku senan For I should like to count Tsurenaki hito no Nabe no kazu mimu. A cruel lady's pots.1 121

Once a man caught sight of a rain~drenched lady leaving the Umetsubo.1 He composed this: What a pity that I lack Uguisu no A bonnet of plum blossoms Hana o nuu cho

Tales of Ise Kasamogana Nurumeru hito ni Kisete kaesan.

Such as warblers sewI should give it to a rain-drenched lady To wear home."

Her reply: Uguisuno Hana o nuu cho Kasa waina Omoi o tsukeyo Hoshite kaesan.

I have no need Of a plum-blossom hat Such as warblers sew, But if you can spare a bit of burning passion, I shall dry my garments and return it. 122

Once a man sent this to a lady who had been false to her vows: Ours has proved a relationship Yamashiro no Ide no tamamizu In which it was futile To put one's faith in vows.' Tenimusubi Tanomishi kai mo Naki yo narikeri. She made no reply. 123

Once a man gave this poem to a lady at Fukakusa'-someone in whom, it seems, he had been gradually losing interest. Were I to leave the house Toshi ohete Sumikoshi sato o Where I have dwelt These years, Idete inaba Might the luxuriant garden Itodo Fukakusa No to ya narinan. Become a tangled wilderness ?"

Tales of Ise The lady's reply: Notonaraba Uzura to narite Nakioran Kari ni dani ya wa Kimi wa kozaramu.

If it be a wild field, Then I shall be a quail Calling plaintivelyAnd surely you will at least Come briefly for a hunt."

The man, deeply moved, no longer felt inclined to leave. 124

What thoughts on what occasion, do you suppose, prompted a man to compose this poem? Omou koto Iwade zo tada ni Yaminubeki Ware to hitoshiki Hito shi nakereba.

It will be best To keep silent And not say what I think, For there is no other Who shares my feelings.1 125

Once a man was taken ill. Sensing the approach of death, he recited, Tsui ni yuku Michi to wa kanete Kikishikado Kino kyo to wa Omowazarishi o.

This road, I have long been told, Man travels in the endyet I had not thought to go Yesterday or today.1

SECTIONS MISSING FROM TEIKA TEXTS

!26

A poem sent to someone during an early morning downpour after a day of steady rain:

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Furikurashi Furikurashitsuru Amenootoo Tsurenaki hito no Kokoro to mogana.

W auld that the heart Of a cruel lady Were filled with devotion Constant as the sound Of this eternal rain.

The reply: Ya yamosureba Kaze ni shitagau Amenootoo Taenu kokoro ni Kakezu rna aranan.

Do not compare A steadfast heart To the sound of rain That comes and goes As the wind dictates. 127

Once there was a man who ran off with a certain lady. As they traveled they came to a place where there was fresh water. "Would you like some?" the man asked. The lady nodded, and since he had no cup he scooped it up with his hands for her. Thus he took her to the capital. Later he died and she set out to return to her old home. When she reached the spot where he had given her water, she recited this poem: Ohara ya Where is he nowSekai no mizu o The man who scooped up Musubitsutsu Handful upon handful Aku ya to toishi Of Ohara's clear water, Hito wa izura wa. Asking, "Is it enough ?"1 A most affecting story.

!28 A certain man and woman were constantly exchanging tender vows, but one day the man for some reason composed this poem:

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Kokoroozo Wari naki mono to Omoinuru Katsu miru hi to ya Koishikaruran.

The human heart, I have come to think, Is beyond comprehension, For why should I love a lady I have scarcely seen?' 129

A man who lived in the area called Western Palacl set out one day for the marketplace. On the way he struck up a conversation with a lady in a carriage, and after chatting agreeably for a time he asked if he might know where she lived. She replied, Wagaiewa Even were I to tell you, You could not go there, Kumoi no mine shi For I dwell Chikakereba Near a mountain peak Oshiu tomo kon Veiled in clouds." Mono naranaku ni. The man: Karisome ni If the feeling awakening Somuru kokoro shi Within my heart Marne naraba Should indeed be love, Nado ka kumoi o Nothing will prevent me Tazunezarubeki. From visiting the clouds. With that he took his leave. 130

Once a man was secretly visiting a certain lady. She sent him this: Nakazorani As a cloud Tachiiru kumo no Hanging in midair Atomonaku Dissolves without a trace, Mi no hakanaku mo So indeed must end Narinubeki kana. This evanescent life.'

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131 Once a rather passionate lady sent this poem to a man who seemed to be tiring of her: Ima wa tote Ware ni shigure no Furiyukeba Koto no ha sae zo Utsuroinikeru.

Now that I am entering The winter of life, Your ardor has faded Like foliage ravaged By late autumn rains.'

The reply (Kino Sadafun) :• Hitooomou Kokoro no hana ni Araba koso Kaze no manimani Chiri mo midareme.

Were my love for you But a fragile blossom, Then perhaps It might scatter And blow with the wind."

132 Once a man went to the Nara capital, intending to inquire after someone he knew there, but instead of getting in touch with his friend he decided to send this poem to a lady with whom he had earlier, in some annoyance, broken off correspondence: Since there is no village Harunohino Untouched by the rays Itari itaranu Of the sun in spring, Sato wa araji Why should one see flowers Sakeru sakazaru Blooming and not blooming?' Hana no miyuran. 1 33

As a token of interest, the same man once sent a girl an ornamental hairpin after her coming-of-age ceremony.' His poem:

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Amataaraba Sashi wa sezu tomo Tamakushige Aken oriori Omoide ni seyo.

If you have too many To make use of this, Pray keep it with your combs And think of me when now and then You open the box.

134 For a long time a man had been deeply in love with a lady whom it seemed impossible for him to meet. Waga yadoni Makishi nadeshiko Itsu shika mo Hana ni sakanan Yosoete mo mimu.

How impatient I grow To see the bloom On the wild pink Planted in my garden, For I shall think of it as you.' 1 35

Once a man paid a visit in a rather dubious quarter. The next morning some of the people there began to create a commotion as he was leaving. He recited, Tsuki shi areba Arawan koto mo Shirazu shite Nete kuru ware o Hito ya mitsuran.

Perhaps the moon Has bathed me in light Without my noticing, And thus I have been seen Returning from sleeping here.1

136 Once a man named Ariwara Yukihira sent this poem to a lady: I

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Omoitsutsu Oreba subenashi Mubatamano Yoru ni narinaba Ware koso yukame.

The longing in my heart Is quite beyond endurance. With the coming of night, Black as leopard-flower berries, I shall surely visit you:

The lady: Konuhitoo Ima mo ya kuru to Machishi rna no Nagori ni kyo mo Nerarezarikeri.

Today too have I been sleepless, Remembering hours spent In tense anticipation, Waiting for someone Who never came.1 1

37

Once a man who was tormented by a hopeless passion sent this poem to a certain place: Yiizukuyo Akatsukigata no Asakage ni W a ga mi wa narinu Kimi o kou tote.

For love of you I have grown thin As a shadow Cast by the sun In early morning.1

It nevertheless proved impossible to arrange a meeting.

138 A man who was in love woke up one night and lay staring outside. As he listened to the shrill voices of insects chirping in the shrubbery, he recited, Kashigamashi Kusaba ni kakaru Mushi none ya Ware dani mono o Iwade koso omoe.

154

If speechless I endure the pain Of unrequited love, Why must insects on the leaves Lift up their voices In noisy lamentation?

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139 Once there lived a romantic lady and a man of much the same turn of mind. The man was eager to find an affectionate wife, and the lady longed with all her heart to marry; and so when they chanced to meet it was not long before they exchanged vows. But though they were deeply in love, both lived in dread of being abandoned, and the lady finally decided to go away. She left this poem: Iza sakura Chiraba arinan Hitosakari Narenaba ukime Mie mo koso sure.

Would that I too M1ght scatter like you, 0 cherry blossoms, For I shall be quite ugly When my brief flowering ends.'

Awakening to find her gone, the man recited this in a fit of exasperation: Isasame ni Chirinuru sakura Nakaranamu Nodokeki haru no Na o mo tatsumeri.

How pleasant it would be Were there no cherry blossoms To bloom a bit and scatter. Then indeed might spring be called The season of tranquillity." 140

Once a group of people with elegant tastes were composing verses incorporating the names of things. One man recited, on the watercourse bamboo; Sayofukete Nakaba take yuku Hisakatano Tsuki fukikaese Aki no yamakaze.

The night grows late, And the moon rides Quite halfway through the sky. Blow her back, I pray, Autumnal mountain breeze."

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Tales of Ise 141

A man traveling in remote regions sent a piece of colored leather to someone who had asked for a souvenir from Tsukushi.' His poem: Miyako yori Now that I have come here, So far from the capital, Koko made kureba No souvenirs are to be found; Tsuto mo nashi Tachi no ogawa no There is only My sword-string's leather tip.9 Hashi nomi zo aru. The poem no doubt contains an allusion to a place. 142

Once a fickle man received this from a lady whom he no longer visited: Omoitsutsu Nureba ya hi to no Mietsuran Yume to shiriseba Samezaramashi o.

Was it because I fell asleep Tormented by longing That you appeared to me? Had I but known I dreamt, I should have wished never to awaken.1 1 43

Once a man was about to start for home after visiting a lady. How short, he thought, even the long nights of autumn sometimes seem. He recited, This autumn night Aki no yo mo Na nomi narikeri Was long in name alone, Au to aeba For scarcely had we met Koto zo tomo naku When daylight appeared, Akenuru mono o. Leaving everything unsaid.1

Appendixes

APPENDIX A

Kokinshu Poems of the Six Poetic Geniuses

POEMS BY BUN'YA YASUHIDE

KKS 8 (Spring) On the Third of a certain First Month, the Empress from the Second Ward, who was then known as the Mother of the Crown Prince, summoned Yasuhide to receive some instructions. As he bowed below her veranda, she observed that snow was falling on his head while the sun was shinmg. She commanded him to compose a poem. Harunohino As I rejoice Hikari ni ataru In the sunlight of spring Warenaredo I regret only Kashira no yuki to That my hair has grown Naru zo wabishiki. White as this snow.' KKS 249 (Autumn) Composed for a poetry contest at the residence of Prince Koresada." Fuku kara ni When it blows, Aki no kusaki no It ravages the autumn woodsShiorureba Which of course must explain Mube yamakaze o Why a wind from the mountains Arashi to iuramu. Is called a tempest."

159

Appendix A KKS 250 (Autumn) Composed for a poetry contest at the residence of Prince Koresada. Kusamokimo Iro kawaredomo W atatsuumi no Nami no hana ni zo Aki nakarikeru.

Every herb and tree Changes color, But autumn never visits The flowers Of the ocean waves.'

KKS 445 (Names of Things) Once, in the days when she was still known as the Mother of the Crown Prince, the Empress from the Second Ward decorated a clump of bush clover with some artificial flowers made of wood shavings, and called on Y asuhide to compose a poem about them. Hananokini Arazaramedomo Sakinikeri Furinishi ko no mi Naru toki mo gana.

Though this bush Ought not to bear flowers now, It is in bloom. Let us hope next For some antique fruit!"

KKS 846 (Laments) Composed on the anniversary of the death of the Fukakusa Emperor. Kusafukaki Kasumi no tani ni Kage kakushi Teru hi no kureshi Kyo ni ya wa aranu.

r6o

Has it not been a year today Since the shining sun hid its radiance Behind the mists of a valley Rank with wild grasses, And grew dark?"

Kokinshu Poems -

POEMS BY OTOMO KURONUSHI

KKS 88 (Spring) Harusameno Furu wa namida ka Sakurabana Chiru o oshimanu Hito shi nakereba.

Subject unknown. Is the spring rain Failing tears ? For there is no one Unmoved by cherry blossoms Soon to scatter.

KKS 735 (Love) After secretly visiting a lady, Kuronushi found it impossible to meet her again. One day, hearing the call of a wild goose as he walked near her house, he sent her this poem. Omoiidete Koishiki toki wa Hatsukari no Nakite wataru to Hito shirurame ya.

Do you know, I wonder, That when my love grows unendurable I pace near your house, crying aloud Like the first wild goose of autumn Winging its way across the sky.

KKS 899 (Miscellaneous) Kagamiyama Iza tachiyorite Miteyukan Toshi henuru mi wa Oi ya shinuru to.

Before journeying on I shall go closer And look at Mirror MountainFor I have no doubt begun To show my age.

(Attributed by some to 6tomo Kuronushi.) 161

Appendix A KKS 1086 (Poems for the Gods)

6minoya Kagami no yama o Tatetareba Kanete zo miyuru Kimi ga chitose wa.

Because the gods have raised A Mirror Mountain in 6mi, We have long been able to see That our sovereign will live A thousand years. POEM BY KISEN

KKS 983 (Miscellaneous)

Wa ga iowa Miyako no tatsumi Shika zo sumu Yo o ujiyama to Hito wa iu nari.

Thus I dwell In my hermitage Southeast of the capital At the place others call Gloomy Mt. Uji.

-

POEMS BY ARCHBISHOP HENJO

KKS 27 (Spring) ern Temple.'

Asamidori Ito yorikakete Shiratsuyu o Tama ni mo nukeru Haru no yanagi ka. KKS 91 (Spring)

Hana no iro wa Kasumi ni komete Misezu tomo Ka o dani nusume Haru no yamakaze.

On the willows near the Great WestPale green Twisted threads Piercing beads Of white dewWillows in spring. A spring poem. Though jealous mists Begrudge us the sight Of the flowers' beauty, Steal us the scent, at least, Spring breeze from the hills.

KokJnshii Poems KKS II9 (Spring) Sent to some ladies who had returned to the capital after stopping to see the wisteria blossoms at Kazan on their way back from Shiga Temple.8 Yosoni mite Kaeran hito ni Fujinohana Haimatsuwareyo Eda wa oru tomo.

KKS r65 (Summer) Hachisuba no Nigori ni shimanu Kokoromote Nani ka wa tsuyu o Tama to azamuku.

KKS 226 (Autumn) Nanimedete Oreru bakari zo Ominaeshi Ware ochiniki to Hito ni kataru na.

Though your branches snap, Twine yourselves, wisteria blossoms, Around those who would go home Without paying respects To our buddha. On seeing dew on a lotus. How is it that the lotus leaf, Untainted by impurity, Yet practices deceitFor it would have us think Dewdrops gems. Subject unknown. I have but plucked you, Maiden flower, For your name's sakeDo not say to others That I am false to my vows."

KKS 248 (Autumn) Once when the Ninna Emperor [Emperor Koko] was still a prince, he stopped at the home of Henjo's mother on his way to view Furu-no-taki Waterfall. The garden had been redesigned to suggest a field in autumn. At an opportune moment in the conversation, Henjo recited this poem. Sato wa arete Hito wa furinishi

The dwelling is desolate, Its occupant old-fashioned-

Appendix A Yadonare ya Niwa mo magaki mo Aki no nora naru.

That, I suppose, is why Garden and fence have vanished, And only an autumnal field 10 • remams.

KKS292 (Autumn) at Urin'in Temple.

Composed as he stood under a tree

Wabibitono Wakite tachiyoru Konomotowa Tanomu kage naku Momiji chirikeri.

Faithlessly The tree Chosen to shelter A man hard-pressed Sheds its scarlet leaves.11

While the Ninna Emperor KKS 348 (Felicitations) was still a prince, he sent his aunt a silver-trimmed staff as a present on her eightieth birthday. When Henjo saw the staff, he composed this poem on the aunt's behalf: Chihayaburu Kami ya kiriken Tsuku kara ni Chitose no saka mo Koenuberanari.

Is this the handiwork Of some mighty god? With its help I shall be able To climb the hill of old age For a thousand years.

Composed as someone was preparKKS 392 (Parting) ing to return to the capital at dusk after coming to worship at Kazan. Yiigure no Magaki wa yama to Mienanamu Yoru wa koeji to Yadori torubeku.

Wouldthatsomeone Might take our fence for hills In the dusk And lodge with us, Unwilling to cross by night.

Kokinshu Poems KKS 394 (Parting) Composed under the cherry blossoms as the Prince of Urin'in Temple [Henjo's patron] prepared to return to the capital after coming for a Buddhist service. Yamakazeni Sakura fukimaki Midarenan Hana no magire ni Kimi tomarubeku.

How pleasant if the cherry blossoms Were blown by a mountain breeze In swirling chaos, And our guest, lost amid the petals, Were obliged to stop with us.

KKS 435 (Names of Things) Chirinureba Nochi wa akuta ni Naruhanao Omoishirazu mo Madou cho kana.

KKS 770 (Love) Waga yadowa Michi mo naki made Arenikeri Tsurenaki hito o Matsu to seshi rna ni.

KKS 771 (Love) Imakon to lite wakareshi Ashita yori Omoikurashi no Ne o nomi zo naku.

On the kutani plant.l!l

The infatuated butterfly Little knows That those petals When they scatter Will return to dust. Subject unknown. At my house Even the path has disappeared, Swallowed by rank growth, As I wait and wait For an unfeeling man.'3 Subject unknown. Since the morning when you left, Promising to come back soon, I have spent my days in misery, Crying aloud Like a wailing cicada.a

165

Appendix A KKS 847 (Laments) During the reign of the Fukakusa Emperor, the poet was in constant attendance on the throne as Director of the Archivists' Bureau. When the emperor died, he abandoned court life, went to Mt. Hiei, and became a monk. He wrote this poem in the following year, when everyone had stopped wearing mourning and he had begun to hear of rejoicings about promotions and the like.

Minahitowa Hana no koromo ni Narinunari Koke no tamoto yo Kawaki dani seyo.

Everyone else, it seems, Is now gaily dressed. Will you not at least Remain dry, 0 monkish sleeve?

KKS 872 (Miscellaneous) ers."'

Amatsukaze Kumo no kayoiji Fukitojiyo Otome no sugata Shibashi todomen.

On seeing the Gosechi dane-

Blow, winds of heaven! Close the path That leads through the clouds, And detain for a while These beautiful maidens.

KKS 985 (Miscellaneous) On a visit to Nara, Yoshimine Munesada [Henjo's name as a layman] heard a lady playing the koto inside a run-down house. He sent in this poem.

Wabibitono Sumubekiyadoto Mirunabeni Nageki kuwawaru Koto no ne zo suru.

166

As I gaze, Thinking this the dwelling Of someone in distress, A koto's plaintive notes Increase my sadness.

Kokinshu Poems KKS 1016 (Miscellaneous Forms) Akinononi N amamekitateru Ominaeshi Ana kashigamashi Hana mo hitotoki.

Subject unknown.

0 maiden flowers Marching in coquettish ranks, Self-assertive, Through autumnal fieldsyour blossoms, too, will soon be 10 gone.

POEMS BY ONO NO KOMACHI

KKS IIJ (Spring) Hana no ira wa Utsurinikeri na Itazura ni Wa ga mi yo ni furu Nagame seshi rna ni. KKS 552 (Love) IM Omoitsutsu Nureba ya hito no Mietsuran Yume to shiriseba Samezaramashi o.

KKS 553 (Love) Utataneni Koishiki hito o Miteshi yori Yume cho mono wa Tanomisometeki.

Subject unknown. Alas! The cherry blossoms Have flowered in vain and faded During these long rains Interminable as my own Melancholy reveries. 142

Subject unknown.

Was it because I fell asleep Tormented by longing That you appeared to me? Had I but known I dreamt I should have wished never to awaken. Subject unknown. Since encountering my beloved While I dozed, I have begun to feel That it is dreams, not reality, On which I can rely.

I&j

Appendix A KKS 554 (Love) Ito semete Koishiki toki wa Mubatamano Yoru no koromo o Kaeshite zo kiru.

Subject unknown. When longing for him Tortures me beyond endurance, I reverse my robeGarb of night, black as leopardflower berriesAnd wear it inside out."

KKS 557 (Love) Reply [to a poem in which someone had referred to his tears as gems]. Orokanaru Namida zo sode ni Tama wanasu Ware wa sekiaezu Tagitsu se nareba.

Tears that but form gems on sleeves Must come, I think, From an insincere heart, For mine, though I seek to repress them, Gush forth in torrents.

KKS 62 3 (Love) IM 2 5 Mirume naki W a ga mi o ura to Shiraneba ya Karenade ama no Ashi tayuku kuru.

In this bay There is no seaweed. Does he not know itThe .fisherman who persists in commg Until his legs grow weary ?18

KKS 635 (Love) IM I43 Akinoyomo N a nomi narikeri Au toieba Koto zo tomo naku Akenuru mono o.

168

Subject unknown.

Subject unknown.

This autumn night Was long in name alone, For scarcely had we met When daylight appeared, Leaving everything unsaid.

Kokinshu Poems KKS 656 (Love) Utsutsu ni wa Sa mo koso arame Yumenisae Hi tome o moru to Miru ga wabishisa.

KKS 657 (Love) Kagirinaki Omoi no mama ni Yorumokomu Yumeji o sae ni Hito wa togameji.

KKS 658 (Love) Yumejini wa Ashi mo yasumezu Kayoedomo Utsutsu ni hitome Mishi go to wa arazu.

KKS 727 (Love) Amanosumu Sato no shirube ni Aranakuni Ura min to nomi Hito no iuran.

Subject unknown. In waking daylight, Then, oh then it can be understood, But when I see myself Shrinking from those hostile eyes Even in my dreams: this is misery itself.19 Subject unknown. Yielding to a love That knows no limit, I shall go to him by nightFor the world does not yet censure Those who tread the paths of dreams. Subject unknown. Though I visit him Ceaselessly In my dreams, The sum of all those meetings Is less than a single waking glimpse. Subject unknown. I know nothing About villages Where fisherfolk dwell; Why must you keep demanding To be shown the seashore?'"'

Appendix A KKS 782 (Love) ZM I 31

Ima wa tote W a ga mi shigure ni Furinureba Koto no ha sae ni U tsuroinikeri. KKS 797 (Love)

Now that I am entering The winter of life, Your ardor has faded Like foliage ravaged By late autumn rains."' Subject unknown.

Iromiede Utsurou mono wa Yononakano Hito no kokoro no Hana ni zo arikeru.

KKS 822 (Love)

Subject unknown.

Find mutability In that being which alters without fading In its outward hueIn the color, looks, and the deceptive flower Of the heart of what this world calls man! .. Subject unknown.

Akikazeni Au tanomi koso Kanashikere Wa ga mi munashiku Narinu to omoeba.

How bitter it is to see Autumnal blasts Strike the rice ears; I shall, I fear, Reap no harvest.23

KKS 938 (Miscellaneous) When Bun'ya Yasuhide was named a third-ranking provincial official in Mikawa, he sent Komachi a message: "Can you not set out for some sightseeing in the countryside?" She composed this poem by way of reply. [Mikawa Province occupied what is now the eastern part of Aichi Prefecture. The provincial seat, near modern Toyohashi, was about 200 km. from Heian.] 170

Kokinshu Poems Wabinureba Mi o ukigusa no Ne otaete Sasou mizu araba Inan to zo omou.

Misery holds me fixed, And I would eagerly cut loose these roots To become a floating plant1 should yield myself up utterly If the inviting stream might be relied upon."

KKS 939 (Miscellaneous) Aware cho Koto koso utate Yo no naka o Omoihanarenu Hodashi narikere.

Subject unknown.

What men call love Is simply A chain Preventing escape From this world of care.

KKS 1030 (Miscellaneous Forms) Hitoniawan Tsuki no naki ni wa Omoiokite Mune hashiribi ni Kokoro yakeori.

Subject unknown.

On such a night as this When the lack of moonlight shades your way to me, I wake from sleep my passion blazing, My breast a fire raging, exploding flame While within me my heart chars ...

KKS no4 (Names of Things) IM II5

On Okinoi Mi-

yakojima. Okinoite Mi o yaku yori mo Kanashiki wa Miyako shimabe no W akare narikeri.

More bitter than the anguish Of flesh seared by fiery coals Is this partingOne to remain in the capital And one to visit lonely shores."' 171

Appendix A POEMS BY ARIWARA NARIHIRA

For notes on Narihira's poems, sec Notes to the appropriate IM sections.

KKS 53 (Spring) IM 82 the Nagisa House.

Yononaka ni Taete sakura no Nakariseba Haru no kokoro wa Nodokekaramashi.

On seeing the cherry trees at

If this were but a world To which cherry blossoms Were quite foreign, Then perhaps in spring Our hearts would know peace.

KKS 63 (Spring) IM I7 Reply [to a poem received from a lady during the cherry blossom season, complaining that he had stayed away until the flowers were in bloom, and protesting her faithfulness. Here the flowers represent the lady.]

Kyokozu wa Asu wa yuki to zo Furinamashi Kiezu wa ari tomo Hana to mimashi ya.

If I had not come today They would have fallen tomorrow Like snow. Though they have not yet melted away, They are scarcely true flowers.

KKS I33 (Spring) IM Bo Sent to someone with a spray of wisteria flowers plucked on a rainy day late in the Third Month.

Nuretsutsu zo Shiite oritsuru Toshi no uchi ni Haru wa ikuka mo Araji to omoeba.

Though I got wet, I was determined to pluck them, Mindful That of this year But few spring days remain.

Kokinshu Poems KKS 268 (Autumn) IM 51 A poem attached to a chrysanthemum plant that he set out in someone's garden.

Ue shi ueba Aki naki toki ya Sakazaran Hana koso chirame Ne sae kareme ya.

If it has been well planted, It will fail to bloom Only if autumn should fail to come, And though the petals scatter The roots will never die.

KKS 294 (Autumn) IM ro6 Topic: A picture of autumn leaves floating on the Tatsuta River, painted on a screen owned by the Empress from the Second Ward. Composed while the empress was still known as the Mother of the Crown Prince.

Chihayaburu Kamiyo mo kikazu Tatsutagawa Karakurenai ni Mizu kukuru to wa.

Unheard of Even in the age Of the mighty godsThese deep crimson splashes Dyed in Tatsuta's waters.

KKS 349 (Felicitations) IM 97 Composed on the occasion of a fortieth birthday celebration for the Minister of State from Horikawa, held at the Ninth Ward House. Scatter in clouds, Sakurabana Chirikaikumore Cherry blossoms, That you may hide the path Oirakuno By which old age Komu to iu naru Michi magau ga ni. Is said to approach. KKS 410 (Travel) IM 9 Once Narihira was traveling toward the eastern provinces with one or two friends. When the party reached a place in Mikawa called Eight Bridges (Yatsuhashi), they dismounted to sit under the 173

Appendix A trees, attracted by the sight of some clumps of irises blooming beside the river. Narihira composed this poem, his object being to express sentiments suitable for a traveler, while beginning each line with the appropriate syllable from the word kakitsubata ("iris"). Karagoromo Kitsutsu narenishi Tsuma shi areba Harubaru kinuru Tabi o shi zo omou.

I have a beloved wife, Familiar as the skirt Of a well-worn robe, And so this distant journeying Fills my heart with grief.

KKS 4II (Travel) IM 9

When they reached the bank of the Sumida River, which flows between the provinces of Musashi and Shimosa, they were all bitterly homesick for the capital. They dismounted for a time and drew together on the bank, thinking involuntarily of home as they stared at the water. "How very far we have camel" The ferryman interrupted their laments, saying, "Come aboard quickly; it's getting late." They got into the boat and prepared to cross, all in wretched spirits, for there was not one among them who had not left someone dear to him in the capital. A white bird with a red bill and red legs chanced to be frolicking near the riverbank. Since it was of a species unknown in the capital, none of them could identify it. "What kind of bird is that?" they asked the ferryman. "A capital-bird, of course," he replied with an air of surprise. Then Narihira recited this poem. Na ni shi owaba Iza koto towamu Miyakodori Wa ga omou hito wa Ari ya nashi ya to.

174

If you are what your name implies, Let me ask you, Capital-bird, Does all go well With my beloved?

Kokinshu Poems KKS 418 (Travel) IM 82 Once when Narihira was on a hunting excursion with Prince Koretaka, the party dismounted on the bank of a stream called the Amanogawa ("River of Heaven"). As they were drinking there, the prince commanded Narihira to offer him a wine cup with a poem expressing sentiments appropriate for a hunter arriving at the River of Heaven.

Karikurashi Tanabatatsume ni Yado karan Ama no kawara ni Ware wa kinikeri.

Having hunted until dark, Let us borrow a lodging From the Weaver Maid, For we have come to the banks Of the River of Heaven.

KKS 476 (Love) IM 99 On the day of an archery meet at the riding grounds of the Imperial Guards of the Right, Narihira glimpsed a lady's face through the silk curtains of a carriage opposite him. He sent her this poem.

Mizu mo arazu Mi mo senu hito no Koishiku wa Aya naku kyo ya Nagamekurasan.

Bewitched by someone Not unseen Nor yet quite seen, Must I to no purpose spend this day Lost in melancholy revery?

KKS 616 (Love) IM 2 Composed during a drizzling rain and sent to a lady whom he had secretly wooed since early in the Third Month.

Okimosezu Ne mo sede yoru o Akashitewa Haru no mono tote Nagamekurashitsu.

Mteranight Neither waking nor sleeping, I have spent the day Staring at the rainThe long rain of spring.

175

Appendix A KKS 6r8 (Love) IM 107 A reply [to a suitor's poem] composed on the lady's behalf.

Asamikoso Sode wa hizurame Namidagawa Mi sae nagaru to Kikaba tanoman.

Shallow indeed the river of tears That drenches sleeves alone I I shall believe in your sincerity When I hear that you yourself Are being carried away.

KKS 622 (Love) IM 25

Akinononi Sasa wakeshi asa no Sodeyorimo Awade koshi yo zo Hijimasarikeru.

On nights when I come home without meeting you, My sleeves are wetter Than when of a morning I have pressed through bamboo grass Crossing the fields in autumn.

KKS 632 (Love) IM 5 Narihira was once visiting a lady in the neighborhood of the eastern Fifth Ward. Since the liaison was a secret one, he could not enter by way of the gate, but came and went through a broken place in the hedge. His constant visits finally became known to the house's owner, who posted a night guard beside the entrance, and when he came he was obliged to go home without having seen the lady. He sent her this poem.

Hi to shirenu Wa ga kayoiji no Sekimori wa Yoiyoigoto ni Uchi mo nenanan.

Would that he might fall asleep Every nightThis guard At the secret place Where I come and go.

Kokinshu Poems KKS 644 (Love) IM 103 after a tryst. Nenuru yo no Yume o hakanami Madoromeba I ya hakana ni mo Narimasaru kana. KKS 646 (Love) IM 69 Virgin]. Kakikurasu Kokoro no yami ni Madoiniki Yume utsutsu to wa Yohito sadameyo.

Sent to a lady on the morning

Grieved by the insubstantiality Of last night's dream, I seek to recapture it By dozing off againyet it grows ever more unreal. Reply [to a poem from the Ise I too have groped In utter darkness. Someone else must decide Which it might have beenWhether dream or reality.

KKS 705 (Love) IM 107 Once when Fujiwara Toshiyuki was visiting a girl who lived in Narihira's house, he sent her a letter saying that he was planning to call shortly unless it began to rain too hard. Narihira wrote this on the girl's behalf. Kazukazuni Omoi omowazu Toigatami Mi o shiru arne wa Furi zo masareru.

I have been powerless to gauge The measure of your love, But harder and harder Falls the rain That must reveal the truth.

KKS 707 (Love) IM 47 Reply [to a lady's poem complaining of his fickleness].

177

Appendix A Onusa to Na ni koso tatere Nagaretemo Tsui ni yoru se wa Ari cho mono o.

I am indeed reputed To resemble a sacred wandyet when its drifting is done Is there not a shoal Where the wand comes to rest?

KKS 747 (Love) IM 4 Once, quite without premedita~ tion, Narihira began to make love to a lady who lived in the western wing of a palace belonging to the Empress from the Fifth Ward. Shortly after the Tenth of the First Month the lady moved away with no word to him, and though he learned where she had gone, it was impossible to communicate with her. In the spring of the following year, when the plum blossoms were at their height, poi~ gnant memories of the preceding year drew him back to the western wing on a beautiful moonlit night. He lay on the floor of the bare room until the moon sank low in the sky.

Tsuki ya aranu Haru ya mukashi no Harunaranu W a ga mi hitotsu wa Moto no mi ni shite.

Is not the moon the same? The spring The spring of old ? Only this body of mine Is the same body ...

KKS 785 (Love) IM 19 Reply [to a letter from Ki no Aritsune's daughter, complaining that though he visited her by day, he no longer spent the nights with her].

Yukikaeri Sora ni nomi shite Furukotowa Wa ga iru yama no Kaze hayami nari.

That I go and return, Remaining always Aloof in the heavens, Is the fault of the gales At my mountain home.

Kokinshu Poems KKS 861 (Laments) IM 125 ill and failing.

Tsui ni yuku M1chi to wa kanete Kikishikado Kino kyo to wa Omowazarishi o.

This road, I have long been told, Man travels in the endyet I had not thought to go Yesterday or today.

KKS 868 (Miscellaneous) IM 41 his brother-in-law.

Murasaki no Iro koki toki wa Memoharuni No naru kusaki zo W akarezarikeru.

Composed when he was

On sending a cloak to

When the murasaki's hue Is strong and deep, One can distinguish No other plant On the vast plain.

KKS 871 (Miscellaneous) IM 76 Composed when the Empress from the Second Ward, then known as the Mother of the Crown Prince, made a pilgrimage to 6harano.

Ohara ya Oshio no yama mo Kyo koso wa Kamiyo no koto mo Omoiizurame.

On this auspicious day The divinity of Mt. Oshio at Ohara Will surely remember What happened long ago In the Age of the Gods.

KKS 879 (Miscellaneous) IM 88

6kata wa Tsuki o mo medeji Korezokono Tsumoreba hito no Oi to naru mono.

As a general thing I have but little heart For praise of the glorious moon Whose every circuit Brings old age closer.

179

Appendix A KKS 884 (Miscellaneous) IM 82 Once Narihira accompanied Prince Koretaka on an excursion. Back at their lodgings, the prince's party drank wine and talked late into the night. When the eleven-day-old moon was about to set, the prince, somewhat befuddled, prepared to retire, whereupon Narihira recited this poem. Akanaku ni Must the moon disappear In such haste, Madaki mo tsuki no Kakururu ka Leaving us still unsatisfied? Yama no ha nigete Would that the mountain rim Irezu mo aranan. might flee And refuse to receive her. KKS 901 (Miscellaneous) IM 84 Reply [to a letter from his mother begging him to visit her and referring to her advancing years]. For the sake of sorrowing sons Yononakani Saranu wakare no Who wish that their parents Might live a thousand years, Nakumogana Would that in this world Chiyo mo to nageku Hi to no ko no tame. There were no final partings. KKS 923 (Miscellaneous) IM 87 Composed when a group of people were reciting poems below Nunobiki Falls.

Nukimidaru Hito koso arurashi Shiratama no Ma naku mo chiru ka Sode no sebaki ni.

It looks as though someone Must be unstringing Those clear cascading gems. Alas! My sleeves are too narrow To hold them all.

KKS 969 (Miscellaneous) IM 48 When Kino Toshisada was appointed Vice-Governor of Awa, Narihira 180

Kokinshu Poems planned a farewell dinner for him, but though the hour grew exceedingly late, Toshisada, busy with last-minute errands, faded to appear. Narihira sent him this. Ima zo shiru Kurushiki mono to Hito matan Sato o ba karezu Toubekarikeri.

Now that I know How hard it is to wait, I shall call faithfully At houses Where I am expected.

KKS 970 (Miscellaneous) IM 83 In the days when Narihira attended Prince Koretaka, the prince became a monk and went to live at Ono. Narihira set out to call on him there in the First Month. Since Ono was at the foot of Mount Hiei, the snow was very deep, but he managed to struggle to the hermitage, where he found the prince looking bored and forlorn. After returning to the capital, he sent the prince this poem. Wasuretewa Yume ka to zo omou Omoiki ya Yuki fumiwakete Kimi o min to wa.

When for an instant I forget, How like a dream it seems ... Never could I have imagined That I would plod through snowdrifts To see my lord.

KKS 971 (Miscellaneous) IM 123 Sent to someone at Fukakusa as he prepared to return to the capital after having lived there for a time. Toshi o hete Sumikoshi sato o Idete inaba Itodo Fukakusa No to ya narinan.

Were I to leave the house Where I have dwelt These years, Might the luxuriant garden Become a tangled wilderness? 181

APPENDIX B

Texts of Ise Monogatari

Under some circumstances the textual history of a book may be uneventful-for example, when the author and the date of writing are known, when the work has been transmitted only in a few printed editions, or when limited circulation has resulted from inaccessibility, lack of interest among potential readers, or some other cause. But no such limiting factors have been operative in the case of lse monogatart. No work of Japanese literature has been better known, more widely read, or more assiduously studied; none is of more obscure origin. IM is the creation not merely of a single anonymous author, but of a series of faceless writers working over decades or perhaps centuries. Its episodic structure has invited modification. And during most of its thousand-year history it has been transmitted and reproduced solely in manuscript copies. Quite naturally, texts and traditions have blossomed, proliferated, disappeared (except for tantalizing hints), and influenced one another in countless subtle, ill-understood ways. Japanese scholars, in their efforts to reduce the resultant chaos to comprehensible patterns, have produced an imposing periodical and monographic literature many times thicker than the slender object of their scrutiny. Much has

Texts been learned; much remains elusive. The following pages attempt not to report in detail on the findings of specialists but merely to outline what is now known. It has not been possible to trace the lineage of any IM text farther back than the end of the twelfth century. Con~ sidering the years of intensive effort that have been devoted to the task, and especially the high degree of sophistication displayed by modern researchers, it seems fair to conclude that the first two hundred years of the book's history must remain forever obscure. One can say only that by the be~ gmning of the eleventh century lse monogatari was a rec~ ognized classic, containing episodes still present in extant versions; and that by around the year 1200 there were in ex1stence two or more very different lines of texts. During the closing years of the twelfth century and the early decades of the thirteenth, two men interested them~ selves in lse monogatari with lasting effect-the Buddhist monk Kensho and the court noble Fujiwara Teika, poet~ scholars once almost equally prominent, although the years have been unkind to Kensho. Kensho ( n3o-ca. 1210) was a central figure in the conservative Rokujo faction, which dominated court poetry for a time in the twelfth cen~ tury before being eclipsed by the rival Nijo (Mikohidari) family. The Rokujo were active for several generations as poets and compilers of imperial poetic anthologies, but they made their most valuable contribution to Japanese letters through their studies of poetry, and in that field Kensho was one of their brightest luminaries. Two of his projects are pertinent to our interests: (I) he discussed poems com~ mon to IM and KKS in his Kokinshiichii (A Commentary on Kokinshii), a work consolidating and carrying forward the labors of earlier Rokujo family members, and (2) he copied, collated, and commented on IM texts, preparing

AppendixB annotations that are very likely preserved, in part at least, in certain extant versions. Kensho and other turn-of-the-century scholars mentioned the existence of a number of IM texts, most of them identified by the names of earlier court figures who were thought to have owned or copied them. One, said to be a copy in the hand of Ariwara Narihira, the supposed author of IM, was described as different from any other, beginning with what is now Section 43 in the 125-episode texts, and ending with section 125. Whether such a text ever existed is uncertain. If it did, it has disappeared without a trace. Kensho ignored it in his classification of texts extant in his day. Those fell, he said, into two broad categories: (I) texts that began with the first poem in the present translation, Kasugano no, and ended with the Tsui ni yuku poem in Section 125; and (2) texts that began with the present Section 69, dealing with the "man of old" at Ise, ended with a poem now contained in Section I I (Wasuru na yo), and exhibited other conspicuous structural differences from the first group. Kensho described texts of the first group as in general circulation and those of the second as rare. Fujiwara (Nijo) Teika (n62-1241), the head of the Nijo family, was the leading literary figure of his generation and one of the great poets of the Japanese classical tradition. He is indeed so well known as a poet that his distinguished scholarly attainments are sometimes overlooked. In his later years, in particular, he devoted long hours to the study of old texts. He was especially interested both in Kokinshu, which he annotated and copied 14 times between 1209 and 1237, and in lse monogatari. During the first three and a half decades of the thirteenth century he made at least half a dozen copies of IM, using a parent text that cannot now be reconstructed, but that probably did not

Texts vary drastically from the versions he handed on to posterity, which all resemble one another closely. Japanese specialists have supposed that Teika's basic text belonged to his family, and that he collated it with other current versions familiar to him. He is known to have been a careful and discerning textual critic. By the end of Teika's life, his prestige was such that the rival force represented by Kensho and other members of the Rokujo faction had lost all hope of recovering their old influence in court poetic circles. Teika passed on his position of preeminence to his son Tameie (a lesser .figure, both as a poet and as a scholar), whose descendants dominated classical Japanese poetry for many generations thereafter. The family also continued Teika's interest in classical studies, and the names of Tameie, his sons Tameuji and Tamesuke, and others are attached to some of the best-known extant IM texts. The Rokujo meanwhile persevered in their own textual labors, preserving and studying IM versions that apparently differed significantly from those on which the Nijo school relied. The latter, which were of course the ones transmitted by Teika, were also, because of Teika's great prestige, those most widely circulated from Teika's day on. Modern research has traced the existence of other lines in the medieval period, including some that probably stemmed from Kensho's work; but Teika's texts very nearly swept the .field. Most variants remained out of sight in shrines and temples: The scholars of national learning (kokugakusha) of the Tokugawa period approached the study of Ise monogatari with lively interest and open minds. During the medieval period (ca. n8s-16oo) Nijo, Rokujo, and other commentators had concentrated on elucidating the meanings of obscure words and passages, investigating ancient customs

AppendixB and ceremonies, and the like. The challenging problems of the work's date, authorship, title, and development had been met only by repetitions of vague surmises and groundless theories handed on from teacher to disciple for generation after generation. Tokugawa scholars adopted a fresh, independent approach to such questions, and as part of their researches they made determined efforts to .find texts other than the ubiquitous fruits of Teika's labors. In the .field of textual studies, the outstanding Tokugawa accomplishment was the publication in 1817 of a collated edition, Sanko Ise monogatari, compiled by Yashiro Hirokata (1758-184I), who checked one of the best Teika texts against two other Teika texts, a third text written in katakana/ a fourth written in Chinese characters, and a short .fifth text stemming from an entirely different line.' Really fruitful analysis and comparison, however, did not begin until the twentieth century. Important pioneer structural studies, which demonstrated highly refined comparative techniques, were published in the 193o's by Ikeda Kikan (d. 1956) and by Otsu Yiiichi, coeditor of the text used in the present translation." Since World War II, a number of previously unknown texts have come to light, making it necessary to revise some of the conclusions tentatively reached in the thirties. Professor Otsu and others have continued to work actively, along with a brilliant and dedicated young scholar, Fukui Teisuke, who has devoted himself to the study of this work ever since his days as a student under Ikeda and Hisamatsu Sen'ichi at Tokyo University. In outlining below the results of their investigations, I have adopted a classification system based on one devised by Ikeda and further developed by Fukui. It is possible to distinguish four classes of extant texts.

186

Texts I. 125-EPISODE TEXTs." This is by far the largest of the four categories. The texts contain 209 poems. They begin with a story about a young man recently come of age, and proceed in roughly chronological order until the man's death. There are few textual variations. All except "old texts" (B below) contain colophons that associate them with Teika's copies. The oldest extant manuscript appears to date from the early Kamakura period. The principal subdivisions are as follows: A. Teika texts. Most extant 125-episode texts clearly stem from one or another of the copies made by Teika (all holographs are believed to have been lost by the end of the Tokugawa period). They have traditionally been divided into three groups. I. Takeda texts. The parent text, once owned by the Takeda warrior house of Wakasa Province, is known to have survived until the early Edo period. Extant copies contain a distinctive colophon, signed by Teika, which discusses texts and authorship. Important MSS are (a) a copy associated with the poet-critic Shotetsu (1381-1459), (b) a copy, now at Kanazawa University, associated with the poet-scholar Nakanoin Michika!:su ( 1558-1610)' and (c) a text owned by the Archives and Mausolea Division of the Impetial Household Agency. 2. Tempuku texts, so called from their distinctive colophon, which states that Teika made the copy for his granddaughter in the second year of the Tempuku era (1234). The entire history of the origmal can be traced until its destruction by fire in the Edo period. There are many extant copies. Important MSS: (a) A "Teika holograph" formerly owned by the Sanjonishi court noble family, who at one

AppendixB

time owned the original. Now reported to belong to Kokugakuin University. Believed to be a careful Muromachiperiod copy made by someone in the Sanjonishi family. Collation with band c below has convinced specialists that this is an almost perfect reproduction of the original, and that it is the best extant version of Ise monogatari. It is the basic text used in the present translation. (b) A 1458 copy attributed to the monk Genshin. Owned by Momozono Library. (c) A copy attributed to Reizei Tamekazu (14861549), a descendant of Teika's grandson Tamesuke. Archives' and Mausolea Division, Imperial Household Agency. 3· Common editions ( rufubon). A catch-all category for less precisely identifiable texts stemming from Teika originals. These texts have in common a lengthy colophon, signed by Teika, that discusses problems of authorship and title. Wide circulation, frequent copying, and influences from other lines have produced many corruptions and individual idiosyncracies: Important Kamakura-period MSS are (a) the Chiba text, (b) a copy attributed to Teika's son Tameie (ug81275), now in Tenri Library, and (c) another copy attributed to Tameie, now at Kyiishii University. B. Old texts. In addition to the 125-episode texts containing Teika colophons, there are others of obscure lineage, usually called "old texts" ( kohon). They are identical with Teika texts in number of episodes, number of poems, and arrangement, but exhibit some textual idiosyncrasies and lack the Teika colophons. Representative MSS: 1. A copy traditionally attributed to Teika's grandson Tamesuke (1263-1328). It is perhaps even older. Thought by Ikeda to be among the oldest extant IM manuscripts.'

188

Texts 2. A copy traditionally attributed to the regent Hojo Tokiyori (I226-63); probably dates from mid-Kamakura. A katakana version, collated with Teika texts. 3· A copy attnbuted to the statesman-poet Fujiwara Yoshitsune (I I6S)-!2o6); probably mid-Kamakura. 4· A copy traditionally attributed to the Buddhist prelate Jichin (n55-I224), author of the famous history Gukansho; probably late Kamakura. II. EXTENDED TEXTs." These are longer than the I25-episode texts. They resemble the 125-episode lines, but often differ materially from them, and also from one another, in structure and content. Most have appendixes and are extensively annotated. The oldest extant manuscript dates from the Kamakura period. The principal subdivisions are: A. A copy traditionally attributed to Teika's grandson Tameuji (I222-86). Formerly owned by the Oshima family; called the Tameuji or Oshima text. Present whereabouts unknown. May date from the first half of the Kamakura period.10 I21 annotated sections and 206 poems, beginning with Sec. I and ending with Sec. 125 of the 125episode texts; two appendixes of 12 and 24 episodes, stated in colophons to have derived from two lost texts.u B. A copy traditionally attributed to Teika's grandson Tamesuke (1263-1328). Now owned by Isseido Bookstore in Tokyo. Lacks the 24-section appendix, but otherwise closely resembles the Oshima text. May date from the first half of the Kamakura period.12 C. Ise Shrine Library text. A basic text of I20 episodes plus a 14-episode appendix of unknown provenance; 220 poems. Many copyist's errors. The notes present in other Extended texts are thought by Fukui to have been omitted

AppendixB by the copyists of this and the next two texts."' Dated 1783. D. Tanimori text. Now owned by the Archives and

Mausolea Division of the Imperial Household Agency. II9 sections plus a 14-section appendix; 219 poems. Edo penod. Believed to be a corrected version of the Ise Shrine Library text." E. A text formerly in the Awa Provincial Library; now owned by the Archives and Mausolea Division of the Imperial Household Agency. Appears to be a superior copy of the Tanimori text.ll5 F. Senshii text. 133 sections, 219 poems. The additional episodes have been worked into a context beginning with Sec. I and ending with Sec. 125 of the 125-episode lines. Presence and nature of annotations suggest a close relationship to texts of the Oshima line.'" May date from midKamakura. These are combined texts. According to the Oshima colophons, each of that text's three sections represents the collation of two or more manuscripts. The basic texts (first sections) diverge most conspicuously from the 125-episode lines, and also from one another, in the second half, where there are many differences in arrangement and contents. The Extended texts were probably compiled by scholars of the Rokujo family with the assistance of Kensho's collated text. Their notes resemble those preserved in Kensho's Kokinshuchu and other Rokujo treatises on poetry. Extremely minute textual analysis by Fukui and others suggests that the basic text used, which cannot now be reconstructed entirely, was in fairly wide circulation at the end of the twelfth century, and that it differed somewhat, but not radically, from the 125-episode text postulated as the immediate ancestor of the Teika lines.

190

Texts III. SHORT TEXTs." II5 episodes, 198 poems; shortest of all versions. Episodes found in 125~episode lmes are sometimes combined or divided. Structurally closest to Extended lines. The oldest extant manuscript may date from before the middle of the Kamakura period. The parent text is a copy attributed to Lady Mimbukyo (Teika's daughter); presently owned by Homma Art Museum, Sakata City, Yamagata Prefecture. Probably copied before mid~Kamakura but not circulated until Tokugawa.'" Discovered in 1953. The Shinobazu Library text is a copy of the Lady Mimbukyo text, once preserved in Yashiro Hirokata's private Shinobazu Library. Whereabouts unknown since World War II. No lineage has been traced for the Lady Mimbukyo copy, but Fukui's comparative structural analyses point to a common ancestor for it and the Extended texts.'" According to its colophon, it was copied from a text, in the hand of an early Heian court noble, Takashina Naritada (d. 998), that had been kept in the storehouse (nurigome) of Suzaku Palace in Kyoto."' It is believed, however, that the colophon merely represents a traditional attribution. IV. CHINESE-CHARACTER VERSIONs."' 125 episodes in chronological order; 208 poems. Generally resemble Teika texts, but have some structural discrepancies. Episodes are supplied with titles. Whereas most other versions employ the htragana syllabary and contain relatively few Chinese characters, texts of this lme are recorded entirely in characters. As in Man'yoshu, characters are used both for their semantic values and to represent Japanese and Sin~Japanese sounds. Established rules of usage are not consistently observed, and there are occasional baffiing passages that prove to be elaborate puns.""

AppendixB The oldest extant manuscript dates from the Tokugawa period. Representative texts are the Naikaku Bunko text, the Katsuragii text (now owned by the Archives and Mausolea Division of the Impenal Household Agency), the Temmei text (dated 1788), the Kujo text, and the Eikokan Library text. The first reference to a Chinese-character (mana) version appears in a work written around 1367.z.. Such texts seem to have had a certain limited importance during the late fourteenth century, but not to have circulated or assumed final form until the Edo period. Their reappearance in Tokugawa times was at first hailed as a significant development in IM studies: the great scholar Kamo Mabuchi (1697-1769) believed the line to date back very nearly to the period of IM's genesis. It is now generally accepted, however, that the first mana versions appeared no earlier than the Kamakura period, and perhaps not until the late fourteenth century. Fukui views the addition of episode titles and the conversion of the text into Chinese characters as symptomatic of medieval scholars' and critics' proclivity for commentating. (Medieval literary commentaries were usually written in a species of Chinese.) The mana versions seem to derive from a kana original that differed somewhat from the parent texts of all three categories discussed above. Their 125-episode structure suggests to Fukui that they may date from a period when Teika's texts were already well known. In addition to texts belonging to the above four categories, extant fragments attest to the existence of other versions that have disappeared. Of these the most interesting and important is the line of texts bearing the name of Lady Koshikibu no Naishi (d. 1025), the daughter of the

Texts famous poetess Izumi Shikibu (fl. late 10th c.-early nth c.). Texts of this line, also called "Imperial Huntsman" texts, are known only from the 24-section fragment appended to the Oshima text and from descriptions in the writings of late Heian scholars. Careful textual analysis and examination of other primary sources has led Fukui to conclude that the texts were, indeed, as described by Heian scholars, unorganized collections of episodes beginning with the Ise Virgin story (Section 69 in the present translation) and ending with an episode containing the poem W asuru na yo (Section II). In other words, they seem to have belonged to the second of Kensho's two major categories described above. It is tempting to suppose that we have here a vestige of an ur-IM that eventually dropped out of circulation because of the greater appeal of the better integrated versions known to us today, which all belong to Kensho's first category. At present, however, there is no evidence to substantiate such a theory, because no extant line of texts, whether complete or fragmentary, can be traced farther back than the late Heian period.

193

Notes The following abbrcvtatzon.r arc used tn the notes. For complete authors' names, tztles, and publzcatton data, see Works Ctted, pp. 263-66. All impcrtal anthologies of waka are prtnted tn KT, and all references to them ctte KT numbers rather than pages.

B/M

DCJ DNS GSS GYS IM KKS KT KTe KWR MYS NCD NKBT

NRD

0/T

scss SGSIS SGSS ShokuGSIS ShokuGSS ShokuKKS

Brower and Miner, Japanese Court Poetry Yoshida, Dai Nthon chimet izsho Tokugawa, Daz Nthonshi Gosenshu (2d imperial anthology) Gyokuyoshu (14th imperial anthology) lse monogatart Kokmshu ( rst imperial anthology) Matsushita and Watanabe, Kokka taikan Kokumm Tosho Kabushtki Kaisha, Kokka tatkei Kokin waka rokUJO (printed in ZKT) Man'yoshu (printed in KT) Sawada, Nihon chimei dai;iten Iwanamt Shoten Henshiibu, Nzhon koten bungaku tatkei Kawade, Nihon rekishi dai;iten Sakakura, Taketori monogatart Shinchokusenshu (9th imperial anthology) Shmgoshuishu (2oth imperial anthology) Shingosenshu (13th imperial anthology) Shokugoshuuhu ( r6th imperial anthology) Shokugosenshu (roth imperial anthology) ShokukokinshU ( 1 xth imperial anthology)

195

Notes to Pages 4-9 ShokuSZS SIS

SJ SKKS

sszs SZKKS ZKT

Shokusenzaishu (15th imperial anthology) Shuzshu (3d imperial anthology) Kuroita, Nihon sandai jitsuroku Shinkokinshu (8th imperial anthology) Shznsenzazshu (18th imperial anthology) Shinzokukokznshu (21st imperial anthology) Matsushita, Zoku kokka taikan NOTES TO INTRODUCTION

r. See Waley, The Tale of Gentz; Bonneau; N1ppon Gakujutsu Shinkokal, The Manyoshu: One Thousand Poems; and B/M. Vos's study of IM mcludes a hteral translatiOn of the best text, but It is not intended for the general reader. Keene's anthology, pp. 67-75, contains a selection from IM translated by Vos and Richard Lane. 2. There are 209 poems in most versiOns of IM. About a dozen of them appear in MYS, and thus belong to an earher penod. Sixty-two others, or approximately 30 percent of the total, appear in KKS (completed ca. 905); 11 others m the second impenal waka anthology, GSS (commissioned in 951); and 23 others in a large pnvate collection, KWR, wh1ch probably dates from around the third quarter of the tenth century. (IM and KWR share 68 poems, includmg five in MYS, 33 m KKS, and six in GSS ) Of 96 poems shared by IM With KKS, GSS, or KWR, onethird or more were wntten by Ariwara Nanhira, about 15 by people associated w1th Narihira or roughly contemporary With h1m, and VIrtually all of the remainder by anonymous authors. Most of the anonymous poems probably date from the early ninth century. This leaves in question about a hundred add1t10nal poems, many of which were attnbuted to Narih1ra by medieval commentators. Some may actually be his, others were very likely composed by one or another m IM's putative succession of authors, and others were probably old poems either preserved m now vamshed collections or otherwise known to an IM author. Of the group as a whole, it can be said only that they are at least as old as IM itself, I.e. that they are for the most part probably no more recent than the mid-tenth century. For further d1scussion of IM's date and authorship, see pp. 64-65. 3 B!M, p. 171. 4 Sansom, A History of Japan to 1334, Chap. IX. 5· Se1denst1cker, pp. 33-34. 6 Ikeda et al., p. 507. 7· Waley, The Tale of Genji, I, 122.

Notes to Pages 12-35 8 B/M,p. 13

9· Ibid., p. 14. 10. Ibtd. II. A chapter (ca. 200 B.c.?) in the Confucian Book of Rites (Li-chi).

It says, in a famous passage, "The ancients who wished clearly to exemplify Illustrious virtue throughout the world would first set up good government in thetr states. Wtshing to govern well thetr states, they would first regulate their famthes. Wishing to regulate thetr famtlies, they would first culttvate thetr persons." Translation from de Bary et al.,

Sources of Chmese Tradttton, I, II5. 12 There were no important literary movements at the barbarian capitals m the north. 13 Ami, p. 221. For the Weaver Maid and the Herdsman, see Section 59, n. 3, below. 14. lbtd., p 220. 15 Set Shonagon, a fastidwus, wttty court lady who hved at the beginmng of the eleventh century, expressed a point of view that probably was not uncommon when she wrote, "All preachers must be handsome; tf they are not, one's attention wanders, and then ugliness becomes a posmve cause of sm." Paraphrased from Waley, The Ptllow-Book of Set Shonagon, p. 114. 16. B/M, p. 310. 17. Hisamatsu, Nzhon bungakushi, II, 21ff. 18. KoJima, Katfuso, pp 24-25. 19. The poems m the three He1an anthologies do display certain styhsuc features that dtstmgmsh them from the poems in Katfuso, the Nara collectiOn Most Kazfuso poems consist of five-word lines, a form popular m the late Stx Dynasties and still found in early T'ang, whtle those in the later anthologtes favor the four seven-word lines of the chueh-chu style, typical of early and middle T'ang. 20. On the general subject of the waka revival, see Kawaguchi, pp. 294ff. 21. Kawaguchi, pp. 305-6. 22. Kojima, JOdat, III, r828-31. 23. Ibid., p. 1827. 24. Kubota, Kokmwakashu hyoshaku, I, 140. 25. The Japanese term for what I have called sensuousness is en, variously defined as "a gay, buoyant tone," "the vivid, immediate Impression created by nch, beautiful colors," and "a feeling as of something dimly floatmg." Htsamatsu, The Vocabulary of Japanese Ltterary Aesthettcs, pp 18-19 26. In addiuon to Tsurayukt's kana preface, Kokmshu has a Chinese preface stmtlar in content.

197

Notes to Pages 35-49 27. Kokinshu contains 17 of Henjo's poems and only five of Yasuhide's, three of Kuronushi's, and one of Kisen's. The compliers' reason for hononng them wtth spectal mentwn ts not clear. 28. Saeki Umetomo, pp. 337-39. 29. Ibid., p. 339· 30. Ibid. 31. The poem may actually be by someone else. KKS says only that it is sometimes attributed to Kuronushi, though the kana preface calls it typical of his work. 32. Saeki Umetomo, p. 339· 33· For an analysts, see Sec. 25, n. 2. 34· Saekt Umetomo, p. 339· 35· KKS 1030 (translation from B/M, p. 206). 36. SJ, pp. 475-76. For detalls see also Vos, I, 49; Fukui, pp. 332ff; Oka, pp. 98ff. For information concermng court ranks and titles, see Sansom, "Early Japanese Law and Admmistratton," pp. 72-108. 37· SJ, P· 475· 38. See Yumoto, p. 353· 39· For the Yoshitsune legend, see Helen C. McCullough, Yoshitsune. 40. See Fukm, p 342. 41. Aokt, p. r8. 42. See Saekt Ariyoshi, p. 441. 43· As evidence of the esteem in whtch Nanhira was apparently held, note his generous representation in Koktnshu (30 poems, exceeded only by the compliers and one other man), Tsurayuki's respectful references to him m the travel journal Tosa nikki, and the descnpttons in lse monogatari of other people's responses to verses composed by the book's chief figure, the Narihira-like "man of old.'' See Porter, pp. 39, IIS-I6; Suzuki et al., pp. 34, 54; IM 66, 68, 85, 87, 95, and 107. 44· In all, 87 poems are attnbuted to Narihira by imperial anthologies. The tendency among specialists ts to accept the 30 attributions in Koktnshu, to tentatively accept some or all of the I I in Gosenshu, and to vtew the remamder wtth extreme suspicion. 45· See KKS 53, p. 172; 418, p. 175; and 884, p. r8o. 46. See KKS 8, p. I59i 445. p r6o; 249> p. I73i and 87!, p. 179· 47· Matsumura, pp 43-44 48. IM 3, 5, 6, 29, and 76. Some of the identifications are probably late Heian mterpolations. 49· See KKS 705, 785, and 969; IM r6, 38, 48, 77, 78, 82, and 107. 50. Pnncess Tenshi (also called Yasuko; d. 913). She was Prince Koretaka's full sister, and thus the niece of Kt no Aritsune, Narihira's fatherin-law. 51. Fukui, p. 470.

Notes to Pages 5o-69 52 By the poet Liu Hsi-i. See KoJima, Jodat, Ill, 1835-36. 53· B/M, p 199 54· Many older commentators followed (a). Modern scholars tend to d1v1de between (b) and (c). In my view (d), which is essentially a compromise between (a) and (b), is the most satisfactory. See 0/T, p. II3, n 28; Vos, II, 69, n. 13; Kaneko, p. 754; Arat, p. 99· For an interpretation dtffering somewhat from all of the above, see B/M, p 193. 55· Saeki Umetomo, p. 339· (All subsequent references to Saeki mean Saeki Umetomo.) 56. MYS 892; translated m B/M, p. 121 57· Waley, The Tale of GenJI, "The Ptcture Competition," I, 336, and "Agemaki," II, 878, Yamagtsht, II, r8o, and IV, 443-44. These are the earliest known references to IM. 58. See Appendtx B. 59 For detatls, see Fukui, pp. 192ff. 6o. The Tale of GenJI refers to It m one passage as lse monogatari and in the other as Zazgo ga monogatari, "Tales of Nanhira." See Yamagtshi, IV, 443· Another Heian novel, Sagoromo monogatarz, calls 1t Zaigo chuJO no mkkt, "The Journal of Nanhira." See Fukui, pp. 38-39. 61. Extant collections of Nanhtra's poems are thought to be relatively late None contams poems not found m KKS, IM, GSS, and/or Yamato monogatari (an uta monogatarz shghtly later than IM) For a discussion, see Fukut, pp. 227-52. 62 For details, see Vos, I, 66ff; Fukm, pp r-rs. 63. See Appendtx B. 64. Fukm, pp 215ff. 65. Ibzd, p. 224. Fukm meets the problem of the utle, wluch reappears if his theory ts adopted, by revtvmg old alternatives-suggestmg that the name of Ise Provmce was once associated with love (as there is some reason to beheve), or that a court lady named Ise (not the poetess) may have been connected m some way with the work. 66. For fuller dtscusstons, see Vos, I, 54ff; Fukm, pp. rtf. 67. It should be noted that The Tale of GenJt, though written around rooo, is often satd to describe a penod correspondmg to the reign of Emperor Murakami (r. 946-67). NOTES TO TALES I

r. "Kasuga village" probably refers to the vicmity of Kasugano (Kasuga Plam), now within the city of Nara. The plain, famous in classtcal poetry, hes at the western edge of the Kasugayama hills, between TO1 99

Notes to Page 69 daiji Temple and the Kofukuj1 Great Eastern Torii (an area now occupied in part by Nara Park). 2. "Moss-fern des1gn" translates shmobuzuri, a term of uncertain meaning Suti (zurt, "rubbmg") was an ancient dyeing process that onginally entatled stretchmg a length of cloth on a natural object, such as a rock, and rubbmg 1t w1th the flowers, leaves, and/or stems of vanous plants. (Dunng the He1an penod the old method prevailed in rural d1strtcts, but artisans in the cap1tal devised the more sophisticated technique of laymg the cloth on a carved board and rubbmg with a dye plant The design of the garment descnbed in the first poem was presumably impnnted in that way, with murasaki, discussed below, as the dye plant.) Of numerous theories concerning the meamng of shmobu in shmobuzuri (also called shinobu moJizurz), the one on which I have based the translation appears to be favored by modern IM scholars. It explains the term as a rubbing process employmg the plant shznobu (Davallza bullata), a species of small, moss-hke fern wtth short, thickly clustered, deep green leaves, found typically on rocks and earth in shady spots. The shznobu IS thought to have produced a tangled, h1ghly irregular pattern when rubbed agamst cloth-the "random pattern" of the poems. From med1eval times on, Mmamoto Toru's poem Michznoku no (the second below) has been ctted in support of another theory concerning the ongm of the term shznobuzuri, namely, that it derives from Shinobu D1stnct m M1chmoku Province (now Shinobu D1strict, Fukushima Prefecture), sa1d to have been famous in antiquity for producmg this kind of cloth. Supporters of the moss-fern theory mamtam that references to Shinobu District in Mtchinoku no and other poems are merely plays on words suggested by the identity of sound For the moss-fern theory, see Arai, p. 71; 0/T, p r88, n. 6 Many dlctlonanes take the compromise position that the fabnc was produced at Shmobu through use of the moss-fern. See also Vos, II, 66, n 13, and Minnich, p. II3. For a descnpuon of the surt process, see Nagashima, pp. 105-6. 3· Kasugano no. KWR (ZKT 34155), anon; SKKS 994, Narihira. On the questiOn of attnbutions to Nanhira, see pp 35, 64-65. It 1s most unlikely that Nanh1ra would have composed a vanation on a poem by a contemporary, smce the object of the "allusive vanauon" (honkadort) technique was to give add1t1onal depth to one's own composition by assoclatmg 1t w1th a famous old poem. Ara1, pp 70-71. "Young purple" 1s a reference to the plant murasakt (Lzthospermum officznale var. erythrorhizon), a gromwell common in dry meadows throughout Japan. Its ha1ry-leaved stalk, about two feet h1gh, produces small, whtte, five-petalled flowers in summer, and 1ts th1ck, purple roots yield a colored pigment that was prized as a dye agent in the Heian penod The roots were also used for med1cinal purposes. ( Cf. borage, a 200

Notes to Pages 7o-71 related plant used in Europe as a demulcent and diaphoretic; and several plants of the genus Ltthospermum that produce colored p1gments, e.g. goldenseal [Hydrastts canadenm], the root of which yields a yellow dye.) Murasaki appears frequently in classical poetry, often as a metaphor. Here "young purple" refers obhquely to the two sisters who are responsible for the poet's agitated feelmgs. Shtnobu no midare means both "random-patterned shtnobu [-zuri]" and "confused feelings caused by love." 4· Mtchznoku no. KKS 724, Minamoto Toru (822--95); KWR (ZKT 34158), anon. Toru, a son of Emperor Saga, had a successful career that culminated in h1s appotntment as Mm1ster of the Left in 872 and h1s elevation to Junior F1rst Rank m 887. He is best remembered for his magmficent house and grounds tn the cap1tal and h1s elegant vt!la at Uji, which later became the Byodotn Temple. I have treated Michtnoku no as a preface introducing shinobu. The other possible interpretation would be, "My thoughts have grown disordered I As random patterns I On cloth from Shmobu in Michmoku." In ltne 4, -some has the dual meaning "begtn" and "dye"-thus the ltne means both "I have begun to be confused" and "dyed m a random pattern." Some ("dye") IS also an associative word (en go) ltnked to shinobu mOJtzuri. 2

Oki mo sezu. KKS 6r6, Narihira; KWR (ZKT 31335 and 33439), Nanh1ra. Nagame IS a kakekotoba meaning both "prolonged rain" and "gazing pens1vely." I.

3 Hiitkimo, believed to be the same as the ed1ble brownish-yellow aquatic plant now called hijzki ( vanously identified m dictionaries as Cystophyllum fustforme and Htgikia jusijormus [Harv.) Okam.). The poem reveals the reason for this seemingly eccentric gift. 2. Omoi araba. The word used for mattress, hzjikimono, is a pun on hiJtkimo, seaweed. 3· The Empress from the Second Ward was Fuj1wara Koshi. See pp. 45-47. There is no evidence that would connect either Narihira or Koshi with the poem. The last sentence is said to be an interpolation. I.

4 Fujiwara Junshi, aunt of Koshi. The text hints that the principals in the episode are Koshi and Nanhira, and many old commentaries say I.

201

Notes to Pages 71-74 that when the lady disappeared it was because her male relatives took her to the Imperial palace. Kaneko, p. 754 2. Tsuki ya aranu. KKS 747, Narihira; KWR (ZKT 33750), Nanh1ra.

5 The reader IS probably mtended to mfer that th1s was Kosht's aunt. 2. Hito shzrenu. KKS 632, Nanhtra. 3· This sentence is beheved to be an interpolation. I.

6 I. Shiratama ka. SKKS 85I, Narih1ra The poem's rather slight interest hes m a conventional play on the resemblance between dew and the ephemerahty of human hfe If the writer had but known of the tragedy to come, he would have preferred to die-to vanish swiftly as the dewrather than experience the grief he now suffers. 2. The last paragraph ts probably an interpolation. Koshi's cousin was Metshi, "the Empress from Somedono." Note that the earher imphcation has been that the affair wtth Nanhira occurred whde Koshi was living with her aunt, Junsht, "the ex-Empress from the Ftfth Ward" (Secuons 3· 4. and 5).

7 I. This and related episodes (8-I5, 115-16) are responsible for a wellestabhshed tradttton that Nanhtra traveled extensively m the eastern provmces, either because he was banished after his elopement with KOshi or because he thought it prudent to avotd the dtspleasure of her powerful relatives. References to such travels also appear m KKS, but there ts no mentton of them in contemporary htstones, diaries, or other primary sources. It has been suggested that the elopement and its sequel were kept out of the official htstory because of the h1gh social positions of the principals, and that the tradttion may be based on fact (Arat, p 131); but m any case it is impossible to accept the IM episodes as htstoncally accurate. Even the places mentioned are d1fficult to identtfy, and some may be ficttttous, e.g "the beach between Ise and Owan." 2. ltodoshiku. GSS 1353, Narihira. The GSS headnote resembles the IM mtroductton, but places the poet at an unnamed nver. It is a convention of classical Japanese literature that a member of the upper classes leaves the capital with the utmost reluctance, even for a night, and that he suffers ptttfully whde travehng, both from the hardships of the road and from the remmders of home and loved ones that his refined sensibtlities suggest to him-the sight of a bird flying in the

202

Notes to Pages 74-75 d1rection of the capital, or of a place associated with the name of a famous exile, or of some obJect suggesting h1s own forlorn state ("A derehct boat on the evenmg tide I Drifted like his friendless self"). Go to, I, 68, Helen Cra1g McCullough, The Tathetkt, p. 39· Nanh1ra's poem turns on the word kaeru, "return" (used here of waves recedmg from the shore, returning to the offing), wh1ch has the spec1fic meaning of returning home. The poet feels a sense of isolation and nostalgia as he watches the waves roll m and recede; though they can return, he must journey on.

8 r. Shinano naru. SKKS 903, Nanhira. The poem is evidently intended to demonstrate a cultivated man's reaction to a rare natural phenomenon, the still-active volcano of Mt. Asama on the border between the provmces of Shmano and Kozuke (Nagano and Gumma prefectures) m eastern Japan. The traveler from the far-off capital 1s attracted by the novelty of the scene and awed by the presence of the god who was beheved responsible for the smoke. In the precedmg ep1sode the traveler 1s journeymg along the Eastern Sea Road, from wh1ch Asama's smoke 1s mvlSlble. Many of the older commentanes concerned themselves with this pomt and attempted to explam away the d1fficulty (the smoke was more widely VIsible m the Heian period, the traveler had wandered off the Eastern Sea Road, etc.), but it Is probable that IM authors knew httle of the geography of the provinces and were not particularly mterested in such details. Ara1, p. 138; Kubota, SKKS, II, 132; 0/T, p. ns, n. 44·

9 Yatsuhashi was located somewhere in what is now eastern Chiryii Township, Hekikai District, A1chi Prefecture, JUst off the Eastern Sea Road, the old mam route between the capital and the eastern provinces. The bndges apparently d1sappeared before the end of the Hetan penod (Arat, p. 139), but memory of them has lingered in countless hterary references and works of art, almost alllmked in some way to Narihira and the present eptsode, whtch is among the best known in IM 2. Karagoromo. KKS 410, Nanhtra; KWR (ZKT 34650), Nanhira. Thts poem, rather flat and unadorned m translation, is a techmcal tour de force, much less charactensttc of Narihira's best poetry than of the court style proper. (For the court style, see the IntroductiOn, pp. 31-38 and passim.) In addtuon to complying wtth the rules of the kakitsubata game (ha and ba are wntten with the same sign and were originally Identical in sound), tlte poet has contrived to include a ptllow word, a I.

203

Notes to Pages 75-76 preface, two pivot words, and four associative words. He has also demonstrated h1s senstb!ltty and hts acquamtance wtth the Stx Dynasties techmque of reasomng ("I have a beloved w1fe . . and so .... "). Although the poem has 33 syllables mstead of the conventional 31, it is Witty, elegant, and a marvel of virtuosity; it could scarcely be accused by Tsurayuki or anyone else of contammg too much matter and too little art. Karagoromo ("robe") onginally meant a robe of Chinese fabric, a garment of exceptional beauty and ranty The term thus has connotations of elegance that qualify it as a pillow word. It is ordinarily used, as here, wtth kzru ("to wear"), kinarasu ("to wear habttually"), etc. Karagotomo kztsutsu IS a preface to the ptvot word nare- (a form of the verb naru, "to grow accustomed to," "to grow fond of"). Ptvot words: nare, the verb stem in narenzsht, "havmg grown accustomed to" and "having grown fond of"; tsuma ("skirt," "wife"). Assoctauve words linked to [kara]goromo ("robe"): kzru ("to wear,'' used herem the contmuative form kztsutsu); nare (naregtnu, an everyday garment); tsuma ("skirt"); haru ("to full cloth", the sound is incorporated m harubaru, "distant"). 3· Suruga naru. SKKS 904, Narihtra; KWR (ZKT 31715), anon. The translation perhaps overemphasizes the first two lines, which are merely an ingemous preface mtroducing utsutsu ("reality," "one's waking moments") and suggesting the poet's present whereabouts. The poet plays on the stmilanty m sound between Utsu and utsutsu. The poem hinges on the belief that a person's spmt could visit the dreams of someone he loved. The author says, m effect, "It would be too much to hope to meet you here in this remote spot, but tf you still loved me your spmt would at least visit my dreams." Kubota, SKKS, II, 133; Arat, pp. 151, 154· Mt. Utsu 1s a hdl (279m.) on the mountainous border between Shida and Abe dtstncts in the present Shizuoka Prefecture (Suruga Provmce). One of the famous places on the Eastern Sea Road. 4· In the lunar calendar the end of the Ftfth Month fell between midJune and mid-July. 5· Toki shzranu. SKKS r614, Narihira; KWR (ZKT 31564), anon. 6. Mt. Fuj1 on the Shizuoka-Yamanashi prefectural boundary (old Suruga-Kai border) is Japan's tallest (3776 m.) as well as Its most famous mountam. It is not, of course, 20 times as h1gh as Mt. H1ei (848 m.), the most conspicuous peak in the capital area, and, as the stte of the great Enryakuji monastery, correspondmgly prominent in early Japanese history. Mt. Htei rises northeast of Kyoto on the Kyoto-Shtga prefectural boundary (old Yamashiro-Omi border). 7· ShzoJiri. The meamng of the word is uncertain, but it is usually explained as a high mound of sand used in producing salt. Sea water is 204

Notes to Pages 76-77 thought to have been poured on such mounds and left to evaporate. 0/T, p. II7, n. 34; Arai, p. I53· 8. Sumidagawa (Sumida River). Probably to be identified with the present Tone RIVer, the largest watercourse in the Kanto Plain, wh1ch 1s be!teved to have followed the Musashi-Sh1mosa border to Tokyo Bay until the seventeenth century, and to have been called the Sumida m its lower reaches. (Okami, p. 404, supp. n. 14; NCD, V, 4262.) It 1s stt!l usual for d1fferent stretches of a Japanese river to have d1fferent names. Between 1621 and 1654, the government d1verted the Tone Rtver mto 1ts present channel, which carries the waters of five prefectures mto the Pac1fic Ocean at Choshi. There is disagreement about the exact location of the old channel Some wnters 1denufy 1t w1th the one presently occupied by the much smaller Edo R1ver (formerly called the Futo1), whtch flows along the old Musashi-Shimosa border (present Tokyo-Chtba border) into the bay (NRD, XI, 76), others identtfy 1t with the nearby Naka River channel (NCD, V, 4260). The present Sumida RIVer, which flows through the eastern part of the c1ty of Tokyo mto the bay, apparently was a tnbutary that jomed the old Tone further upstream, where 1t 1s sui! known as the Arakawa. It seems to have begun to follow Its present course, and thus to have acqmred Its present name of Sumtda, only after the Tone's diversiOn. NCD, V, 4260, but see Kaneko, p 485; 0/T, p 117, n 35· A probably erroneous theory, based on a statement in a Heian diary, Sarashina nzkkz, identifies Nanhtra's nver w1th the present Tama R1ver, whtch empttes into Tokyo Bay at Kawasaki Arai, p. 156; DCJ, II, 297576. 9 Capital-bird (miyakodori). Believed to be Identical with the modern yurzkamome (Larus rtdtbundus stbtrtcus Buturlin), a small gull with red btl! and legs, mdigenous to the northeastern part of the Astatic mainland. The yurzkamome's head plumage is dark brown in summer and white in wmter, when the btrds migrate to Japan. For a picture, see Yamashina, p. 181 10. Na ni sht owaba. KKS 4II, Narihira; KWR (ZKT 32104), Narihira. Although this is one of the best known of the poems attributed to Narihira, it has been argued that the KKS headnote is a clumsy adaptation from IM, and that both thts and the "ins poem" (n. 2 above) may originally have been bsted in KKS as anonymous. See Arat, pp. 161-63. 10

Now a part of Sakata Township in northern Iruma District, Saitama Prefecture. Lmgmsuc ev1dence shows that th1s ineptly positioned sentence is an mterpolatton. 2. Miyoshzno no. KWR (ZKT 35223), anon.; ShokuGSIS 8oo, anon. Tanomu ("depend on," "seek shelter w1th") is a pivot word meamng 1.

205

Notes to Pages 77-78 also ta no mo ("on the surface of the rice fields"). Kari ("wild goose") IS a metaphor for the daughter. 3· Wa ga kata nt. KWR (ZKT 35224), anon.; ShokuGSIS 8oi, Nari-

hira. II

I. Wasuru na yo. SIS 470. Accordmg to the SIS headnote, the poem was composed by a mmor courtier, Tachtbana Tadamoto (d 955), who sent it to a lady whtle he was away on a journey. Its mclusion in IM has been regarded by some scholars as evidence for a cut-off date of around 960 0/T, p. I9I, supp. n 23; DNS, II, I96. In Fujiwara Shunzei's Koraz futezsho (n97), an Important critical history of classical Japanese poetry, the poem is attnbuted to the poet Oe Tamemoto (fl. ca. 989). Arai, p. I77· 12

I. Musashino, an old name for the part of the Kanto Plain extendmg south from Kawagoe Ctty in Sattama Prefecture to Fuchu in the Tokyo Metropolitan Dtstrict. More broadly, Musash1 Province (now Tokyo Metropohtan District, Saitama Prefecture, and part of Kanagawa Prefecture). 2. Musashino wa. KKS I7, anon. The KKS poem is identical with the present verston except for the first !me, where "Kasugano" appears Instead of "Musashino." In settmg and tone, however, the two dtffer sharply. The KKS verse pictures a young couple enJoying an early spnng outmg on Kasuga Platn (see Sec. I, n. I). They see some burners prepanng to set fire to a field (a common practice, destgned to clear away dead growth) and beg them to spare 1t, at least for a day Wakakusa ("young grass") was often used as a ptllow word for tsuma ("spouse"), probably because the fresh green blades were regarded as particularly beautiful and appeahng. (Another theory: wakakusa was thought to symbohze ever-young conJugal love.) Kaneko, p. I04, 0/T, p. I9I, supp n. 24 3· In th1s eptsode the author summarizes his story (first two sentences) and then goes back to fill m the details. Evidently the man had not run very far.

13 I. The letter informs the lady that the wnter is havmg an affair wtth someone in Musashi. Because of hts old relationship w1th her, he would rather not confess the truth, but to conceal It would, he feels, create a barrier between them and thus destroy a cherished intimacy. 206

Notes to Pages 78-79 2. Musashi stirrups (Musashi abumi). Musashi Province appears to have produced famous stirrups m antiqmty. There is debate concerning their exact design, but they were probably either simple rope loops or Iron nngs suspended from the saddle by leather straps. 0/T, p. u9, n. 31 For diagrams, see Kamata, p. 98. As 10 the present section, wh1ch incidentally marks the beginning of the term's hterary career, "Musashi stirrups" appears in classical poetry and prose because of Its association with kaktt and kakaru, two verbs with a wide range of mean10gs, most of them denved 10 some way from the idea of "hanging from" or "puttmg up against." Stirrups suggest those verbs because they hang from the saddle, or, accordmg to one theory, because the nder puts his feet in them. (Vos, II, 77, n. 4; Arai, p. r8s.) By wnt10g "Musashi stirrups" on his letter instead of the conventional return address, "From Musashi," the man refers obliquely to omot o kaku, kokoro o kaku, or some simdar phrase meaning "to love" ("hang one's thoughts [heart] on"), and so assures the lady of his continued devotion. 3 Musasht abumi. Here the lady takes up the phrase "Musashi stirrups" and uses it as a pillow word precedmg kakete, an abridgement of omot o kakete, "lovmg." Complexity IS added by the insertion of sasuga ni, meaning both "yet, nevertheless" and "from the buckle (sasuga)." The translation omtts line I and renders only one of the meanings imphcit 10 hoe 2. An alternative m1ght be:

Loving you in spite of all, And still relymg on youEven as Musashi stirrups Depend from the1r buckles! thmk your stlence cruel indeed. Yet I should find It most unpleasant Were you to ask for news of me. The last line (last two Jines of the translation) means that the lady would cons1der it hypocritical for the man to express concern about her while visiting another woman. 4 Toeba zu. Musashi abumi reappears as a pillow word preceding ka-. karu Here kakaru 1s not a verb but a homophonous adjective, "such," and thus there 1s no logical relationship between Musashi abumt and the rest of the poem.

I4 r. Nakanaka ni. The poem closely resembles MYS 3086. The last line contams an elegant metaphor-tama no o, "a string of gems," representing a short life (symbohzed by the shortness of the d1stance between any 207

Notes to Pages 79-80 two gems on the string)-but the poem is damned by the unacceptable word kuwako, "silkworm." 0/T, p. 191, supp. n. 25; Arai, p. 192 Male and female stlkworms were thought to live together happtly. 2.

By leavmg m the middle of the mght, a man indtcated lack of in-

terest. 3· Yo mo akeba Agam, deplorably inelegant Some of the terms in the poem are obscure For other poss1ble mterpretauons, see 0/T, p. 192, supp. n. 26, Vos, II, 79, notes 14-16. 4· Kurzhara no. Except for the place name, the poem is identical with KKS 1090, anon. IM merely substitutes a M1chinoku landmark famous in legend and classical poetry, the Pine of Aneha at Kurihara, for KKS's Ogurosak1 Mltsu-no-kojima (no longer identifiable). Aneha IS now a part of Kannan Township, Kunhara D1strict, M1yag1. The man implies that he would hke to take the girl home w1th him, but the poem can also mean "I don't love you; m fact, I consider you scarcely human Naturally I won't take you Wlth me." Th1s rather cruel farewell scarce! y seems to 111 ustrate the hero's kind) y nature, but perhaps country folk were thought mcapable of graspmg the subtleties of clty wit. There 1s a conventwnal pun on matsu ("pine tree" and "wait").

I5 I. Shinobuyama. KWR (ZKT 31743), anon.; SCSS 944, Nanhira. Possibly an adaptation of KKS 1038 One theory 1dentifies Mt. Shmobu (Shinobuyama) with the present h1ll of that name (273 m.) in northern Fukushlma City, Shinobu Dlstnct, Fukushima Prefecture (Vos, II, 8o, n 8; Arai, p. 202; Kamata, p. rr3), but cons1derable ev1dence suggests that it was, rather, a general name loosely applied at vanous times to all or some of the peaks along the western boundary of Shmobu D1strict (NCD, IV, 3235; DC], III, 3922-23). It figures here as a M1chinoku place-name mtroducing an inflected form of the homophonous verb shinobu ("to conceal"; here "concealing oneself," thus "unobserved"). Kayou ("travel"), mtchi ("road," "way"), and oku ("interior") are associative words linked with yama ("mountam"). The poet has also woven the name of the province into the last three lines: MICHl mo gana I Hzto No kokoro no I oKu mo mzrubeku. 2. D1strustmg her ability to compose a smtable poem, she decides not to reply at all. The text no doubt mtends a contrast with the brash young lady m the preceding section Here the imphcation is that sensibility is to be found even in the provmces, and that the cultivated traveler recogmzes and respects lt. See Ara1, pp. 203-4.

208

Notes to Pages 81-82 x6 I. Antsune (815-77) belonged to one of the old court families who m the ninth century were gradually being pushed out of influential positions by the Fujiwara. Two of his three sisters were mmor impenal consorts, and one of them, Se1sh1 (Shizuko; d. 866), bore the first son of Emperor Montoku The son, Pnnce Koretaka, was h1s father's favorite, but he failed to wm nommation as crown pnnce because his backing was less powerful than that of the emperor's fourth son, Prince Korehlto (Emperor Seiwa). When Koreh!to was born, h1s maternal grandfather, Fujiwara Yosh1fusa, held the high office of Minister of the R1ght, while Prince Koretaka's grandfather, Kino Natora, had d1ed three years earlier as a mere guards officer, and h1s only uncle, Aritsune, was likewise a minor guards officer. Pnnce Koretaka had represented Antsune's sole hope for advancement at court During the first s1x years of the pnnce's hfe, while he was still a potential emperor, Aritsune enJoyed a good deal of influence m spite of his low office, but h1s prestige d1m1mshed abruptly after Pnnce Koreh!to's appointment as crown pnnce, m 85o, and vamshed completely after Pnnce Koretaka became a monk following an 1llness in 872. He held only provincial governorships and other msigmficant offices, and the IM description of h1s impoverishment is probably essentially accurate. Aritsune's daughter was at one time Nanh1ra's w1fe, and he and Narihira appear to have been intimate friends, drawn together partly by hostility to the FuJIWara and partly by a mutual mterest in poetry. 2. Te o orite. There is no independent evidence to support the attribution of th1s and other poems in Section 16 to Aritsune, or to identify the fnend With Nanh1ra, as was done by the compilers of ShokuSZS and most of the older commentanes. 3· Toshi dam mo. ShokuSZS 1542, Narih1ra 4· Kore ya kono. Accordmg to a popular legend, the inhabitants of earth were occasionally v1s1ted by heavenly maidens, crowned with garlands of flowers and dressed m many-hued skirts, who danced w1th marvelous grace. Diaphanous robes made of birds' feathers enabled the maidens to fly between heaven and earth. See the celebrated No play Hagoromo (Feather Robe), translated m Nippon Gakujutsu Shmkokai, Japanese Noh Drama, III, 19ff. The poem 1mphes that the friend 1s someone of high social status. Ama is perhaps to be taken as a p1vot word, in which case the second hne would mean also "Feather robe for a nun (ama)." 5· Akt ya kuru. SKKS 1496, K1 no Antsune, with the headnote "Responding to the g1ft of a robe from Lord Nanhira." The attribution is probably based on IM. Autumn was regarded as tl!e season of sad reveries and melancholy.

209

Notes to Pages 82-83 I7 Ada nari to. KKS 62, anon Headnote resembles IM introduction. The cherry blossoms represent the lady. "People say that my affections are evanescent, but I have been fatthful in spite of your neglect. It is you who are fickle." 2. Kyo kozu wa. KKS 63, Narihira; KWR (ZKT 35053), Nanhira. "If I hadn't come today, you would probably have been entertammg someone else tomorrow." The poem has been much admired for its wit. 1.

r8 r. Kurenai ni. The gift of a fading white chrysanthemum, its petals tinged wtth pink, showed that the lady appreciated the poignancy of the changes that time imposes on nature and man. (Her professed inabliuy to see the reddened petals was a fashwnable pose.) The real message of the poem: "I have heard that you are somethmg of a gallant, but I see no indication of it." "Reddish tmge" suggests passion. Cf. koshoku ("red color") and its homonym koshoku ("amorousness"). 2. Kurenat ni I Ntou ga ue no. The man politely rejects the implied invitation. Heian ladies wore several layers of hned and unlined widesleeved robes, carefully selected to create pleasing color harmonies appropnate to the season. The robe m the poem was perhaps the winter costume called "white chrysanthemum," a white robe lined wtth a color defined by some authorities as dark red and by others as orchid. Ikeda eta/., p. 463, n. 36; Nagash1ma, p. 122. (Vos beheves that the description "suggests the so-ealled sakuragasane, in whtch ... the outside of the sleeve is whtte and the linmg red" The sakuragasane, or "cherry blossom robe," was, however, a spring costume, and thus would not have been worn m other seasons. See Vos. II, 83, n. 9)

19 r. KKS lists the authors of the poems in this section as Aritsune's

daughter (784) and Narihira (785). The wordmg of 785 varies slightly. The headnote to 784 says, "During Lord Narihira's marriage to the daughter of Ki no Antsune, he once became angry with her; he visited her m the daytime but always left in the evening. Fmally she sent htm the followmg poem ..." In the early Heian penod, most marned couples either hved together in the wtfe's famt!y home or took a house of their own. Some, however, hved apart from one another, and m such cases the frequency, uming, and duration of the husband's vtsits furnished a good indtcation of the 2!0

Notes to Pages 84-86 marnage's success. A satisfied husband spent the night. See W. H. McCullough, p. 105 and passtm. 20

I. Kimt ga tame GYS I6o6, Narihira. "I send you this branch not only so that you may admire its beauty, but also to remind you of the flaming passion m my heart." (Some commentators take the poem to mean that the man's ardor has turned the leaves red. 0/T, p. 123, n. 3I.) The beginning of the Third Month in the lunar calendar usually fell between March 20 and Apnl 20. 2. ltsu no ma ni. The lady pretends to misunderstand the man's feelings. She accuses him of losmg interest, making an imphcit pun on akt, whtch means both "autumn" and "growing weary of." "How quickly your sentiments have changed. For you, it seems, there is no such thmg as spnng-i:lnly akz." 21

I. ldete znaba is ascnbed to Narihira in the two movable type editions of KWR (ZKT 333I7 and KTe IX, 434), both of whtch, however, carry the notatwn "[according to] one text" Older KWR texts list Kino Tomanari as the author Some scholars have argued that IM borrowed the verse from the ongmal KWR, and that the attributiOn to Narihira represents an mterpolatwn. See Arat, p. 249. Kino Tomonon (fl. ca. 890) was Tsurayukt's cousin and a KKS compiler. 2. Htto wa isa. SCSS 952, anon. Possibly an adaptation of MYS I49, an elegy on a dead emperor (Arai, p. 253): Htto wa yoshi Though the thoughts of others Om01yamu tomo May turn elsewhere, Tamakazura Never shall I forget, Kage ni mietsutsu For I see his face before me, W asuraenu kama. Luminous as a gemmed fillet. A tamakazura, here translated "gemmed fillet," was in antiquity a stnng of precious stones worn by a lady on her head, with the ends hanging free. Ltke "Musasht stirrups" (Sec 13, n. 2), It was used as a ptllow word for the verb kaku ("to hang," "to be attached to"). In this poem it precedes the kage of omokage ("face," "figure"), regarded as a homophone of kake, the continuative stem of kaku. 3· lma wa tote SCSS 88r, anon. Wasuregusa ("forgettmg-grass") is a kmd of day hly (Hemerocallts auranttaca Bak. ). It has long, narrow basal leaves and faintly fragrant yellow flowers. Frequently mentioned m classical literature. 21!

Notes to Pages 86-88 4· Wasuregusa. ShokuGSS 978, Narihira. "I still love you; otherwise I should not find 1t necessary to try to forget you." 5· Wasururan to. SKKS 1361, anon., appears to be a minor revision of KKS 718. 6. Nakazora nt. SKKS 1369, anon. "If you no longer trust me, I do not wish to hve." 22

I. Uki nagara. SKKS I362, anon. 2. Aimtte wa. ShokuGSS 833, Narihira. The translation follows 0/T, p. 125, n. 28. It is also possible to read the first line as Atmtde wa, in which case the first two hoes of the translation become, "Though we do not meet I Yet are our hearts inseparable." The man, assured of the lady's remorse, feels able to pretend a certain coolness. The message in hts poem is either, 'Though you have behaved badly, I won't cast you off; I'll come to see you one of these days," or "Perhaps it would be best not to meet for a while; I'll come around some day." The kawashi of kawashtma ("river-island") is a pivot word, functioning also as the contmuative stem of the verb kawasu ("to exchange") in the phrase kokoro o kawashi ("shanng feelings of love"). 3· Akt no yo no. KWR (ZKT 32840), anon. The text does not state clearly which of the lovers has composed the poem, but most commentators take it to be the man Those who pronounce in favor of the lady are perhaps influenced by KWR's notation, "Attributed to Lady Ise [fl. ca. 935] in one text." The present version varies slightly from the one preserved in KWR, posstbly because the poem has been reworked by an IM author. (Kamata, p. I5I.) 4· Aki no yo no .•• Tori ya nakinan. ShokuKKS u65, anon. 23

Tsutsui tsu no. The meaning of tsu in line r is unknown. Kakeshi, here translated "measured," may instead mean "talked about" (iikakeshi), or, possibly, "less than" ("my hetght, once less than the well curb's"). See 0/T, p. 126, n. 8. 2. The couple was presumably hving with the wife's parents. See Sec. 19, n. I. 3· Takayasu was a name for the area now occupied by Yao City in Osaka Prefecture It becomes clear below that the man and wife Jive across the mountams m the adjoining province of Yamato. 4· Kaze fukeba. KKS 994, anon., wtth a headnote resemblmg the IM mtroduction; KWR (ZKT 3I314), Kakuyama no Hananoko; tbid. (ZKT 31734), Kakonoyama no Hananoko. Nothing ts known of Hananoko. I.

212

Notes to Pages 8g-9o Tatsutayama appears to have been a general name for the mountains m what 1s now western Tachmo, M1sato VIllage, Ikoma DJstnct, Nara Prefecture. Th1s area on the old Yamato-Kawach1 border, traversed by the important Yamato-Naniwa road, was dreaded by travelers, not only because of the wlld and difficult terram, but also because there was danger of attack by bngands. The lady's poem reflects such fears. The first two hnes, om1tted m the translation, mean, "When the winds blow, I White waves rear up (tatsu) in the offing." They constitute a preface mtroducmg Tatsutayama ( w1th tatsu functioning as a pivot word) and are irrelevant to the sense of the poem. (It has been suggested by numerous commentators, however, that "white waves" is a metaphor for robbers.) 0/T, p. I27, n. 22; NCD, IV, 388Ia; Arai, pp. 290, 298"""99· 5· Ktmi ga atari. SKKS I368, anon.; MYS 3032. Mt. Ikoma is usually identified w1th the present peak of the same name (642 m.), the h1ghest pomt m the range forming the Nara-Osaka (Yamato-Kawachl) boundary. It stands on the border between Ikoma District m Nara Prefecture and Hiraoka City m Osaka Prefecture. (H1raoka C1ty adjoins Yao City.) See Takagi et al., III, 293. 6. Kimi komu to. SKKS I207, anon.

24 I. The ancient law codes permitted a deserted wife to remarry after three years. 0/T, p. 128, n. I; Vos, II, 89, n. 4· 2. Aratama no. ShokuKKS I2I8, anon. Aratama appears in classical poetry as a p1llow word for tosht ("year") and other terms involvmg the concept of time, such as tsuki ("month"), hi ("day"), and haru ("spring"). Its meaning is no longer understood. 3· Azusayumt ... Uruwashzmi seyo. The first two hnes consist of an apparently irrelevant enumeration of d1fferent types of bows (yumz )azusayumt, mayumi, tsuktyumt-identified in each case by the type of wood used in the weapon's construction. The tree known in antiquity as azusa has not been satisfactorily identified, b•t probably was a type of btrch (Betula ulmtfolta S1eb. et Zucc.); tsukz is presently thought to have been a name for the zelkova (Zelkova serrata, now called keyakt); and mayumt is a spmdle tree of the Euonymus genus (Euonymus szeboldtanus). Attempts to link the lines to the remainder of the poem are rather unconvincing-"Just as there are d1fferent kmds of bows, so there are d1fferent kmds of people [or love)," etc.-and it seems best to treat them as a JO mtroducmg toshi, With tsuki as a p1vot word meaning both "tsukt tree" and "month." The conce1t may have been suggested to an 213

Notes to Pages 9o-91 IM author by an old song used m the dance form known as kagura. "A bow ts after all a bow. Btrch bows, spmdle tree bows, zelkova bows-all will serve, all wtll serve." 0/T, p. 193, supp. n. 33, Arat, pp. 31o-u; Tsuchthash! and Konishi, p. 302. 4· Azusayumi .. Yormtshi mono o. ShokuGSS 8o9, anon. Similar poems MYS 2985 and 2986, KKS 610. Here azusayumt is clearly irrelevant to the sense of the poem, functiomng only as a ptllow word to mtroduce htkedo htkanedo, two forms of the verb hzku ("to pull," "to draw toward"). I have taken hikedo hzkanedo to mean "Whether others woo me [draw me toward them] or not" For other posstble mterpretauons, see 0/T, p 194, supp. n. 34· In the last hne, yorzntshi (from yoru, "to approach") is an associative word hnked to "bow," the rattonale being that a bow bends toward the archer when the string 1s pulled.

25 r. Aki no no nt. KKS 622, Narihira (slightly dtfferent wordmg);

KWR (ZKT 33883), Narih1ra; KWR (ZKT 31435), anon. Autumn, bamboo grass, and morning are all words associated in classical poetry with dew. 2. Mzrume nakz. KKS 623, Ono no Komachi; KWR (ZKT 33879), Komachi. The poem appears m KKS immediately after Narihira's Aki no no nt, but the two are unrelated there For Komachi, see pp. 39-41. The poem is studded with Witty ambtgmties. The would-be gatherer of seaweed, wastmg hts time in a barren bay, represents the lady's suitor, who perststs in calhng at her house despite repeated rebuffs. The first three hnes can be read Mtrume naki [wa ga mt o] ura to shzraneba ya, wtth the bracketed words treated as an introduction to ura, Irrelevant to the general sense, which is: "Does he not know that there is no seaweed m thts bay?" (Komachi uses an identical dev1ce m KKS 938: Wabinureba I MI o ukzgusa no See Saekt, p 225, B/M, p. 222.) But because of a play on mtrume nakt-which can mean not only "no seaweed" but also (r) "I whom you cannot meet,'' (2) "You who cannot meet me," and (3) "I who am not at all an mteresting person"-wa ga mi o acquires a semantic role. The phrase mirume naki wa ga mt o u- means: "The sorrow of being unable to meet" or "The sorrow I feel because I am such an insigmficant person." The man, m short, cannot be sure whether he is bemg encouraged or discouraged. For other possible Implications, see 0/T, p 128, n. 17. Ura ("bay"), karenade ("mcessantly," "not ceasing"; here translated "persists in"), and ama ("fisherman") are associative words hnked to mirume ("seaweed")-karenade because its dictionary form, karu, is homophonous with karu ("to reap," as grain or seaweed). 214

Notes to Pages 91-92 Mtrume (also called mtru; Codium mucronatum J. Ag.) is a small, prohfically branchmg, dark green, ed1ble seaweed, found on rocks m the shallow coastal waters of Japan.

26 I. Omoezu. SKKS I357, anon. Possibly to be construed as a lighthearted verse in which the poet makes fun of his predicament. See Kubota, SKKS, II, 49I.

27 Minakuchi nt. A pohte reassurance. For a shghtly d1fferent interpretation of th1s section, see Vos, I, 193, and Arai, p. 329. I.

28 Nadote kaku. The phrase au go k_atami ni nariniken ("It has become 1mposs1ble to meet") contains the names of two kmds of woven baskets, ko (or go) and katamt, and thus has the added meaning, "We had become a k_o or katamt.'' Musubishi, a form of musubu ("to bind together"), is an associative word for water because of the homophonous musubu, "to scoop up water with the hands.'' The translation fails to reproduce the humor of the ongmal, wh1ch Intimates that the basket has developed a leak. 0/T, p. 194, supp. n 36; Arai, p. 334· I.

29 The text hints that "the Mother of the Crown Prince" is Fujiwara Koshi. (In some IM mss. the poet 1s identified as an officer in the Imperial Guards, an organization in which Nanhira held several posts dunng h1s career.) The party would presumably have been arranged by Koshi to honor someone in her service. Arai, p. 336. Birthday celebrations among the Heian nobility usually took the form of decennial observances held from the individual's fortieth year on. They were sponsored by relatives, or occasionally by fnends or patronseven by the emperor if the person were sufficiently important. The festivities always included a banquet, dances, and the recitation of poems; for exalted personages, there were also prayers at temples and largesse on a grand scale. A celebration of this kind ordmanly took place in ilie season thought to be appropriate to the year of the individual's birth (spring for the years of the T1ger, Hare, and Dragon, summer for the years of the Snake, Horse, and Sheep, and so forth), and it apparently was timed to coincide, if possible, with a pleasant seasonal phenomenon. Ceremonies held I.

215

Notes to Pages 92-93 in the spring were called cherry blossom celebrations (han a no ga); those in the summer, fan celebrat10ns ( ogt no ga); those m the fall, autumn leaf celebrations (momtJt no ga); those m the wtnter, snow celebratiOns (yukz no ga). See Jmgii Sh1ch6, XLI, 345, 355· The destre to hnk events descnbed m IM to htstoncal mcidents has led some commentators to suggest that thts particular party was sponsored by Koslu m honor of her cousm,Fu)lwara Metshi,Emperor Setwa's mother. The theory overlooks the evtdence of the chromcles, whtch show that Metsht's fortieth birthday celebration took place m 868, the year before Yozet became crown pnnce (and thus before Kosin could have been called "the Mother of the Crown Prince"), and that btrthday celebrations honoring that lady regularly took place m the wtnter, not in the spring DNS, IV, 73; Arat, p. 337· 2. Hana m akanu. SKKS 105, Narihira. The attnbution to Nanhtra, though unvenfied, has been accepted by some commentators, who feel that the poem's emotional intensity and stmple dtction are charactenstic of Nanlura's work. (See Kubota, SKKS, I, 131; Arat, pp. 336, 338.) Whether or not one wtshes to accept thts vtew, tt seems likely that here, as in many other mstances, an IM author has tned to endow a verse with new dtmens10ns of mterest by placing tt in a fictitious settmg In the present context It can be interpreted etther as a graceful express10n of thanks from a guest to a hostess or as a lament for a lost love, wtth the blossoms symbolizing Kosht.

I.

Au koto wa. SCSS 951, anon.

31 "This grass looks splendtd now, but wait until it withers I" ("You're qutte the lady's man, but you won't last forever.") The lady's two sentences are tdenucal wtth the last two lines of an old poem, presumably well known at the time. The poem is cited m 0/T, p 194, supp n 38. 2. Tsumt mo nakt. "It ts not true, as you tmply, that I have forgotten you. To wtsh an mnocent man bad luck wtll not hurt anyone but yourself; you are the one whom people wtll forget." The man cleverly turns the lady's metaphor agamst her, buttressmg hts posit10n wtth a btt of Buddlust doctnne from the Lotus Sutra For forgetting-grass, see Sec. 2r, n. 3; for the Buddhtst doctnne, Vos, II, 93, n. 9, Arat, p. 343 I.

32 Thts poem is not recorded elsewhere, but KKS 888 has the same first two hnes. See also KWR (ZKT 33003). I.

216

Notes to Pages 94-95 Shzzu: a striped cloth made by dyeing the woof. It was woven from thread obtamed from hemp and other fibers m antiquity, before the introductiOn of advanced textile techniques from China. Nagashtma, p 25.

33 Mubara (Ubara) was an anc1ent district in the area of the present city of Ash1ya, Hyogo Prefecture 0/T, p. 131, n. 20; NCD, I, 320, 865. 2. Ashzbe yori. Probably adapted from MYS 617, which has the same first three hnes. ( Arai, p. 35 I ) The first two hnes (last three hnes of the translatwn) function as a preface introducing the pivot word zyamashi ("ever-mcreasing," "more and more"). 3 Komorze m. ShokuGSS 686, anon. The lady adopts the man's imagery, workmg m the associative words futJe ("boat"), sao ("pole"), komone ("hidden inlet"), and sasu ("to nse," as the tide, one of th1s verb's many meamngs) Sashzte ("soundmg") 1s a p1vot word. I.

34 leba em. SCSS 637, Nanhira. The poem may be an adaptation of one m KWR (ZKT 32950), wluch means essentially the same thmg: leba etJi I lwatJeba kurushi I Yo no naka o I Nagekite nomi mo I Tsukusubekt kana. Arai, p. 354 I.

35 Tama no o o. SCSS 950, anon. Generally agreed to be a slight reworking of MYS 763 (Lady Ki, fl early 8th c ) , a very similar poem that appears also in KWR (ZKT 34054). Arai, p. 360. Uncertamty about the meamng of awao has made this poem a knotty problem for commentators. The translation "loose braid" represents the present consensus, which hnks awao lmguistically to awa ("bubble"), and takes 1t to mean a secure but loose interlacement of the kind techmeally called a prolonge knot, eas1ly unraveled at the wearer's convenience. Similar knots were used to secure necklaces in medieval Europe. See the illustratiOns in Nagata, p 173, and Plummer, Sec 147. See also Takag1, I, 268; OIT, p. 132, n. 5; Arai, pp. 356-6o. A minonty opimon 1s represented m Vas's translation (I, 197): 1.

Because we tied The threads of our lives, Twistmg them into a comphcated knot [L1ke] knotting [the ends of] a string of beads, I thmk we shall certainly meet [again], Even though [our relations] have ceased. 217

Notes to Pages 95-97 Tama no o functions both in its literal meaning, "a string of gems," and as a metaphor for the couple's lives. (See Sec. I4, n. I.)

36 Tani sebami. VIrtually identical with MYS 3507 and ShokuGSIS 905, anon. The first three hnes are a preface ending w1th the pivot word taemu (from tayu, "to come to an end"). I.

37 Ware narade. SCSS 823, Nanhira. 2. Futart shtte. Almost identical With MYS 2919. I.

38 Kimi ni yori. Nanhira is hsted by ShokuKKS as the author of this poem (952). The attribution is suspect, but there appears to be an intended reference to Nanhira or someone hke him. Ki no Aritsune was Narihira's friend and father-m-law; also, the element of humor in the exchange hinges on the first poet's reputation as a gallant. I.

39 Emperor Junna (786-840; r. 823-33). After his abdication he lived m the Western Palace (also called Junna Palace), usually said to have been located east of Omiya Avenue and north of ShiJo. See also Sec. 129, n. r. 2. Princess Shiishi, called Takaiko, died in 848 at the age of eighteen. Arai, p. 373· 3· Minamoto Itaru, a grandson of Emperor Saga (r. 809-23), held a succession of fairly high offices. His reputed prowess as a lover seems to have been an invention of the IM author. 0/T, p 195, supp. n 45· 4· Ito aware. A reference to the Lotus Sutra, in which the Buddha says that mrvana 1s not extinction. The poem has the additional meanmg, "Judgmg from the delay, she may not be dead after all." Arai, p. 376, Vos, II, 97, n 26; de Bary et al., Sources of the Japanese Tradttion, p 123 5· The author's criticism seems to me to mean that greater sensitivity was to have been expected of a man noted for h1s ability to understand the feehngs of others. For different interpretations, see 0/T, p 134, n. 6, and Arai, p. 376. 6. The last paragraph is beheved to be an interpolatiOn. (6/T, p. 134, n. 7; Ara1, p. 379 ) Mmamoto Shitago (9rr-83) was a scholar who compiled a pioneer Chinese-Japanese dictionary, helped prepare glosses for I.

218

Notes to Pages 98-99 Man'yoshu, and shared in the compilation of Gosenshu. The last sentence presumably refers to the fact that the pnncess and Itaru were related.

40 ldete inaba. KWR (ZKT 33204), Narihira; ShokuGSS 836, Narihlra. In both collections, and in some IM texts, the first line reads either ltoite moor ltozte wa ("When there is tll feehng"). Such a phrase seems to fit the context better than ldete inaba, wh1ch would normally be translated, "If he/she leaves." It has been suggested (Arai, p. 394) that a copyIst's error has produced the present first line, which is identical with that of the first poem in the precedmg section. My translation is a rather uneasy compromise between the two versions, as is Vos's (I, 201) For another Interpretation, see 0/T, p 135, n. 22. 2. The Hour of the Dog was 7-9 P.M. 1.

41 Blue was the color prescribed for use by officials of the Sixth Rank (a low rank, presumably the one to which the sister's husband belonged). 2. Murasaki no. KKS 868, Nanhira, with the headnote "On sending a cloak to h1s brother-m-law"; KWR (ZKT 34347), Narihira. For murasakt, see Sec. I, n. 3· Since the KKS headnote fa1ls to specify the color of the cloak, the poet's intent is obscure. If the poem was indeed composed to accompany a gift, there is some reason to conclude that the cloak's color was deep purple (murasaki), the color worn by officials of the First Rank, since a reference to the g1ft would normally be expected in the poem. In that case, murasaki may have functiOned as a metaphor for the recipient-a complimentary comparison, since the plant would suggest the color worn by men of the h1ghest court rank and thus associated with exalted social status, good breeding, and superior personal attainments and character. See Kamata, p 400. In the IM context, murasaki stands for the poet's wife, and iro koki means not only "strong, deep color" but also "strong, deep love." Thus: "When a man's love for his w1fe is strong and deep, his affection extends to all who are associated w1th her; he makes no dtstmction between her and them." (Some commentators have seen in the mention of plants [ kusakt] an imphc1t reference to the color of the S1xth Rank cloak, which 1s tdenufied as roso, or mzdorz'zro. In the He1an penod, however, midon, now "green," meant "dark blue." See Yamagishi, III, 458, supp. n. 416.) On first readmg, It IS temptmg to conclude that the poem depicts a carpet of flowers engulfing the other plants on the plain, but the adjective 1.

219

Notes to Pages 99-IOO koki is inappropriate for white blossoms. The reference could conceivably be to the fresh green of the murasakz's new leaves, since spring, rather than the summer bloommg season, is suggested by the words me ("bud") and haru ("to swell" and "spring"), concealed m the homophonous me ("eye") and haru ("far") in the phrase me mo haru m ("as far as the eye can reach"; "vast" in the translation). It is worth noting, however, that the KKS compilers have classified Murasaki no under "Miscellaneous," rather than under either "Summer" or "Spring." Instead of striving for realism, the poet seems to be playing With words: "When the color of the murasakz (which is, of course, purple, because murasaki means purple) is strong and deep, then the whole plain is purple." The poem can perhaps best be understood as a wmy variation on KKS 867 below. 3· KKS 867, anon. Because of a single Murasaki no Hltomoto yue ni Murasakt plant, Musashino no I look With affection Kusa wa minagara On all the grasses Aware to zo miru. Of Musashi Plain.

Here again murasaki is a metaphor for the poet's wife. The poem's meaning approximates that of the IM poem. For Musashi Plain, see Sec. I2, n. I.

42 I. Idete koshi. SKKS 1408, Narihira.

43 I. Prince Kaya (794-871) was a son of Emperor Kammu (r. 78I-8o6). 2. Hototogisu: a small bud of the cuckoo family (Cuculus poliocephalus), noted for the beauty of its song. Often menuoned in classtcal poetry. For a picture, see Yamashina, p. I34· 3· Hototogisu .•. Omou mono kara. KKS 147, anon. The bird represents the girl. 4· Na nomi tatsu. Here the hototogisu is called by its other name, shtde no taosa, which means something hke "field boss" or "agricultural overseer." Iori ("huts," "cottages") were used by the overseers as temporary quarters during busy seasons. (The rationale behind the name shide no taosa is no longer understood. It may be of onomatopoetic origin, based on a fancied resemblance to the bird's song. For other theories, see Arat, pp. 413-17, and Vos, II, ror, n. n.) 220

Notes to Pages Ioo-1o2 5· The season when the hototogisu sings. The bird was thus a suitable topic. 6. lort okt. "I shall believe you as long as you contmue to meet me."

44 See Sec. 85, n. 3· 2, ldete yuku. KWR (ZKT 33203), Nanhira. The pmnt of the poem is m a pun on mo, which can mean both "train" and "misfortune." "I have removed the mo on your behalf; thus you will, I trust, suffer no calamity while you are away. And since I have passed the mo on to you, I shall henceforth have neither train nor misfortune." I.

45 The end of the Sixth Month in the lunar calendar fell roughly between mid-July and mid-August. 2. Yuku hotaru. GSS 252, Narihira; KWR (ZKT 34854), anon. The cool breeze, suggestmg the approach of autumn, prompts the poet to use the wild goose as a metaphor for the dead girl's spint, since geese return m the fall after departing in the spring, just as the girl has departed from the world in the springtime of hfe. His message thus becomes, ''Tell the lady that we long for her return." 3· Kuregataki. ShokuKKS 270, Narihira. Some commentators assume a lapse of time between the precedmg poem and this one. The man, they suggest, has shown his respect for the dead girl by staying in seclusion on one of the prescnbed mourning days, and as a result has been feehng rather bored. Arai, p. 430. I.

46 I.

Mekaru to mo. KWR (ZKT 32913), Narihira.

47 Onusa no. KKS 706, anon., with the headnote "Sent to Lord Narihira by a lady who thought him fickle." "Sacred wands" translates onusa, branches of the sacred sakaki tree ( Cleyera 1aponzca, a relative of the camelha) to which strips of cloth or paper were attached. The wands were used in Shmto purification ceremonies held on the banks of rivers. After a ceremony the spectators attempted to pull an onusa close enough to rub their bodies against it and transfer their defilements to it. The wands were then thrown into the I.

221

Notes to Pages 102-3 river. (Saeki, p. 24I; Arai, p. 442; Vos, II, I04, n. 7.) In the poem onusa 1s a pillow word for htku te ("pulhng hands"). 2. Onusa to. KKS 707, Narihira. The wording varies slightly.

48 I. lma zo shtru. KKS 96g, Nanhira; KWR (ZKT 32I5o), Narihira. Accordmg to KKS, which has a headnote closely resemblmg the IM account, the friend who fatled to appear was Kino Toshisada (d. 88I), a minor official and KKS poet. "Houses where I am expected" means ladies' houses. The sensibility revealed in the poem was admired by eighteenth-eentury classical scholars, who regarded It as unquestionably authentic Arai, p. 448.

49 I. In some IM texts, the first sentence reads, "Once a man, stirred by the s1ght of h1s beautiful younger sister playing the koto, composed this verse." It was m that form that the ep1sode was known to Murasaki Sh1kibu, who made it the basis of a scene in the "Agemaki" chapter of The Tale of Genji. (See Waley, The Tale of Genji, II, 878. For the koto see Arai, p. 450.) 2. Ura wakami. KWR (ZKT 34394), Narihira; SSZS IOI6, Narihira. By a convention of classical literature, travelers invariably sleep on beds of grass. Ura ("tip," translated with wakami as "fresh"), musubu ("tie"), and ne ("sleeping") are associative words linked to grass-ne because of the homophonous ne ("root"). This allegorical poem might also be rendered, How regrettable It is That someone else Will marry The young maiden So fresh and dehghtful to sleep with.

Wakakusa ("young grass"), which here represents the sister, has the connotation of "spouse" (see Sec. I2, n. 2). Line 5 probably contams a hidden reference to the koto (note I above) and its stnngs (o). 0/T, p. 139, n. 22; Arai, p. 45I. 3 Hatsukusa no. SSZS 1017, anon. Here I follow Murasaki Shik1bu and those commentators who take the lady's reply as ev1dence of an intimacy that she has no intention of endmg. (Waley, The Tale of Genji, II, 878; Yamagishi, IV, 443-44; Arai, p. 452) There 1s another possible 222

Notes to Pages IOJ-5 interpretation: "I have always felt perfectly at ease with you before; why must you spoil our pleasant relationship with talk of love?" 0/T, p. 139, n. 24i Vas, II, ros, n. II. Associative words lmked to kusa ("grass"): me ("bud,'' homophonous With the first syllable of mezurashikt, "rare,". "novel"), ha ("leaf," incorporated in koto no ha, "words"), ura ("up,'' homophonous with the ura of ura naku, "without reserve"). Hatsukusa no was perhaps intended as a p1llow word for mezurashtkt (Arat, p 451). Th1s frankly erotic exchange was a source of considerable embarrassment to medieval commentators anxious to protect Narihira, the supposed author of the first poem, from the charge of contemplated incest. Most of them felt obhged to do v10lence to the meanmg of the man's poem by some such mterpretat10n as, "How anxiously I hope that a good husband can be found for this fresh young maiden." As eighteenthcentury scholars pointed out, however, marriage between half-s1blmgs occurred in Japan as late as the begmning of the tenth century. (One reason for this, perhaps, was that children of the same man by different mothers were reared separately, and often knew one another only slightly, if at all ) There Is in any case no independent evidence that would connect either the poem or the episode with Nanhira. For extensive quotatiOns from medieval and later commentanes, see Arai, p. 453-60

so Tori no ko o. Probably based on a poem by Ki no Tomonori in KWR (ZKT 33048), from which It differs only m the last two hnes. The conceit seems to be of Chmese ongm. 0/T, p. rg6, supp. n. 51; Arai, p. 464. For Tomonori, see Sec. 21, n 1. 2. Asatsuyu wa. ShokuGSIS 1234, anon. 3· Fuku kaze m. ShokuKKS 1293, Nanhira. Probably adapted from a verse m the Po-shth wen-eht, a collectiOn of Po Chil-I's poetry well known in tenth-century Japan. Arai, p. 466; 0/T, p. rg6, supp. n. 52. 4· Yuku mtzu m KKS 522, anon. See 0/T, p. 196, supp. n. 53, for theories concermng the exact meaning of kazu kaku. 1.

51 I.

Ue sht ueba. KKS 268, Narih1ra; KWR (ZKT 34575), Narihira.

52 r. Decorated nee dumphngs (kazari chimakt) were a dehcacy of Clunese ongm, consumed annually on the Fifth of the Fifth Month to celebrate the Sweet-Flag Festival (Tango no secht). The exact nature of the

Notes to Pages 105-6 dish is no longer clearly understood, but the edtble portion was probably glutinous rice or a simtlar substance molded into a cylindrical shape, wrapped in the leaves of reeds (chz), wild rice (mak._omo), or the like, and steamed. The decorations apparently consisted of colored streamers, possibly wlth the addltlon of seasonal flowers. For a drawing, see Nagata, p. 232. See also 0/T, p. Ig6, supp. n. 54; Vos, II, 106, n. I; Arai, pp. 47I-?3· The Sweet-Flag Festival was mtended to ward off disease. It embraced a number of court rituals and popular customs, most of them involvmg the aromatic leaves and roots of the sweet-flag, to wh1ch the Chmese and Japanese, hke the medieval Europeans, ascribed medicmal properties. Sweet-flag leaves were stuffed under the eaves of houses and palace buildmgs, worn as hair ornaments, added to bath water, and formally presented to the emperor by court physicians at a Sweet-Flag Banquet; the roots were hung mside bmldmgs, used with nee wine in the preparatiOn of a health drink, etc. The sweet-flag, or calamus (Acorus calamus var. angustatus, the Calamus aromatzcus of medieval European druggists), was known in the Heian penod as ayame or ayamegusa; it IS now called shobu. Confusion with the modern ayame (Iris nertschinskza) and hanashobu (lrzs ensata; often called shobu), both of which are irises, has led to the common misnomer Ins Festival. The sweet-flag's leaves and roots resemble those of an iris but have a distmctive fragrance; the tiny, yellow-green flowers, massed together on blunt, tapering ears, are entuely unhke those of any iris. See Kitamura et a!., III, Plate 48 facmg p. I75· 2. Ayame k._ari. The point of the poem hinges on the dual meaning of karu, "to cut, reap" and "to hunt." Most commentators interpret the poem as evidence that chzmaki were sometimes wrapped in sweet-flag leaves, assummg that the leaves are menuoned because they formed part of the original gift.

53 Ika de ka wa. ShokuGSS 816, Narihira. For a posstble Chinese origin, see 0/T, p. I97, supp. n. 55; and Vos, II, I07, n. 7· I.

54 Yuk._iyaranu is essentially identical with GSS s6o, anon. "Since you care nothing for me, I cannot even see you in my dreams." Cf. Sec. g, n. 3· I.

55 I.

Omowazu wa. ShokuGSS 852, Narihira. 224

Notes to Pages 106-7

s6 x. Wa ga sode wa SCSS 1125, Nanhua. Tsuyu ("dew") is an cngo for kusa ("grass"). Dew IS a metaphor for tears. A freer translation: Howthedew Chngs to my sleeve As night closes inJust as though It were a hut Thatched with grass.

57 Kozwabznu. SCSS 722, anon. Possibly a revision of KKS 8o7 Arai, p. 487. After long uncertainty, warekara seems to have been fairly conclusively Identified with the caprella, a small amphipod crustacean with a tmy head and abdomen and a slender thorax about I Yz inches long. It takes on the coloratiOn of seaweed and other hosts, and hke other arthropods hves mside a shell that it sheds penodically. Because its name Is Identical m sound With ware kara ("of oneself"), it appears in classical verse as a pivot word. In this poem it is mtroduced by a two-hne preface. 0/T, p. 197, supp. n. 56; Arai, pp. 486--87. I.

ss Nagaoka was the site of the Imperial capital from 784, when Emperor Kammu left Nara, until 794, when for political and financial reasons a move was made to Kyoto (Heian). Recent archaeological investigatiOns have shown that the Nagaoka capital was a sizable city, occupying the areas of the present Oharano Vlilage, Nagaoka Township, Oyamazaki Township, Muko Township, Kuze Vlilage (all m Otokuni District, Kyoto Prefecture) and Fushirru Ward (inside the city of Kyoto). NRD, XIV, 62. 2 "Impenal estabhshment" possibly refers to the residence of one or more of Emperor Kammu's many daughters, at least some of whom are thought to have remained In Nagaoka after their father's departure. 0/T, p. 142, n. 8; Arai, pp. 491, 495· 3· Arentkeri. KKS 984, anon.; KWR (ZKT 32165), Lady Ise. This poem, in KKS an expression of nostalgic emouon, here becomes a jesting challenge to the house's owner. "Neglected house" is not to be taken literally. 0/T, p. 197, supp. n. 59· (For a different interpretation of the last line, see Arai, p. 492, and Vas, I, 215.) 4· Mugura oite. The man takes up the "ruined house" theme. There I.

225

Notes to Pages 107-9 is considerable literary evidence to suggest that demons in human form were believed to frequent abandoned dwellings. 0/T, pp. 197-98, supp. n. 6r. 5· The question is a coy invitation: "Come on out and we'll all go back to the fields together." 6. Uchiwabite. The law provided that fallen ears were to be left m the fields for the poor. Arai, p. 494·

59 r. The Eastern Hills run north and south on the outskirts of Kyoto, east of the Kamo R1ver. 2. Sumtwabznu. GSS 1084, Narihira; KWR (ZKT 3r86o), Narihira. In both collectiOns line 4 reads Tsumagt korubeki, "There to cut firewood." GSS headnote: "When he was diSSatisfied with the world." The attnbution to Narihira has been accepted by many scholars Arai, p 503 3· Wa ga ue m. KKS 863, anon. In Chmese and Japanese legend, the boat that crosses the River of Heaven (M1lky Way) is rowed by the Herdsman Star (Altair), who goes from the east bank to the west bank to visit his w1fe, the Weaver Maid (Vega), on the Seventh of every Seventh Month. The annual reunion was marked at the Heian court by the Tanabata Festival, vestiges of which still survive. Th1s poem, one of a KKS group expressing happmess over good fortune, 1s believed to have been composed dunng a Tanabata season, presumably m response to a favor of some sort. Dew is a metaphor for beneficence. Ara1, p. 503.

6o r. The Shmto shrine at Usa in Kyiishii (Usa Township, Usa District, Olta Prefecture) played a role in some of the ch1ef pohtlcal events of the Nara penod and was highly mfluential m later penods as well From 833 on, an 1mperial messenger was sent there to report every new accession to the throne, and special messengers reported other events of major natwnal importance. NRD, II, r8o. 2. Satsuki matsu. KKS 139, anon.; KWR (ZKT 35098), Lady Ise.

61 Tsukushi was an old name for Kyiishii. 2. Somegawa o. SIS 1234, Narihira. The Somegawa ("River of Dyes") flows through Tsukushi District, Fukuoka Prefecture, Kyiishii (upper course of the M1kasa). ''Not even the most soberly respectable person can avoid becoming I.

Notes to Pages IOCJ-11 something of a gallant when he arrives in Kyiishii and gets wet crossing this nver." The point of the poem 1s 10 the plays on Somegawa and tro m naru, a phrase meaning both "to become colored" and "to grow amorous." 3· Na ni shi owaba. GSS 1352, anon. Tawarejima ("Flirtation Island") 1s an isolated rock off the coast of Uto District, Kumamoto Prefecture, Kyiishii, near the mouth of the Mtdori River. It appears in classical poetry chiefly in adaptatiOns of tills verse. DCJ, I, 1707. "To wear drenched garments" (nureginu o kiru) means to be falsely accused The lady's poem says, in effect, "What's in a name? The 'River of Dyes' has nothing to do with your character; that was formed long ago. And obvwusly 'Flirtation Island' is not flirtatious. Do you remember the saying about drenched garments? One mtght say that this spraycovered Island 1s wearing them, for from a dtstance it seems indeed to be clad 10 white silk. R1ver or no nver, your own clothes are quite dry; no one has falsely accused you of anythmg."

62 r. lnishie no. The phrase kokeru kara is obscure and may be corrupt. have based the translation on a theory that explams it as "stripped branches," though kara usually means "stalk" or "trunk." Other IM texts offer two alternatives that are themselves puzzhng-wakeru kako and kokeru kako, both of which perhaps mean something hke "ravaged beauty." ("Where is your old allure, cherry blossoms? You have lost your looks.") 0/T, p 145, n. 19.

63 Momotose m. Some dtctwnaries define tsukumogami as "greyhaired." The translation follows 0/T, p. 198, supp. n. 66. 2. Samushtro m. KKS 68g, anon.; KWR (ZKT 33836), anon. The IM vemon differs slightly from the others. 3· This episode, the only one m whtch the IM author specifically names Narihira, furnishes valuable direct information about Narihira's reputation 10 the early Heian period. The behavior attributed to him has traditionally been regarded as a classic example of sensiuvity to the feelings of others, one that perhaps influenced Murasaki Shtklbu's descriptions of the consideratiOn Prince Genj1 showed to unfortunate ladies such as the red-nosed pnncess. (See Waley, The Tale of Gen,i, I, 122.) The poem Momotose ni, which hardly seems complimentary, is explained by commentators as an expression of sympathy. Arai, p. 537; Kamata, pp. 290, 296. 1.

227

Notes to Pages

III-13

64 I.

Fuku kaze nt. SSZS

1214,

Nanhira.

6s In the He1an period, holders of any giVen court rank wore outer robes of a special color that was prohibited to persons of lower rank. From about the tenth century on, however, the term "forb1dden color" (kinjzkt) was apparently used mamly in reference to robes of deep purple and deep red worn by members of the Imperial family or great mmisters of state. (Somewhat later, kznJZkt's meaning was expanded to include particularly luxunous fabncs, notably a trousers material descnbed as ayame ni ka no bun aru mono, wh1ch had an elaborate woven pattern of floral medallions on a checkerboard background ) The reference here IS presumably to a rule that applied specifically to women: aqua green (ao) or red damask jackets, and trams decorated with stencilled designs, could be worn only by the h1ghest-rankmg members of the Important lmpenal Handmaids Office (nazshi no tsukasa), by daughters and granddaughters of mm1sters of state, and by others who had received special wntten impenal perm1ss1on. OIT, p. rg8, supp. n. 68, Kamata, p. 3or; Ara1, pp. 551-52; NRD, VI, 177 2. The text 1mphes that the lovers are Koshi and Nanh1ra. 3· Omou nz wa. Attnbuted to Narihira m SKKS (nsr). It seems to be a rather lackluster combmat10n of hnes from two KKS poems. KKS 503, anon : Omou nz wa I Shznoburu koto zo I Makenikeru I fro nt wa zdeJI to I Omotshz mono o ("I had mtended to conceal my pas>wn, but caution has been vanqmshed by love.") KKS 615, Tomonon: lnochz ya wa I Nanz zo wa tsuyu no I Ada mono o I Au nz shi kaeba I Oshzkaranaku nz. ("What is hfe? It is transient as dew. Let me but see you and I shall have no regrets") 4· The Intendance Bureau (tonomozukasa, tonomo11zukasa) was a housekeepmg branch of the Imperial Household Mm1stry, With jumdiction over the 1mpenal carnages and htters, bhnds, curtams, firewood, charcoal, the cleaning and lighting of palace apartments and gardens, etc. The gardeners and cleaners were at work early m the mormng 5 By tossmg his shoes toward the intenor of the area reserved for footgear, the youth hoped to make 1t seem that he had been in the building all night The shoes of latecomers would be closest to the door. 6. KotseJt to. KKS 501, anon. Mztarashtgawa, "Stream of Punfication"-literally "August HandWashmg Rtver"-occurs m Japanese literature both as a proper noun and as a term used of any stream near a Shmto shrine where worshipers I.

Notes to Pages IIJ-14 purified themselves by washing their hands and rinsmg their mouths. I have capitalized it m the translation because of the hkehhood that the author intended to suggest the well-known stream traversing the precmcts of the two Kamo Shrines on the outskirts of the capital Kubota, KKS, III, 318; Yokomichi and Omote, I, I46, n. 8, 0/T, p 148, n. 2. 7· No rehable source mentions Nanhira's banishment Arai, pp. 57376, has marshalled circumstantial evidence mtended to demonstrate its histoncity. 8. Ama no karu. KKS 8o7, Naishi no Suke Fujiwara Chokushi (Naoiko); KWR (ZKT 32729), Naishi no Suke Kiyoiko The first two lines functiOn as a preface, wtth warekara as a pivot word Thetr meamng-"the warekara dwelling in the seaweed that fisherfolk reap"-1s unrelated to the sense of the poem. (For warekara, see Sec. 57.) 9· Sari tomo to. SCSS 868, anon. 10. ltazura nt. KKS 62o, anon; KWR (ZKT 3388I), Hitomaro. I r. This paragraph, mi~smg in some texts, appears to be an interpolation. The Mtzunoo Emperor was Emperor Seiwa. The Empress from Somedono was Emperor Setwa's mother; the Empress from the Ftfth Ward, his grandmother (Emperor Montoku's mother). In Sect10n 65 the text does not follow the usual version of Narihira's affair with Kiishi, which supposedly took place during the reign of Emperor Montoku, Emperor Setwa's predecessor, at a time when Kiishi was at most I6 years old, Setwa was 8 or younger, and Nanhira was not a boy but a man of between 25 and 33·

66 r. Naniwa The area comprising the present city of Osaka and its envtrons. Site of several ancient tmpenal palaces, an Important harbor. 2. Namwazu o. KWR (ZKT 32662), Nanhira; GSS 1245, Nanhira, With the headnote "Wntten when he had gone to hve m Settsu Provmce m a time of distress" The attnbut10n to Nanhira is wtdely accepted. Ara1 (p. 583) takes the GSS headnote as evidence that Nanlura was exiled to Settsu. Mztsu is a pivot word meanmg both "harbor" and "see"; umi means both "sea" and "weariness," "trouble." Watching the toihng boatmen, the poet sees them as symbolic of suffermg humanity.

I. The Second Month would correspond approximately to the cherry blossom season (March or Apnl m the solar calendar). 229

Notes to Pages II4-16 2. Mt. Ikoma. See Sec. 23, n. 5· 3· Kino kYo "In bloom" means snow-covered.

68 r. Sumiyoshi District in Settsu Province occupied the area of the present Sumiyoshi Ward m Osaka. Sumiyoshi (Suminoe), on the shore of Naniwa Bay (now Osaka Bay), was the site of an important shnne whose god was a patron of seafarersand, from the He1an penod on, of poets. The beach in the vicinity of the shnne, once famous for 1ts beautiful pines, has been destroyed by reclamation work, and the ancient shrine precincts have been converted into a public park surrounded by city streets. 2 Kart nakzte. Sumtyoshi is a pivot word, functioning both as a place name and in its literal meamng, "a pleasant place to hve."

69 r. Records of the early Heian period occasionally report the dispatch of parties of half a dozen courtiers, equipped With dogs and hawks, to hunt birds for the palace table in provinces near the capital. The leader of such a group, usually a jumor officer of Fifth Rank, was called the Imperial Huntsman (kari no tsukai). 0/T, p. 150, n. 5; Arai, p. 598. 2. The Ise Virgm was the ch1ef pnestess of the Inner Shrine at the great Ise Shnne, dedicated to Amaterasu, the ancestor of the imperial family. At the beginning of each new re1gn, a Virgin was chosen from among unmarried daughters of emperors and imperial princes. By mentiomng the Virgin's mother, the text hints that the Huntsman was Nanhira and the V1rgm Princess Tenshi (Note 3 below). The princess's mother was a sister of K1 no Aritsune, Narihira's father-in-law. 3· Kzmt ya koshi. KKS 645, anon.; KWR (ZKT 32888), Ise Virgin. KKS headnote: "When Nanh1ra went to Ise Province, he paid a most secret vis1t to the Virgin. The next mormng, as he was thinking of her longmgly (he could not very well send her a message), someone brought h1m this." It was traditionally assumed, on the basis of this headnote and IM, that Nanh1ra actually seduced one of the Ise V1rgms, Princess Tenshi (Yasuko, d. 913), who held office from 859 to 876, during Emperor Seiwa's re1gn. There is no evidence that th1s 1s more than a romantic myth. Seep 49· The poem is typical of the age m its elegant confusion. For a brief analysis, see B!M, p. r6o. 4· Kakzkurasu. KKS 646, "Reply"; KWR (ZKT 32889), "Reply." In the 230

Notes to Pages II]-I8 two anthologies, and also m some IM texts, the last hne, correspondmg to hne 3 of the translatiOn, reads Yohtto sadameyo ("Someone else must decide," i e., "Like you, I find It impossible to reach a conclusion"). For an analysis of the poem m the context of the classical tradition, see B/M, pp. 217, 474 Some scholars contend that the headnote to KKS 645 is an mterpolation, and that here, as elsewhere, an IM author has invented a context for a pmr of verses from the anthology. Arai, p. 612. 5· Kaclubtto no. KWR (ZKT 33775), anon. There 1s a pun on e m sht ("creek" plus two particles) and enishi ("affimty," "relatiOnship") and another on the 6 of Osaka, homophonous with au, "to meet." Osaka Barrier, Immortalized m innumerable literary references, was near the capital, on the road taken by travelers to Ise (south of the present city of Otsu m Sh1ga Prefecture [Omi Province]). 6 Th1s sentence may be an mterpolauon. 0/T, p. 152, n. 6. For Prince Koretaka, see pp. 44-45

70 Oyodo Crossing (Oyodo no Watan) was probably the Ise terminal of a ferry from Owari Provmce, though some commentators take watart to mean simply "vicimty" (atart). Oyodo, now a part of the city of Ise, was ongmally a hamlet on Ise Bay that took its name from a nearby shnne The Ise VIrgin's residence was not far off, and the seashore, known as Oyodo Bay, was the place where she punfied herself The reader Is no doubt mtended to assume that the Imperial Huntsman 1s spendmg the mght at Oyodo as he Journeys back toward the capital from Owan (see the precedmg section), and that he recognizes the g1rl of the Ktmt ya kosht episode among a group of young attendants whom the V1rgm has sent to convey conventiOnal greetmgs. 0/T, p. 152, notes IO and u; Arai, pp. 6r9-20 2 Mtrume karu. SKKS w8o, Narihira. Possibly an adaptation of a poem by Ono no Takamura (802-52). Ara1, p 621 The poem turns on the identity in sound between mirume, a kind of seaweed (Sec. 25, n. 2), and mtru me, "seeing eyes." Its message: "Tell me how I can meet the Vugin." 0/T, p. 152, n. 12. 1.

1. See Sec. 69, notes 2 and 3 2. Chthayaburu. ShokuSZS 1400, anon. The first three hnes appear in MYS (2663, anon.) and, With shght vanatwns, in SIS (924, H1tomaro) and KWR (ZKT 31941, anon.). Chthayaburu, "m1ghty," IS an ancient pillow word for "god.''

Notes to Pages u8-2o At Shmto shrmes a fence encloses the sacred area in which the god dwells-a place to be avmded by mortals 3· Korshrku wa. ShokuSZS I401, "Nanhtra's reply."

72 Oyodo no. SKKS I432, anon. Posstbly based on KKS 626, a similar poem by Nanhtra's grandson, Motokata (888--953). Arat, p 628. For Oyodo, see Sec 70, n. I. The lady ts the pine tree; the man the waves. A pun on matsu ("pine tree," "watt") gtves the second !me an added meanmg: "I find it hard to watt; I long to meet you" Uramrte means both "feehng resentment" and "seeing the beach " I.

73 Me ni wa mite. The first four hnes are identtcal wtth MYS 632 by Pnnce Yuhara; KWR (ZKT 35I31), anon; and SCSS 955, anon. Accordmg to Chinese legend, there ts an enormous cinnamon tree on the moon, magtcally reststant to the eternal onslaughts of a man wtth an axe OIT, p. I99, supp. n 70; Vos, II, I24, n 4· I.

74 !wane fumi. Probably a variant of MYS 2422, anon See also SIS 969, anon. OIT, p I99, supp n 71. 1

75 Oyodo no. The poem is a pohte dtsmissal. 'We have seen each other a few Urnes and that ts quite enough to satisfy me. I don't thmk it 1s necessary to become better acquamted." The first two hnes, omitted m the translation, are "The seaweed that is satd to grow I At the beach of Oyodo." They constitute a preface for miru, whtch again functions as both "see" and "seaweed" (cf. Sections 25, 70). For Oyodo, see Sec 70. 2. Sode nurete. SCSS 65I, Narihtra. The man repeats the tmagery of the lady's poem m his reply, composing a three-line preface for mrru: "[The seaweed] from the ocean I Reaped and dried I By sleeve-drenched fisherfolk." 3· lwama yorz. SCSS 652, anon. The poem has probably been corrupted in transmtsslon. A certain amount of forcing ts necessary to make sense of tt unless one adopts the versiOn that appears in some other IM texts, where !me 3 becomes Tsune naraba. Arai, pp. 632, 636, and 639; 0/T, p. 199, supp. n. 73 A preface and plays on words continue the manne tmagery. The poem I.

Notes to Pages 120-21 has a second level of meaning whtch is not altogether clear. One posstble interpretatwn: If no harm befalls The seaweed that grows Between the rocks, Perchance a shellfish wtlllodge there As the tides ebb and flow. Puns: (r) mirume, "seaweed" and "seeing eye"; (2) shio hi shio mtchi, "the ebb and flow of the tide" and "in any case"; (3) kat, "shellfish" and "result." 4· Namida ni zo. ShokuGSS 699, Nanhtra.

FuJiwara Koshi. The Fujiwara tutelary god, Amenokoyane no Mtkoto, said in the earliest chronicles to have descended from heaven with Nmigi no Mtkoto, an ancestor of the impenal famt!y, and to have assisted in estabhshmg the Japanese state. Hts mam shrine was at Kasuga in Nara. The reference here 1s to the newer shnne at the foot of Mt. Oshio (640 m.) in Oharano (now Oharano Vtllage, Otokum Dtstrict, Kyoto Prefecture), established pnmanly for the convemence of Fujiwara ladies after the court's removal from Nara to Nagaoka It was tradttlonal for Imperial consorts of FUJIWara buth to make at least one pt!grimage to Oharano. The KKS headnote to the poem m thts sectwn speaks of a pilgrimage to the shnne undertaken by Koshi, but Sandai Jttsuroku contains no record of such a visit, whtch presumably would have occurred between 869, when the lady's son was named crown pnnce, and 876, when he ascended the throne. For a dtscussion of efforts to pm the IM episode to a historical event, see Ara1, pp. 645-46. 3· Nanhira became an Acting Mtddle Captam in the Imperial Guards in 875 at the age of 50. SJ, p. 357; Arai, p. 647, 0/T, p. 154, n. u; Vos, II, 126, n. 6. 4· Ohara ya. KKS 871, Nanhtra; KWR (ZKT 31793), Narihira. KKS headnote: "Composed when the Empress from the Second Ward, then the Mother of the Crown Prince, made a pilgnmage to Oharano." The poem mtght be paraphrased as follows: "On this auspicious occasion, when a daughter of the FuJiwara visits Oharano Shnne as an imperial consort and the mother of an emperor-destgnate, the god wtll surely be remmded of the days when he too served the throne." The IM context, through the adroit msertwn of fictitious detat!, implies a second level of meamng-"Do you remember the days of our youth when we were m love?" I.

2.

233

Notes to Pages

121-22

5· Some commentators take the man to be the subject, in which case the sentence would mean "Perhaps he was gnevmg inwardly-but then again, who can tell?"

77 The Tamura Emperor was Montoku (827-58, r. 85o-58), so called from the location of h1s tomb at Tamura, in Kadono District, Yamashiro Provmce (now Samb1-cho, Uzumasa, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto). 2. Takak1ko (d. 858) Eldest daughter of FuJIWara Yoshisuke (81367), who was a son of Fuyutsugu and the brother of Yoshifusa and of Montoku's mother Junshi. She and Montoku were thus first cousins. Montoku actually predeceased her by about three months. 3· AnJOJl Temple. Situated near the capital, at Yamashina (now in H1gashiyama-ku, Kyoto); founded m 848 under the sponsorship of Empress Junshi. 4· FuJIWara Tsuneyuki (d. 875). He1r of Yosh1suke and brother of Takak1ko. He d1d not become Captain of the R1ght untd 866, e1ght years after h1s sister's death. 5· Commander of the Right Hone Bureau. Th1s was one of Narihira's offices, but he d1d not acqUire 1t until 865. Nanh1ra was 33 years old m 858. 6. Yama no mina. KWR (ZKT 33329), Narihira; ShokuGSS 1258, Nanh1ra. Takakiko died on the Fourteenth of the Eleventh Month in 858. The services at the AnJOJl were to mark the forty-ninth day after her death (see Sec. 78, n 2), and so should have been performed on the Second of the FirSt Month of 859, but the poet's fourth hue (''This springtime parting," also translatable as "The departure of spnng") seems to imply, whether With or without historical jusuficatwn, that they were postponed until the end of spring. One IM text specifically states that the cerememes took place on the last day of the Th1rd Month, i.e. the last day of spnng. In any case, the reference to spnng 1s a renunder of the youth of the lady, who was probably m her twenties, at most, when she d1ed. The poet's "elegant confus10n" is msp1red by a passage in the Nirvana Sutra wh1ch says that mountams split asunder when the Buddha entered Nuvana. 0/T, p 155, n. 35i Arai, pp 653, 657; Vos, II, 128, n. 21. I.

See Sec. 77, n. 2. Accordmg to Buddhist doctrine, an ordinary human being-someone who has been neither very good nor very bad-spends the first fortymoe days after his death m an mtermed1ate existence, preparatory to I.

2.

234

Notes to Pages 122-23 being reborn. During that period, and especially on the forty-ninth day, when his case is judged, the prayers and good works of others can Improve h1s chances of becommg a buddha. 3 See Sec. 77, n. 3· 4· See Sec. 77, n. 4· 5· Yamashma was in Yamashiro Provmce close to the capital; now m H1gashiyama-ku, Kyoto. 6. Usually 1denufied as Prince Saneyasu (831-72), a son of Emperor N1mmyo who hved at Yamashina after takmg religious vows in the F1fth Month of 85g-somewhat later than Takak1ko's Forty-mnth Day. Scholars considering it necessary to deal with the discrepancy have suggested as an alternative an uncle of Nanh1ra, Prince Takaoka, who became a monk well before the lady's death, and who may have hved m the Yamashma area before he went off to Chma (m 862) and ultimately to Laos, where he apparently d1ed when well along in his eighties. 0/T, p. 156, n. 3; Vas, II, 128, n II; Arai, p. 664. 7· Emperor Se1wa went to v1ew the cherry blossoms at the Th1rd Ward residence of Tsuneyuk1's father, Yosh1suke, in the spnng of 866 (several years after Tahk1ko's death). Such a mark of favor was a source of great prestige and mvolved elaborate preparations on the part of the host. On that occasion the entertamment mduded an archery contest, mus1c, dances, the compos1Uon of Chinese poems, and a banquet. SJ, p. 179. 8. A stretch of coast in the present township of Minabe, H1daka District, Wakayama Prefecture. 9· The object was to make the moss look as though 1t had grown naturally m the shape of characters-a nouon probably suggested by a famous couplet from Po Chu-1's Collected Works (Po-shth wen-cht): I burned autumn leaves in the woods to warm my wine; I scraped the moss from rocks to form the letters of poems. From a poem remmiscing about pleasant days at a mountain temple. Arai, p. 671; Kawaguchi and Shida, pp. 103, 265; M1zuno, pp. 294-97.

79 More literally, "someone in the family." As indicated in the passage following the poem (beheved to be an mterpolat!On), this has been interpreted as a reference to Narihira's niece, a mmor consort of Emperor Se1wa, who bore the emperor's eighth son, Pnnce Sadakazu (875-916). 0/T, p. 157, n. 26; Arai, p. 6732. Wa ga kado m. Anon.; sometimes attributed to an IM author. The poem means that the new pnnce's maternal relatives can now hope for preferential treatment. "Bamboo" or "bamboo grove" as a metaphor for I.

235

Notes to Pages 123-24 "prince" is said to derive from a famous bamboo park owned by a son of Emperor Wen (r. 17g-156 B.c.) of China. Arai, p. 673; 6/T, p. 200, supp. n. 75; Vos, II, 131, n. 4 3· Narihira became a Mtddle Captain in 875, the year of the prince's birth (SJ, p. 357). Commentators explain the gossip as "probably the result of Nanhira's reputation " Kamata, p. 366. 4· Yuk1h1ra (8r8-93) had a much more successful career than Narihira, rising through a series of responstble positions to the high office of Mtddle Counselor (m 882) With Senior Third Rank (achieved Ill 884). He was also a poet of considerable stature; eleven of his poems appear in KKS and other imperial anthologies.

8o r. Nuretsutsu zo. KKS 133, Narihira. Headnote: "Sent to someone with a spray of wisteria flowers plucked on a rainy day late in the Third Month." Spring began on the First of the Fmt Month and ended on the last day of the Third Month. In KKS the poem is an expression of the elegant Heian sensibility: "I have not minded getting wet, because I Wish very much for you to share my enJoyment of the fragile, ephemeral beauty that, hke the spring -and indeed hke man and his works-vanishes all too soon." The IM mtroductlon changes the mood by using the phrase otoroetaru ze (either "a house [family) that has seen better days" or "a dilapidated dwelling") and the verb tatematsuru ("to do somethmg for a superior"). The poem thus takes on new overtones and illustrates a somewhat dtfferent aspect of mono no aware: "At my humble house there is nothing of value except these flowers, which I have plucked for you, gettmg myself soaked Ill the process, in the hope that you may remember my phght and be moved to help me." Arai, pp. 676--78.

81 r. Minamoto Toru (822--95), a son of Emperor Saga, who was Minister of the Left from 872 until his death. Literary and historical works contam many references to his luxunous manswn, known as the Riverside Palace (Kawara no m), and, m particular, to the lake in his garden, which was designed to resemble Shwgama Bay, a renowned scenic spot in Mtchmoku Provmce 10 northeastern Japan (now the harbor for Shtogama City, a few miles northeast of Sendat m Miyag1 Prefecture). Toru is said to have mamtained ocean fish and crustaceans in the lake

Notes to Pages 124-25 by filling it with salt water, regularly replenished from Naniwa, and to have aSSJgned servants to tend "salt fires" on the shore (whether or not they actually made salt is unclear). The earhest hterary reference to the garden is probably a poem by Tsurayukt (KKS 852), written during a v1sit to the house after Toru's death: Kimtmasade Kebun taemshi Shtogamano Urasabtsh1ku mo Mtewataru kana.

Wtth aching heart I gaze At Shiogama Bay, Its plumes of smoke extinguished Now that the master Is no longer here.

2. Shiogama nt ShokuGSIS 967, Nanh1ra Attributed by some commentators to an IM author. Arai, p 676.

82 Narihira's patron See pp 44-45. 2. Yamazaki was a famous old Yodo River port and overland communicatiOns center, situated on the matn h1ghway leading west from the cap1tal, tn the southernmost part of Otokum Dtstnct, Yamashiro (now Oyamazakt Vtllage, Otokum D1stnct, Kyoto Prefecture). Minase was an adpcent area m Shimanokami District, Settsu Province (now Htrose, a part of Shtmamoto Township, M1shima D1stnct, Osaka Prefecture). The whole Yamazakt-Minase regwn was used as an 1mpenal huntmg ground, and several emperors and other members of the imperial famtly maintained v1llas there at one time or another. The exact location of Prmce Koretaka's house ts unknown Arai, p 693. 3· Katana was the name of an old d1stnct 10 the northernmost part of Kawacht Province (now mcorporated mto Knakawacht D1stnct and Htrakata Ctty, Osaka Prefecture). The portiOn of the dtstnct ad1o10ing the Mmase-Yamazaki area belonged to the hunt10g preserve, and 10 the early mnth century there apparently was a temporary shelter there for the convenience of 1mpenal sportsmen. The Nagisa House, owned by Emperor Montoku and later by Prince Koretaka, was probably bmlt for a similar purpose. According to tradition, the present Kannondo Temple at Nagisa, Htrakata C1ty, stands on the house's stte. Arat, p. 695; 0/T, p. 200, supp. n. 77; Saek1, p. II4 4· Yo no naka nz. KKS 53, Narihira; KWR (ZKT 35056), Narihira. KKS headnote: "On seeing the cherry trees at the Nagisa House." For a dtscusston of the poem, see pp. 5o-51. 5· Chireba koso appears to be a revtsion of KKS 71, anon. (Arai, p. 7°5). 1.

237

Notes to Pages 125-27 Nokorinaku Ch1ru zo medetaki Sakurabana Arite yo no naka Hate no ukereba.

It is precisely because Cherry blossoms scatter swiftly That we find them appealing, For things that linger overlong in this world End by becoming distasteful.

6. Amanogawa ("River of Heaven") was another name for the area known as Km'ya ("Forbidden Plain"), now a part of H1rakata City in 6saka Prefecture. A nver by the same name, a tributary of the Yodo, flowed nearby. 7· Kartkurashi. KKS 418, Narih1ra; KWR (ZKT 32057), anon. For the Weaver Ma1d, see Sec. 59, n. 3· 8. The prince's uncle and Nanh1ra's father-in-law. See Sec. r6, n. I. 9 Hitotose ni. KKS 419, Kino Antsune; KWR (32058), anon. ro. Akanaku ni. KKS 884, Nanhira. The moon represents the prince. See pp. roff. II. Oshinabete. GSS 1250, Kanzuke Mmeo (fl. first half of ninth c.). This section illustrates most of the prmcipal techmques employed by the IM author(s). An initial pair of poems Is produced by judicious tinkering; a second pa1r is taken as a unit from KKS; a third pa1r is created by a skillful matching of two verses from different sources; and a partly or wholly fictitious context is provided for overall unity. Section 82 is among the most interestmg and successful of all IM episodes. It contains three excellent poems by Narihira, it brings Heian court society to life with vivid p1ctonal detail, and its prose has a vigor and elegance that contrast sharply With the colorless language of the headnotes to KKS 418 and 419.

83 r. Commander of the Right Horse Bureau. See Sec. 77, n. 5 Narihira was 47 years old when the pnnce became a monk (in 872). 2. Mmase. See Sec. 82, n. 2. 3· Makura tote. KWR (ZKT 34088), anon.; SCSS 538, Narihira. "I don't want to spend another mght away from home. Furthermore, the mght will be half gone unless I leave soon; these spnng mghts do not last long." "Grass pillow" (kusamakura) was a metaphor for journey, derived from the traveler's custom of gathering grasses on which to sleep. The poet uses the figure because he is just returmng from a trip. 4· Ono was an old name for the area more recently occupied by 6hara and Yase villages (m the former Otagi District, Yamashiro), which is now incorporated in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto C1ty. Prince Koretaka's grave is at 6hara Ueno-cho, Sakyo-ku, and his house is said to have been close by.

Notes to Pages I27-29 The proximity of Ono to Mt. H1ei exposed it to chillmg winds and made it cold and snowy in winter. 5· For Mt. Hid, see Sec. 91 n. 6. 6. The New Year was a season of fevensh act1v1ty, impressive ceremonies, and gay festivtt1es in the capital-above all, a time for formally paying respects to superiors and patrons. But the prince, his once brilliant prospects gone, is neglected and lonely. 7· Wasurete wa. KKS 970, Narihira; KWR (ZKT 3I592), anon. The second part of this well-known section has been influential m shaping Nanh1ra's Image as a man of courage and integnty, not merely a gifted but rather frivolous poet. Some Japanese cntlcs also find here an illustration of what they regard as the peculiar excellence of early classical hterature-nch emotiOnal intensity and overtones of feehng expressed With economy of language, through the use of evocative detail. It is gomg too far to claim, as Arai does (p. 7I9), that nothing m The Tale of Gentz or any other He1an work equals the deep pathos and mexhaustlble overtones of this passage, but the author has provided Nanhira's poem w1th a context that matches its tone adm1rably.

84 I. Narih1ra's mother was Pnncess Ito (d. 86I), a daughter of Emperor Kammu (r. 78I-8o6). 2. Nagaoka. See Sec. 58, n I. 3 According to one tradition, Yukihira was also Princess Ito's son. Some commentators therefore interpret httotsu ko ("only son") as "favorIte son" 0/T, p. I6I, n 37; Arai, p. 735· 4 Omureba. KKS 900, Pnncess Ito, with a headnote resembling the IM introduction. 5 Yo no naka ni. KKS 90I, Nanhira, "Reply." The KKS version differs slightly.

85 I. This section, following upon Sections 83 and 84, implicitly identifies the man and h1s patron as Narihira and Pnnce Koretaka. (Note that m the last sentence the monk 1s actually called "the prince.") Since Narihtra was I9 when the prince was born, early commentators felt obliged to explam away the phrase "smce his chtldhood" by theonzing that the prince's chtldhood was meant; but Ara11s surely on the nght track when he mamtams, followmg Kamo Mabuchi and other Tokugawa scholars, that much of the interest of lse monogatarz was constdered to derive precisely from its combmation of fact and fiction. Arai, pp. 738, 742.

239

Notes to Pages

129-30

2. Omoedomo. KWR (ZKT 316oo), anon. Possibly based on materials drawn from KKS 373 and 977· Arai, p. 743· "I should !Ike to place myself at your dtsposal permanently, but I cannot be in two places at once, and duty requires me to stay in the capital. Happtly, the snow now compels me to do what I should most like to do, t.e. stay here." Another posstble mterpretatton ( 0/T, p. 162, n. 14): "Although I never forget you, I cannot be in two places at once, and thus my heart, filled with thoughts of you, has become very like the ground outside your house covered with snowdnfts by these mcessantly falling flakes." 3· Texttles and rice were the main media of exchange in the Heian period, and for obvious reasons cloth was preferred to gram for casual gift-givmg. A garment could be sold, worn, given to a relative, or, if the donor were sufficiently exalted, kept as a family treasure.

86 1. lma made ni. KWR (ZKT 33763), anon.; SKKS 1365, anon.

87 r. Mubara (Ubara) Dtstnct occupied a narrow strip of land between the mountains and the sea m what is now the metropolitan Kobe area. Ashtya has become Ashtya Ctty, ad)otmng Kobe. It is not known whether or not Narihtra owned land at Ashiya, but legend connects his father with the area. Arai, p. 754· 2. Ashinoya no. SKKS 1588, Narihira; KWR (ZKT 34026), anon. Except for the place name Ashmoya-no-nada, the poem is almost identical wtth MYS 278. Ashinoya 1s a variant form of Ashiya, found chtefly in poetry. Here the word ts used both as a place name and in its ltteral meaning, "reed-thatched huts." 3· The reader is intended to assume that the man ts also an Assistant Commander. Narihtra became an Actmg Assistant Commander in the Military Guards of the Left tn 863. 4· Yukthtra (Sec. 79, n. 4) was appointed Commander of the Mtlitary Guards of the Left m 864. Narihira was transferred to the post of Lesser Captam m the Imperial Guards at the same time, and thus was in fact not an Asststant Commander when Yukthira was a Commander. 0/T, p. 163, n. 31. 5· Nunobtki Falls. On the upper course of the Ikuta River in what is now the mountamous eastern sector of Kobe City (Fukiai-ku, NunobikichO). 6. W arOde, a round cushion about two inches thick and two feet in diameter, made of straw, rushes, or sedge plaited in a spiral pattern.

Notes to Pages 13o-33 7· Wa ga yo o ba. SKKS 1649, Yukihira, With a headnote, "On going to see Nunobtkt Falls." The poem has been attnbuted to an IM author. Arai, pp. 265, 267. Ptvot words: kai ("efficacy" [kai no namz, "m vam"] and "gorge, ravine" [not in the translation]); namtda (nami 1s a negative, namtda means "tears"). 8. Nuktmidaru. KKS 923, Narihira; KWR (ZKT 32567), anon. KKS headnote: "Composed when a group of people were recitmg poems below Nunobiki Falls." "Narrow-sleeved" implies "humble," "unfortunate" (because people of low rank wore modest attire). 9· Mochiyoshi. Unknown. 10. Haruru yo no. SKKS 1589, Nanhira. It has been attributed to an IM author. Arat, pp. 763, 768. 11. Watatsumt no. KWR (ZKT 33171), anon. "The sea god caused last night's storm because he wished to giVe you somethmg he values highly." A graceful compliment, appropriately concluding one of IM's most elegant episodes.

88 Okata wa. KKS 879, Nanhira; KWR (ZKT 31217), anon. "On this autumn mght, emotion overcomes reason; against my better judgment, I delight in the full moon's beauty." Thts ts one of Narihira's best-known poems. For another translation and an analysis of the verse m the context of the Heian poetic tradition, see B/M, pp. 161-62. I.

89 I. Hito shirezu. SZKKS II57, Narihira. "... people would blame my death on the curse of some god to whom, it would be thought, I had gtven offense."

91 I. The reader is expected to infer that unrequited love is the cause of the man's low spmts. 0/T, p 166, n. I. 2. Oshzmedomo. GSS 141, anon. In the GSS context the poem is simply a lament for the passmg of spnng; the IM introductiOn makes it a love poem: "I had prayed that my sutfenng mtght end soon, but already it is the last day of spring-a spnng far d1fferent from the one I had hoped for." Arai, p. 777·

Notes to Pages 135-37 92 I. Ashzbe kogu. GYS I272, Nanhira. Perhaps a revision of K.KS 732. Arai, p. 779·

93 I. Onaona. KWR (ZKT 33960), anon.

94 I. Aki no yo wa. KWR (ZKT 3372I), anon. "Autumn nights" represents the new husband, "spring days" the old. In classical Japanese literature, fog is associated with autumn and mist with spring. 2. Chiji no aki. ''Maple leaves" represents the new husband, "cherry blossoms" the old. The lady means that no man can be trusted.

95 Hikoboshz ni. "The Herdsman Star is more fortunate than I. He can at least cross the barrier once a year." For the legend of the Herdsman Star and the Weaver Maid, see Sec. 59, n. 3· I.

I.

Aki kakete. SCSS 736, anon.

97 The Mmister of State from Horikawa was Fujiwara Mototsune (836-91), son of Nagara; adopted by Yosh1fusa, whom he succeeded as head of the FuJiwara family and principal figure at court. H1s main residence was m the N!JO Horikawa sectiOn of the capital. H1s fortieth birthday was celebrated m the spnng of 875, while he was Mm1ster of the Right (For He1an b1rthday celebratiOns, see Sec. 29, n. I. Mototsune was born in a Year of the Dragon.) 2. Thought to have been a secondary residence maintained in the capital by Mototsune 0/T, p I6g, n. 33; Ara1, p. 814; Saeki, p. 170. 3 Nanhlfa had become a Middle Captain in the First Month of that year (875). He was 50 4· Sakurabana. KKS 349, Nanhira. Headnote: "Composed on the occasion of a forueth birthday celebratiOn for the Mm1ster of State from Horikawa, held at the Nmth Ward House." I.

Notes to Pages 137-38 98 I. The Chancellor traditionally has been Identified as FuJIWara Yoshifusa (Aral, p 822). Th1s office, the h1ghest in the court bureaucracy, had remained vacant from 770 until Yosh1fusa's appomtment in 857. Following Yosh1fusa's death m 872, there was another lapse unul 88o, when Mototsune was appointed. Mototsune held the post until 89I, after which It was again unfilled until 936 2. Wa ga tanomu. KKS 866, anon; KWR (ZKT 33984), anon. First line: Kagirz nakt. The poem m the KKS /KWR version is a birthday w1sh for longevity. In the IM context, it is possible to see a veiled reference to the pheasant (ktJl) in hne 4 (ToKI SHI mo wakanu). This sectiOn figures in a famous passage in the fourteenth-century miscellany Tsttrezuregusa (Essays m Idleness), where the author d1scusses the proper method of attach10g a pheasant to a branch of plum blossoms. N1shw, pp. I43-44, Sec. 66 Translated 10 Sansom, "The Tsuredzure Gusa of Yosh1da no Kaneyoshi," pp. 48-49.

99 I. Mizu mo arazu. KKS 476, Nanhira, with a headnote closely resembling the IM introduction. "Tell me who you are." 2. Shiru shiranu. KKS 477, anon, "Reply"; KWR (ZKT 33387), anon. "Why worry about my name? If you are really in love, you will find a way of meeting me." 100

r The Koroden and the Seiryoden were two buildmgs m the residential section of the imperial palace compound. The Seiryoden was the emperor's habitual res1dence; the Koroden, adjoining 1t on the west, opposite Imme1mon Gate, was used by junior consorts and other ladies. 2. "Forgetting-grass." The hteral meaning of wasuregusa, an old name for the kanso, or day lily. See Sec. 21, n. 3· 3· "Herb of remembrance." The literal meaning of shinobugusa (also shmobu). Shmobu as a botanical term can mean either (r) Dava/lta bullata, a kmd of creeping, moss-hke fern, sometimes said to have been used in the dyemg process called shinobuzuri (Sec. r, n. 2), or (2) Polypodtum ltneare, the plant now called noktShinobu. In classical poetry the word usually means noktshmobu, a common evergreen fern found growing on trees and the eaves of bu1ld10gs, and 10 other shady places. The

243

Notes to Pages 138-39 nokishinobu has spear-like leaves resembling those of the day lily, and the two plants apparently were sometimes confused. Ara1, p. 838 In the present eptsode, the lady pretends to be asking for help in identifying the plant, perhaps to settle an argument inside, but her question is a d1screet accusatiOn: "You wnte as though you were still in love, but you never come any more." 4· Wasuregusa ShokuKKS 1270, Narihira. "You have mistaken my feelings. I hope very much to be allowed to visit you agam." IOI 1. Brother of Narihira. See Sec. 79, n 4; Sec. 87, n. 4· 2. Masachika was a courtier of m1ddle rank who belonged to the Ceremonial house, one of the lesser branches of the Fujiwara. He had something of a reputation as a dnnker, which was perhaps why he was selected as guest of honor. Arat, p. 847 Masachika actually became Middle Controller of the Left in 874, when Yukih1ra was no longer Commander of the Military Guards of the Left. The ChanceJlor, Yosh1fusa, had d1ed two years earlier. Arai, p. 848. 3· Saku hana no. GYS xo66, Nanhira. The wording varies slightly. The fuJi of FuJIWara means wistena. 102

The first prerequisite for a poet was sensitivity in human relationships. 2. Somuku tote. KWR (ZKT 32309), anon.; SGSIS 1302, Narihira. ''Unhke the Taoist immortals of Chinese legend, who ride on clouds, you have not escaped the world altogether; nevertheless, you are enviably free of troublesome d1stractwns now that you have become a holy recluse" (For the charactensttcs of immortals, see 0/T, p. 202, supp. n. 92) 3 The sentence is probably an interpolation. It refers to Princess Tenshl (Sec 69, n. 3). Whether or not the pnncess became a nun is unknown. Arai, p. 853. I.

103

Emperor Nimmyo (r 833-50), so called from the location of his tomb at Mt. Fukakusa, a hlll near the ancient Inari Shnne on the KyotoFushimi h1ghway in what was formerly Kit Distnct, Yamashiro Provmce (now Fukakusa Kawara-cho, Fush1mi-ku, Kyoto City). Fukakusa, or Fukakusa no sa to ([Village of] Deep Grass), was an old name for the region at the southwest base of Inari Mountain, extendmg I.

Notes to Page 140 to the Kamo River on the west. Many anstocrats from the capital owned vtllas there, and the name appears m numerous classical poems, often m conJunctiOn with references to quail and/or the autumn moon. The cremated remams of several later soveretgns and other members of the impenal family were depostted at Fukakusa, mcludmg, accordmg to legend, those of Pnnce Abo, Nanhtra's father See also Sec. 123, n. 2. 2. Nenuru yo no. KKS 644, Nanhtra, KWR (ZKT 32882), Narihira. Smce thts has always been regarded as one of Nanhtra's finest poems, it ts not clear why the text makes a pomt of cnt1ctzmg it. Some medteval scholars concluded that Nanlura, the presumed author of IM, was simply bemg modest. Other theones: (r) the comment, and the episode as a whole, represent an attempt to pique the reader's interest by presenting this well-known verse as an inept effort by a man utterly unhke Narihira; (2) the comment represents a moral JUdgment, either serious or facetious. Arai, p. 857; 0/T, p. 172, n. 9· 104

The regular festival of Kamo Shrine, held annually on the last Day of the Cock m the Fourth Month. Dunng the Hetan period, tt was the great pubhc event of the year. "Kamo Shrme" is actually two shrines about I km apart, Upper Kamo and Lower Kama, which m the Hetan penod were outstde the capital near the Kamo River, the htstoric stream that flows southward through the eastern sector of the present city of Kyoto (In the Heian penod the nver's course was JUSt east of the capttal. The Lower Shrine is at the present Shtmokamo Mtyakawa-cho in SakyO-ku, Kyoto; the Upper Shnne is upstream at Kamtkamo, Kita-ku.) Kamo Shnne, a Shmto institution of great antiquity, began to figure prommently m the soctal, religwus, and pohucal life of the ruhng class soon after the establishment of the Hetan capital, probably because it had become the tutelary shnne of the Hata, the richest and most powerful famtly in the Kyoto area dunng the etghth century, wtthout whose financial assistance the move to Hetan would have been impossible. In 813 a daughter of Emperor Saga became the first Kamo Vugm, Wtth functions and status stmtlar to those of the Ise Vugm-a umque honor for the shnne. Around the same time the traditional Kamo Festival was made an offictal event, in whtch the Vtrgm played a central role. From the beginmng of the Fourth Month on, preparations for the festival mvolved almost every member of the nobthty, whether officially or unofficially. The emperor and the Vtrgin performed punficatlon rituals, dancers and mustcians rehearsed, guards officers were assigned to special ceremonial watches, offenngs were prepared, and costumes, carnages, I.

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and horse trappmgs of the utmost magmficence were assembled in every aristocratic household, either for use m the official ceremomes or to Impress fellow spectators. The most important preliminary event was the Virgm's purificatlon, wh1ch took place on a Hare or Sheep day at a spot on the Kamo River selected by court d!Vmers. On the day of the purification, after the emperor had personally mspected the fore nders' horses and the ox for the V1rgm's carriage, a procession viewed by large crowds moved from the 1mpenal palace to the V1rgm's official residence at Murasakino (north of the capital about halfway between the Upper and Lower Shrines), and on to the river, where the ceremony took place. On the Day of the Cock, the festival day Itself, the focal point of interest was not the religious ritual performed at the Lower Shrine and duplicated at the Upper, but rather the great processiOn of military and civil officials, court ladies, and attendants, some walkmg and others mounted on elaborately capansoned horses or ndmg m ox-drawn carriages, and all brilliantly costumed in formal robes, with headgear, mounts, and carriages decorated with flowers and leaves. The principal figure in the processiOn as it left the palace was the Imperial Messenger, who was charged with readmg the emperor's message to the gods from a vermiliOn scroll. Other leadmg participants were the officials responsible for the offerings to be presented and for the horses to be paraded for the gods' enJoyment. In the latter part of the Heian period there were also special emissaries from the empress and crown pnnce, each with his own attendants. The Virgin, borne in state on a litter from her Murasakino residence, JOined the procession with her retinue as it progressed slowly along the great IchlJO Avenue. Crowds of townsmen and peasants filled the streets and overflowed onto housetops and trees. Gorgeously attired ladies, courtiers, and exalted personages sat m lacquered carnages or luxurious viewing stands, while their lackeys jostled agamst the commoners in an excited, unruly mass through which the Imperial Police, marching m the vanguard, cleared a passage. The houses along the way, the carnages and viewmg stands, and the spectators were all gaily decked with garlands of real and artificial flowers, leaves of the katsura tree (Cercidtphyllum Japonicum, a relative of the Judas-tree), and especially the aoi leaves that gave the festival its popular name, "Aoi Festival." (Confusion between the futaba-aoi [Asarum caulescens Max1m], whose leaves were used as decorations for the Kamo Festival, and the tachi-aoi, or hollyhock [Althea rosea], has led to the common mistranslation "Hollyhock Festival." Unlike the hollyhock, the futaba-aoi is a creepmg, ivylike plant With attractive pairs of heart-shaped leaves growing directly from rooted horizontal stems. Dunng the flowenng season in May, a tmy reddish-purple bell-shaped blossom appears between each pair of leaves. See Kitamura et al., II, 321 and Plate 68 facmg p. 315.)

Notes to Pages 140-41 At each of the two shnnes the V1rgin ceremoniously paid her respects, the Impenal Messenger mtoned the rescnpt praiSing the gods and requesting their contmued favor, offering~ and dances were presented, and horses were paraded and raced. The V1rgm spent the night at the Upper Shnne, and on the followmg day there was another processiOn, the Return, less formal but equally colorful, wh1ch also attracted throngs of spectators The Return culminated m a lav1sh banquet at the impenal palace, with rewards for the participants. The office of Kamo V1rgm was d1scontmued early in the Kamakura penod (u85-1333), but the Kamo Festival, centenng around the 1mpenal Messenger, has contmued with some lapses to the present day. For a detailed descnption of the festival in Enghsh, marred by some maccuracles, see Ponsonby-Fane, pp 219-26; for a reliable account by a modern Japanese scholar, see Ish1mura, I, 225-30. 2. Yo o umi no demonstrates a kind of sophisticated preoccupation w1th language and techmque often found m run-of-the-m11l He1an poetry In add1t10n to one pivot word (hzto) pertinent to the meamng of the poem as translated, 1t contams a senes of puns that produce a rather vague and pomtless second meanmg: "Fisher gul toiling on the sea, let me eat some of the seaweed you harvest." (Hzto means both the lady and the crowd. Line 3 of the translation m1ght read, "Now that I see you watching the throng.") 0/T, p. 172, n. 15; Ara1, pp 86o-6x. 3· The last sentence, missmg m some texts, IS believed to be an interpolation. See Sec. 102, n. 3·

105 1. Shiratsuyu wa. SSZS 317, Otomo Yakamochi. Attribution doubtful. Arai, p. 864 "Die 1f you must. Even if you don't, you are not the sort of person to mterest me "

106 The Tatsuta Rtver is famous in classical literature as a place for v1ewing autumn leaves The present Tatsuta R1ver, known as the Ikoma in its upper reaches, 1s a mmor stream about 16 km. long, flowing through Ikoma D1stnct in northwestern Nara Prefecture (Yamato Province) to JOin the Yamato RIVer at Tatsuta Townsh1p There are sa1d to be 1o,ooo maples and other trees with h1ghly colored foliage along its course. Scholars now believe, however, that the Tatsuta Rtver celebrated by poets was a stretch of the Yamato R1ver somewhat below the confluence of the two streams (m the vicmlty of what is now Tachino m Sango VIllage, Ikoma D1stnct); it was familiar to pilgnms and other travelers because of the presence of Tatsuta Shrine and of Tatsuta CrossI.

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Notes to Pages 141-42 ing, the major route across the mountains from Yamato to Kawachi Province. (See also Sec. 23, n. 4) DCJ, IV, 388o, Arai, p. 865. 2 Chthayaburu. KKS 294, Nanhira One of two verses preceded by the notation: "Topic: A picture of autumn leaves floating on the Tatsuta River, pamted on a screen owned by the Empress from the Second Ward. Composed whlle the empress was still known as the Mother of the Crown Pnnce."

107 I. Toshiyukt (d. 901 or 907), a member of the lesser branch of the FuJiwara called the Southern house, served at court under five emperors, beginning with Seiwa, and ultimately achieved the post of Commander of the Mllitary Guards of the R1ght with Junior Fourth Upper Rank. His career was probably a1ded by h1s reputation as a calligrapher and poet. He was one of the important calligraphers of the Heian period and, in the early eleventh century, was named one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Geniuses. Twenty-eight of his poems are preserved in imperial anthologies, includmg 19 in KKS. 2. Tsurezure no. KKS 617, Tosh1yuki; KWR (ZKT 31336), Toshiyukl. KKS headnote: "Sent to a lady servmg in Narih1ra's house" Nagame 1s a pivot word meamng both "revery" and "long rain." Line 4 can mean either "My sleeves are completely soaked" or "Only my sleeves are wet." The reply takes it in the second sense. 3 Asamt koso. KKS 618, Nanh1ra; KWR (ZKT 3293I), Narihua. KKS headnote: "A reply composed on the lady's behalf." 4· Kazukazu m. KKS 705, Nanhua; KWR (ZKT 3I352), Nanhira. The KKS headnote resembles the IM mtroduction. Th1s poem, typical of Nanlura's terse, enigmatic style, has been variously mterpreted. Some wnters suggest that the girl has been practicing a kmd of "he loves me, he loves me not" divination, i.e, "If it rains, it's a sign that he doesn't love me," or that ame ("rain") functions also as a metaphor for tears-"! fear that h1s love is msincere, and thus my tears fall faster than the ramdrops." My translation accepts another interpretation: "I shall soon know whether or not you love me. If you do, you won't mind gettmg wet." Kubota, KKS II, 432-34; 6/T, p. 203, supp. n. 96; Arai, p. 873; B/M, p. 161.

108 I. Kaze fukeba. SKKS 1040, Ki no Tsurayuki. In the IM context, wind and waves become metaphors for the man's fickleness and the lady's tears (Line I means literally "Because the wind blows," i.e. "Because you are constantly seeking new interests." The wind

Notes to Pages 142-44 causes the waves.) Presumably the text means not that the lady is repeating a verse of her own composition but that she is quoting the famous Tsurayuki. 2. Yoz goto ni. The cncket's chirp, the frog's croak, the warbler's song, the call of the wlld goose-all were thought to express sadness, and all were rendered by the verb naku ("weep, wail"), which, for w1ldlife as for humans, carried the connotation of shedding tears. The poet is saying that the tears shed by countless frogs night after night have raised the water level m the nee padd1es. The poem can be interpreted as a sympathetic response ("Much agamst my wlll, I have been prevented from visiting you; I too have shed many tears") or a rather perfunctory one ("I have done nothing to make you cry; all th1s water IS your own fault"). 0/T, p. 203, supp. n. 97; Arai, p. 883. 109

r. Hana yori mo. KKS 850, K1 no Mochiyuki; KWR (ZKT 33334), anon. III

Inishic wa. SCSS 63r, anon. "I had never met the dead person; yet I feel a sense of loss." ("I have never met you; yet I find myself m love.") 2. Shitahimo no. GSS 703, anon; KWR (ZKT 34195), anon. The poem alludes to an old popular belief that when a lady's undersash came untied it was a sign that someone loved her. Cf. MYS 28o8, which shows that Itchy eyebrows and sneezes were also auspicious auguries: Mayonekaki As I approached, Hana hi himo toke Burning with impatient love, Materi yamo D1d you, perchance, waiting, Itsu ka mo mimu to Scratch your eyebrows or sneeze? Koikoshi ware o. Or d1d your under-sash come loose? I.

3· Koishi to wa. GSS 702, Ariwara Motokata (d. 953, grandson of Narihlra); KWR (ZKT 34194), anon. In some IM texts the last two poems are missing; in others they constitute a separate section with a one-sentence introduction, "Once a man sent this to a cruel lady," and with their order reversed, as in GSS. It appears hkely that the common texts are corrupt here. Arai, pp. 893""94· 112 1.

Suma no ama no. KKS 708, anon.; KWR (ZKT 31666 and 32637),

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Notes to Pages 144-45 anon. Line I in KWR: lse no ama no. "Gale" 1s a metaphor for another man; "smoke" symbohzes the lady. This 1s a famous poem about a famous place. Suma, now incorporated in Suma Ward in western Kobe, first became known to the Japanese aristocracy as a post station on the road leading west from the capital Its picturesque white beaches and green pmes, facmg the Island of AwaJi across Akashi Strait, were admired by noble travelers and excursiomsts in the He1an period, and references to 1t are common in classical hterature. A celebrated episode in The Tale of GenJi, deahng with Prince Genj1's bamshment to Suma and his subsequent adventures there, was perhaps inspired by the actual temporary exile of Nanh1ra's brother, Yukih1ra (for reasons unknown), which in the medieval period was also made the subject of one of the finest plays in the Nii repertoire, Matsukaze (Pme Breeze).

113 I. Nagakaranu. SCSS 953, anon. The poem can be interpreted either as a deserted husband's complamt or as self-