A hundred years turned
four times over have gone by
here at Otagi—
and must this village of ours
now come at last to ruin
- Meaning
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A hundred years turned four times over have passed here at Otagi—and must it now come at last to ruin?
- Commentary
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Volume Five: The Moving of the Capital
In the sixth month of the fourth year of Jishō, Kiyomori abruptly forced the removal of the capital to Fukuhara. There had been rumors of a move, but no one expected it within a day or two, and high and low alike were thrown into confusion. The date, set for the third, was then advanced to the second. By the hour of the hare on the second the imperial palanquin had already been brought up; Emperor Antoku, three years old that year and still an infant, was put into it without understanding anything. Empress Tokuko, the cloistered emperor Go-Shirakawa, and the retired emperor Takakura all went to Fukuhara, and the regent and the ministers and courtiers below him followed, each pressing to be among them.
Heian-kyō had been founded by Kiyomori's own ancestor Emperor Kanmu, who named it the capital of peace and ease. Since Emperor Jinmu the capital had been moved nearly forty times, but this one had stood almost four hundred years. That a mere subject should shift it by force was a fearful thing, people said.
The old capital fell into ruin day by day. Houses that had stood eave to eave leaned over; the rare visitor lost his way among them. To build in the new capital, whatever could be pulled down was pulled down for timber, lashed into rafts, and floated down the Kamo and Katsura rivers. Houses emptied of their goods were smashed and thrown into the water. The capital of flowers became rough countryside.
On a pillar of the old palace two poems were found written in lament. This is the first of them.
Yon-kaeri means a hundred years come round four times: four hundred years. From the founding in 794 to 1180 is in fact three hundred eighty-six.
Putting the number first is what makes it work. The upper verse piles up the weight of four centuries; the lower asks whether all of it collapses at a stroke. The ya of are ya hatenan is interrogative, but the answer is already in plain sight. It is a lament in the shape of a question.
Writing on a pillar is a form the Tale of the Heike uses again and again: Giō on a paper door in Volume One, an unnamed monk on a pillar in Volume Two, Bishop Kōken on a shrine pillar in Volume Four. Here it is a pillar of the palace, and again the writer's name is not recorded. The pattern holds: a poem left on a building announces that building's end.
momotose……a hundred years.
yonkaeri……four turnings, four times round.
sugikinishi……that have passed.
Otagi no sato……the village of Otagi; the capital, which lay in Otagi district.
are ya hatenan……will it fall wholly into ruin?
miyakoutsuri……the moving of a capital.
Fukuhara……in present-day Hyōgo ward, Kobe.
u no koku……about six in the morning.
ikada……a raft of timbers floated downriver.
- Source
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Heike Monogatari
- Other
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