To these threads of white
that come falling from the sky
of the cloud-dwelling
halls—that I may bind myself
to them is a joy indeed
- Meaning
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That I may bind myself to these white threads of water falling from the clouds—this is a joy indeed.
- Commentary
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Volume Four: The Return
Volume Four opens with Emperor Takakura forced from the throne although he was not ill, and the child Antoku set in his place. As Retired Emperor, Takakura made a progress in the third month to Itsukushima in Aki. Custom held that a sovereign's first progress after abdication went to Hachiman, Kamo, or Kasuga, and people wondered at so distant a destination. Someone explained it thus: Itsukushima is the shrine the Taira revere above all others, so that outwardly he showed himself of one mind with them, while inwardly he prayed that Kiyomori's heart might soften toward the cloistered emperor still shut up at Toba. The monks of Mount Hiei were indignant and threatened to bring down their sacred palanquins, so the progress was delayed a while until Kiyomori calmed them. On setting out he stopped at Toba and met his imprisoned father.
On the twenty-sixth of the third month the party reached Itsukushima, and the lodging of Kiyomori's favorite shrine maiden became the temporary palace. They stayed two days, with a sutra offering and court music. The officiant, Bishop Kōken of Mii-dera, mounted the high seat, struck the bell, and declared aloud the gratitude owed to one who had left the ninefold capital and parted the eightfold sea lanes to come; sovereign and subjects alike were moved to tears.
After visits to the main shrine, the Marōdo shrine, and the others, they went some five chō around the mountain to the Taki-no-miya. There Bishop Kōken composed a poem and wrote it on a pillar of the worship hall. This is that poem.
Afterward the priest Saeki Kagehiro was raised in rank, the provincial governor Fujiwara no Aritsuna was promoted and granted access to the retired emperor's hall, and the shrine superintendent Son'ei was made Hōin. The gods' hearts had been moved, the tale says, and so, it seemed, would Kiyomori's be.
Behind the Taki-no-miya falls the Shiraito, the White Thread cascade. Calling the waterfall "white threads" brings with it musubu, "to bind," a word that belongs to thread; and so the act of tying a thread and the act of binding oneself to a god become one gesture.
Kumoi means the sky and also the palace. The journey of a party come far down from the capital is laid directly over the falling of water from the clouds. What has descended from above is bound fast here. One could read the poem as the bishop's own declaration—out of the ninefold capital, across the eightfold sea—taking metrical form.
Writing on a pillar of a hall recalls Giō's poem on the paper door in Volume One and the poem found on a pillar of an emptied monk's cell in Volume Two. The Tale of the Heike returns often to verses left on buildings; of them all, this is the only one that records joy rather than grief.
kumoi……the sky; also the imperial palace.
shiraito……white threads; the falling water, and the name of the cascade behind the shrine.
chigiri wo musubu……to form a bond; musubu, "to tie," belongs to the imagery of thread.
Taki-no-miya……a subsidiary shrine of Itsukushima.
Ōmiya……the main shrine of Itsukushima.
hyōhaku……the statement of a rite's purpose, addressed to the gods at its opening.
kyōe……a rite offering copied sutras before a deity.
Kōken Sōjō……a monk of Mii-dera, later its head and abbot of the Tendai school.
kokonoe……the ninefold; the palace, or the capital.
- Source
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Heike Monogatari
- Other
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