Note 72 — JAPAN IN THE TENTH CENTURY (continued 2)

When the great scholar Moto-ori visited this temple in 1772 he was startled by the sudden noise of the conch-horn, blown at the hour of the Serpent (9 a.m.). At once there came into his mind this passage from The Pillow-Book and ‘the figure of Shōnagon seemed to rise up before me’ (Sugagasa Nikki, third month, seventh day). It is in this same temple that, in The Tale of Genji, Murasaki lays the scene of the meeting between Ukon and the long-lost Tamakatsura. The local people (Moto-ori tells us) had no idea that the characters in Genji were imaginary, and pointed out to him ‘the tomb of Tamakatsura.’