On taking up one’s brush: for the first three days [of the New Year] he kept his mouth shut [and composed no poetry], producing this on the fourth.
大津繪の筆のはじめは何佛
| ōtsu e no fude no hajime wa nani hotoke |
For an Ōtsu icon, The first stroke of the brush should draw Which Buddha? |
(1691)
At the time of the Shari Kō Service, people had to compose poems indicating their wish to follow the way of the Buddha, so he composed:
よそになど佛の道を尋ぬらむわが心こそしるべなりけれ
| yoso ni nado Fotoke no miti wo tadunuramu wa ga kokoro koso sirube narikere |
In what distant place The Buddha’s path Should I seek? It is my own heart that Shall be my guide. |
The Chancellor and Former Grand Minister [Fujiwara no Tadamichi]