Hyakunin Isshu: Meet the Poets
Retired Emperor Juntoku

Meaning

Even the ancient ferns on the old eaves of the palace — there is more than enough of the past that they call to mind.

Commentary

"Momoshiki" is a pillow word for the imperial palace; "shinobugusa" (fern, but also "shinoburu" = to recall/endure) grows on the ruined eaves. The plant's very name evokes memory. "Naho amari aru" (still more, still overflowing) conveys a nostalgia so immense it cannot be exhausted — the old imperial world exceeds any poem's power to contain it.

Retired Emperor Juntoku, like his father Go-Toba, was exiled after the failed Jōkyū Disturbance (1221) — to Sado Island, where he died. His poem, placed last in the anthology by Teika, was likely a deliberate coda: an elegy for the old imperial order, composed by one of its tragic final adherents, closing the anthology with inexhaustible longing.

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