Episode 1: First Crown

A long time ago, when a young man became an adult, he went hunting in Kasuga Village near the capital, Nara. This man owned land there.

In that village, there were two sisters who were incredibly beautiful.

The man happened to peek through the fence and saw them.

They were so stunning that he couldn’t look away. Their beauty seemed too extraordinary for an old town like this.

The man was wearing a hunting cloak with a special design, and he tore off a piece of the hem.

On that cloth, he wrote a poem and sent it to the sisters.

His cloak had a pattern called "shinobu-zuri."

The poem read:

"Like young purple flowers in Kasuga Field,
My heart is tangled in endless confusion,
Like the pattern on my cloak."

With this poem, he tried to act mature, using the pattern on his cloak as a clever touch. Maybe he thought it was impressive.

The poem resembles another that goes:

"Like the tangled pattern of Shinobu cloth from Michinoku,
Who is it that has made my heart so confused for the first time?"

In those days, people enjoyed these kinds of spontaneous, passionate expressions.

Episode2: Spending Time Gazing

There once was a man.

When the capital moved from Nara to Heian-kyo, the houses were not yet organized.

A woman lived in the western part of the capital.

She was far superior to ordinary women.

Her heart was more admirable than her looks.

She was not alone because there was a man who went to her.

The caring man had a friendly chat with her and left.

In early March, around spring rain, he sent this waka poem.

 

"I spend the night neither waking nor sleeping
I live in the view of spring"

 

Like a butterfly's dream, when a night dawns in which I neither wake nor sleep
I spent another day in a daze, watching the prolonged rain that only spring can bring!

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This is the end of Chapter 2.

Many chapters of this story begin with "Once there was a man," but every chapter is about the same man.

The main character is modeled on a real person, Ariwara no Narihira.

He was a very handsome man and an all-around sportsman.

His grandfather was an emperor, so his bloodline is noble. But his father made a big mistake. Now, Narihira has no chance to succeed.

He did not care much about his work and lived a rambling life with waka poetry as his weapon. In those days, people valued a man who could beget offspring.

Women of the upper nobility rarely went out and stayed deep inside their homes.
They were too shy to show their faces to strangers. And strangers seldom heard a noblewoman's voice.

Men grew curious about the gossip about the women's work for the noble princesses. They often sent passionate waka poems to the women.

Since Narihira was a master of waka poetry, it must have been easy for him to seduce women.

Episode 3: Hijikimo