[12]あまつ (Amatsu)

 Poem Meaning and Background

Hokusai's depiction of Henjō's poem

あまつかぜ・くものかよひぢ・ふきとぢよ

ama tsu kaze・kumo no kayoi-ji・fuki tojiyo

をとめのすがた・しばしとどめむ

otome no sugata・shibashi todomen

〜遍照（Henjō)

Translation

Let the winds of heaven
Blow through the paths among the clouds
And close their gates. 
Then for a while I could detain
These messengers in their maiden form. 

Meaning

The author of this poem is writing this about young women performing a traditional dance at a ceremonial banquet in the emperor's court. This particular banquet appears to have been in honor of the first rice harvest of the season, and the offering of some of this rice harvest to the gods would have been one of the most important ceremonies of the year. In particular, it was the captivating performance of young women performing a dance called「五節の舞」(lit. dance of five seasons) which moved Henjō, who was working for the emperor at that time.

Here's an example of 五節舞 being performed in 2019 at Omi-jingu:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ-fF6P8IZ0

    In this poem, the poet is imagining the young women performing this dance as being messengers from heaven. Ama tsu kaze essentially means the same thing as ama no kaze (wind of heaven). Kumo no kayoi-ji refers to the path the author imagines the messengers would take through the clouds to get from heaven to earth. Shibashi todomen means something along the lines of しばらく地上にとどめておきたい (shibaraku chijou ni todomete okitai). Basically, the author would like to keep these "messengers of heaven" on earth even for just a short time more, since in legends, such heavenly beings were always quick to return to the heavens. 

Author

Henjō (816-890), whose real name was Yoshimine no Munesada (良岑宗貞), was a poet and Buddhist priest. He is listed among both the Rokkasen (6 poetry immortals) and the 36 immortals of poetry.

He initially worked as kurōdo, a keeper of imperial archives, for Emperor Nimmyō, but became a priest due to his grief over the passing of the emperor. Henjō is his religious name and directly translated it means"Universally Illuminated". As a priest he managed two temples in Kyoto: 雲林院 (Urin-in) in the north, and 元慶寺 (Gangyō-ji) which he founded in Yamashina. He was rumored to have had a love affair with Ono no Komachi, author of [9] Hanano, and his son, Sosei, authored poem [21] Imako.