Hyakunin Isshu: Meet the Poets
Councillor Masatsune

Meaning

On an autumn night, the mountain wind of Yoshino blows cold. In the old village, I can hear the sound of someone beating cloth.

Commentary

"Koromo-utsu" (beating cloth) was the process of softening newly woven fabric by beating it on a fulling block. The sound carried far through the night air. At Yoshino, that sound mingles with the autumn wind to create an atmosphere of deep seasonal melancholy. The "old village" (furusato) adds a layer of nostalgic desolation.

Fujiwara no Masatsune was a court noble whose family was associated with the aristocratic sport of kemari (court football). He was a significant poet of the Shin Kokinshū era. Yoshino was a famous poetic site usually associated with cherry blossoms — here it appears in its autumnal face, spare and mournful.

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