名にし負はば

逢坂山の

さねかづら

人に知られで

くるよしもがな  

さんじょうのうだいじん

なにしおわば

おうさかやまの

さねかずら

ひとにしられで

くるよしもがな

Fujiwara no Sadakata

If your name is truely

Climbing vine of Meeting Hill,

Is there not a way,

Unseen by people’s eyes,

To have you come to me?

Hokusai

Fujiwara no Sadakata (873 - 932), also known as Sanjo no Udaijin, was a waka poet and ‘Minister of the Right’ (name derived from the place of his residence), which was a government position in Japan in the late Nara and Heian periods. His son Asatada was also a poet (poem 44).

作者略伝と語釈

The same place, Afusaka (pronounced Ousaka), Meeting Hill, is mentioned in poem 10 and 62. There is an erotic play with meanings here. Sa ne means ‘come, sleep’ and sanekazura is a climbing vine with edible scarlet berries (kadsura japonica, sometimes also called ‘lantern in forest’).

Sanekadsura

On the Hokusai drawing a woman is stealthily going towards a house down the hill, probably that of her lover, while merchants are going their way.