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| Screen shot from the anime "One Piece" |
If you've been studying the poems of the Hyakunin Isshu, you may have noticed a common theme: wet sleeves. More than one poem employs the image of a wet kimono sleeve, but the reason why the sleeve became wet can vary. So, if you want to test how well you know the poems, try this quiz:
Why are my sleeves wet??
Using your knowledge of the poems, try to guess the reason why the speaker in their poem has wet sleeves!
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Question 1) Why are my sleeves wet?
Author: Tenji Tenno
Poem: [1]ใใใฎ (Akino)
Answer in
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Answer: From fall dew that's dripping through the leaky roof of my hut.
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| Photo by Laura Geror on Unsplash |
Context: Emperor Tenji wrote this poem from the perspective of a farmer sleeping in a temporary shelter. To protect the rice harvest from wild animals, farmers would put up temporary huts out in the field and someone would have to stay in them overnight and keep watch. The Emperor is imagining that it wouldn't be very comfortable to sleep in a hut like that in the fall, when the chilly nights bring cold dew that could drip through the roof.
If you are a Karuta player, this image of dew in the fall can help you remember this poem, since a mnemonic for this poem is akino -> wagatsuyu.
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Question 2) Why are my sleeves wet??
Author: Emperor Kลkล
Poem: [15]ใใฟใใใใฏ (Kimigatameha)
Answer in
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Answer: From melted snow that fell on my sleeves while I was picking early spring vegetables in the field.
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| Photo by Jonathan Knepper on Unsplash |
Context: There is a long-held tradition of eating certain vegetables right after New Year's to promote health and well being throughout the year. It is thought that the emperor who wrote this poem was picking vegetables for a loved one who was ill, in hopes that these greens would improve their health. While the author does not say that his sleeves have grown wet in the poem, he does say that snow has fallen on his sleeves, so we can infer that they may have gotten a little damp after the snow melted.
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3) Why are my sleeves wet???
Author: Kyoharano Motosuke
Poem: [42]ใกใใใ (Chigiriki)
Answer in
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Answer: From the tears I cried when my lover and I promised to always love one another.
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| Evening Rain on the Pine Island by Kawase Hasui |
Context: This poem was apparently written as a commission piece. The author wrote it for a young man whose lover had become distant, and he wanted to send her a poem that showed his feelings. To get his feelings across, he enlisted the help of a master poet.
The speaker of this poem (the young man in the relationship) wants to tell the woman he loves that his feeling have not changed since the day they both (tearfully) promised to always love each other. The poet compares the young man's unwavering commitment to the unyielding pine trees that stand tall in the face of waves which crash relentlessly upon the shore at "Sue no Matsuyama".
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4) Why are my sleeves wet????
Author: Lady Kii
Poem: [72]ใใจ(Oto)
Answer in
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Answer: They aren't, but they would get wet from the waves if I went to Takashi Beach...which is actually just an extended metaphor to say that I refuse to fall in love with you because I've heard rumors that you are a two-timing cheat, and getting involved with you would only end in tears.
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| Photo by Polina Kuzovkova on Unsplash |
Context: This one's tricky because on the surface of the poem, the poet is talking about not going to a beach because doing so would result in her kimono getting wet. However, she wrote this as a love poem, so there's deeper meaning in pretty much every word of the poem.
This poem was not written to her actual lover, but as a response to another poet during a poetry contest! The male poet composed a somewhat gushy love poem from the point of view of a man in love. In the poem, he talks about his secret love for the woman being like wild waves crashing ashore. Lady Kii's response takes that imagery and turns it into a rejection, by referring specifically to a famous beach Takashi, which is used in this poem to mean "someone who is the subject of many rumors". Ada nami can mean playful waves, but in this context, the adjective can also mean that the man often fools around. So when she says she won't go near the beach, she actually means she won't get together with this man who is famous for his infidelity. Lady Kii's poem ingeniously plays off of the prompt of the male poet, and adds another deeper layer to the imagined love story, all while hiding the meaning in word play and allusions.
So technically, no wet sleeves here, because the speaker of this poem knows better than to fall in love with a no good cheat.
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5) Why are my sleeves wet?????
Author: Inpumonin no Taifu
Poem: [90] ใฟใ (Mise)
Answer in
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Answer: From tears of blood which have stained my sleeve.
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| Screen shot from the anime "Naruto" |
Context: A bit over the top, but that's the point of this poem. When the author wrote this poem, she was alluding to another poem by a different author, Minamoto no Shigeyuki (one of his poems is also featured in the Hyakunin Isshu, but not the one that's being alluded to).
His poem goes:
Translation (mine):
Just like the drenched sleeves of the fishermen
who sail along Matsushima's and Oshima's shore,
my sleeves too, are soaked with tears.
So, how many of the answers were you able to guess? Believe it or not, there are still more poems in the Hyakunin Isshu anthology that have wet sleeves that I didn't include in this list! I'm still continuing to make posts about all the poems; click here to see what poems I've posted so far and be sure to check back later for more poems that'll leave your sleeves damp.๐ฆ
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