春過ぎて

夏来にけらし

白妙の

衣ほすてふ

天の香具山

Hokusai

じとうてんのう

はるすぎて

なつきにけらし

しろたえの

ころもほすちょう

あまのかぐやま

Empress Jito

Springtime has passed

And it seems the summer’s back,

For the white robes,

As they say, are spread to dry

On Heaven’s Fragrant Hill.

Empress Jito (645 - 702), daughter of Emperor Tenji (see poem 1), was the 41st imperial ruler of Japan. She was the fourth woman to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne. Her reign spanned the years from 686 through 697. Several poems are attributed to her.

作者略伝と語釈

Interpretations of this poem differ considerably. Kaguyama (Fragrant Hill) lies south of Nara and could be seen from Jito’s palace, the Fujiwara no Miya; nevertheless it appears that the writer has not seen the robes drying on the hillside. Is this caused by a rewriting of the original poem or does it refer to the empress’s personal situation? Yusai (mid-Edo period) comments that in spring mists are hiding the hill, and are dispelled in summer, which is called ‘drying the white robes’. So Jito may be quoting an expression, rather than saying she hasn’t seen it herself.

‘Heaven’s Fragrant Hill’, ama no kaguyama, refers to Kagu Hill being the mythical site of the stone door once closed by Amaterasu, the Sun goddess, throwing the world into darkness.

Some think shirotahe refers to the unohana, the Deutzia, looking from afar like white robes.

Hokusai shows us the washing and drying on the slopes, while in the distance flax is drying (which is very smelly, not fragrant at all).

The Kaguyama belongs, with the Unebi-yama and the Miminashi-yama, to the three mountains of Yamato.

Kaguyama

U no hana