The Bureau of Skilled Artisans was a late addition to the ministry, only being established under the Engi Shiki.

The Genji Monogatari, ‘Tale of Genji’, is Japan’s greatest work of classical literature and the earliest ‘novel’ in world literature. Written by a court lady who we know as Murasaki Shikibu around the beginning of the eleventh century, it tells the story of Genji, the son of an emperor, and a paragon among men, in his search for happiness with many lovers. A vast work, the novel depicts its characters’ psychological states in minute detail and provides a wealth of information about an (idealised version of) court life in Heian Japan. There a three complete English translations, the most recent by Royall Tyler.

A spot on the coast of the inland sea, some distance from Kyoto, Suma is picturesquely cradled by mountains, but must have seemed unbelieveably isolated and claustrophobic to anyone used to the wide avenues and magnificent buildings of the capital city. In modern Japan, Suma has become a popular spot for young Japanese to visit the seaside (one exits the train station to be greeted by a cheerful sign in English saying ‘Welcome to Suma Beach!), and had quite lost any hint of its poetic associations of exile, misery and death.

A rather complicated poem this one: puru ‘wave’ is also part of puru yama ‘Mt Furu’, which was renowned for its ancient, walled shrine. Puru can also be taken to mean ‘old’, setting up an association with the later reference to the shrine.