Meet the Poets of Hyakunin Isshu
Minamoto no Tōru

Meaning

For whose sake has my heart become as disordered as the tangled patterns of Shinobu-mojizuri cloth of Mutsu? It is certainly not my own doing.

Commentary

"Shinobu-Mojizuri" (信夫文知摺) refers to a cloth-dyeing technique from the Shinobu district of Fukushima, in which plants were rubbed onto stone to transfer their colours onto fabric, creating a random, tangled pattern.

The poet likens the confusion of his helpless longing to the disordered pattern of this cloth, suggesting that his heart is not his own to control.

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