Spin & Discover Kakekotoba!
Poem 100: Retired Emperor Juntoku
Try to find the kakekotoba hidden in the poem and tap it.
The word you tap will spin right where it is, revealing its two meanings in turn.
ももしきや
ふるき軒ばの
しのぶにも
なほあまりある
昔なりけり
Commentary
The word "shinobu" is a kakekotoba.
A kakekotoba layers two meanings onto a single word that sounds the same either way.
Here, "shinobu" carries both "しのぶ草" (shinobu-gusa, a fern that grows on old eaves) and "偲ぶ" (shinobu, to long for, to remember fondly).
Even as I gaze upon the shinobu fern growing along the ancient, layered eaves of the palace, I still cannot fully remember and honor all that splendor of the past.
In the sight of shinobu ferns overgrowing the ruined eaves of the once-great palace, the poem layers a deep nostalgia for a bygone golden age.
Packing two meanings into just thirty-one syllables is exactly what makes kakekotoba so appealing.
Vocabulary
A pillow word (makurakotoba) referring to the imperial palace.
Written with the characters for "momoshiki" (百敷, "hundred layers of stone"), it evokes a place paved with countless stones — the palace or imperial residence.
The eaves of a roof.
Even so, there is still more than enough left over.
It truly was a bygone age.
"Keri" expresses exclamation.