Member Poem

Empress Jito (645-702 AD) was one of only eight empresses in Japan. In Japan, the emperor follows male succession, so the empresses were in place only temporarily until a male emperor could take power.

This poem symbolically talks about royal succession. In Japanese religion, Kagu is the mountain of a stone door, behind which is the Sun Goddess, who bore the first Japanese emperor. Thus, all Japanese royalty are descended from gods in Japanese religion.

In the poem, the speaker sees the summer robes drying and realize that spring has past without realizing it. The mention of Mount Kagu, where the royal family comes from, gives it a royal meaning.  

By Empress Jito

Spring has past

And summer began;

The strange, shining

Robes of royals dry—

Kagu, perfumed mountain of the sky.

Google Translator - press the speaker button to listen 

Jitou Tennou

Haru sugite

Natsu kinikerashi

Shiro-tae no

Koromo hosu chou

Ama no kagu-yama

Empress Jito (645-702 AD)

Spring has past

Summer  kicked off

White cloth’s(1)

Clothes drying

Heavens’s Fragrant Ingredient Mountain(2)

(1) The characters can be read separately as “white delicate,” “white exquisite,” or “white mysterious”

(2) Or Heaven’s Kagu Mountain, using Kagu as a name