さとみこがみゆたてざさのそよそよになびきおきふしよしや世中
| satomiko ga miyu tatezasa no soyosoyo ni nabiki okifushi yoshi ya yo no naka | A local shrine maiden Purifies bamboo with sacred hot waters, Back and forth the leaves Trail, falling and rising— Indeed, that’s how this world is![i] |
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[i] There was a shrine purification ritual whereby a shrine maiden (miko 巫女) would soak a branch of dwarf bamboo (sasa 笹) in water which she had heated, and then shake the water from the leaves, moving the branch up and down, scattering the droplets over both herself and pilgrims to the shrine. Sanetomo’s poem uses a description of this ritual as a preface (jo 序), before pivoting at the end of the fourth stanza to say that everyday life is just a sequence of both getting up and then going back to sleep (lying down) again and again (Higuchi 2016, 148).