3The story of Ming Huang and Yang Kuei-fei; a long poem by Po Chū-i.
4A Chinese princess given to a Tartar king in marriage and carried away into the north.
5For tying up the rolls.
6A 9th-century story about a fairy who was found in a bamboo-stem, set various fantastic ordeals to her lovers and finally disappeared in the Land Above the Sky. It is written in a rather disjointed style. Translated by Victor Dickins inJapanese Texts. See above, p.15.
77One of the suitors.
8Also called Aimi. Successor of Kose no Kanaoka, who founded the Kose school in the 9th century.
9883–946a.d.Editor of theKokinshū, the first official anthology of poetry.
10Having set out from Japan to China he was wrecked on the coast of Persia, where he acquired a magic zithern and the knowledge of unearthly tunes, armed with which he won great fame as a musician in China and Japan. See Aston’sHistory of Japanese Literature, p. 76, and above, p.16.
11China.
12Asukabe Tsunenori, flourished about 964a.d.
13Also called Ono no Dōfū, the most celebrated calligraphist of Japan.
14A collection of short love-episodes, each centring round a poem or poems. See Aston’sHistory of Japanese Literature, p. 80.
15Already lost in the 15th century.
16Hero of theTales of Ise.
17I.e., upon promotion at Court. Courtiers were called ‘men above the clouds.’
18Presumably the hero of the tale of Shō Sammi.
19Narihira, hero of theTales of Ise.
20898–930, a great patron of literature, and himself an important poet and calligrapher.
21Grandson of the great Kose no Kanaoka. Flourished about 960a.d.
22Japanese zithern.
23Chinese zithern.