THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Kiyoshi Sakamoto 



PAYING HOMAGE TO THE MEMORY OF A GREAT JAPANESE POETESS 

 These three little maids are in the room of the Ishiyama Temple where the noted woman writer, Murasaki 

 Shikibu, wrote one of her masterpieces, "Genji Monogatari," a classic romance, more than nine hundred 

 years ago. For some reason the fireflies are larger in the vicinity of this temple than in any other region of Japan. 



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