Katano 交野 (also known as Katano no Mino 交野の御野) was a plain in Kawachi Province, south of the capital region (in modern terms, it was the area now occupied by Hirakata 枚方 and Katano cities, in the north-east of Osaka Prefecture). It was used as a hunting ground by the capital’s aristocracy and became famous for the cherry trees which grew there. In poetry, it is often associated with hunting, pheasants, snow, deutzia flowers and as an evocation of the adjective katashi 難し ‘hard/difficult’.