42 Shadowings 



had often drunk in former times. He was then 

 surprised to find that the soil about the spring 

 had been dug away, so as to form a square pond, 

 and that at one corner of this pond there had 

 been set up a wooden tablet bearing the words 

 Tanjo-Sui (" Birth- Water "). 1 He also saw 

 that a small, but very handsome temple of the 

 Goddess Benten had been erected beside the 

 pond. While he was looking at this new tem 

 ple, a sudden gust of wind blew to his feet a tan- 

 %aku, 2 on which the following poem had been 

 written : 



Shirushi ar&o 

 Iwai zo somuru 



Tama hoki, 

 Torute* bakari no 

 Chigiri nar&omo. 



This poem a poem on first love (hatsu koi), 

 composed by the famous Shunrei Kyo was not 



1 The word tanjo (birth) should here be understood in 

 its mystical Buddhist meaning of new life or rebirth, rather 

 than in the western signification of birth. 



2 Tan^aku is the name given to the long strips or rib 

 bons of paper, usually colored, upon which poems are 

 written perpendicularly. Poems written upon tan^aku are 

 suspended to trees in flower, to wind-bells, to any beautiful 

 object in which the poet has found an inspiration. 



