Hyakunin Isshu #61
Wednesday, 5 May 2010 07:22![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer These eight-fold cherries
from the Nara capital
of old today have
blossomed in layered splendor
in the Nine-Fold Palace court.
inishie no
nara no miyako no
yaezakura
kyô kokonoe ni
nioinuru kana
---L.
from the Nara capital
of old today have
blossomed in layered splendor
in the Nine-Fold Palace court.
—28 April 2010
Original by Ise no Tayû (or Ôsuke), granddaughter of Yoshinobu (#49), written as a command performance as a new lady-in-waiting to Empress Shôshi when the emperor was presented with some flowering cherries from Nara. Her use-name is obscure: Ise is the province and Tayû/Ôsuke an office for men, but I'm not finding her association with them. The capital had been moved from Nara to Kyoto (where the imperial palace was called "nine-fold" for its nine walls) two centuries before. The "eight-fold cherry blossoms" (yaezakura), which are still particularly associated with Nara, are not literally eight-petalled but rather have many overlapping petals: thus.inishie no
nara no miyako no
yaezakura
kyô kokonoe ni
nioinuru kana
---L.