Sazanamiya, the capital of Shiga is deserted, perhaps old-fashioned wild cherry blossoms.

The “Flight from the Capital” is a famous chapter from The Tale of the Heike that is always included in high school classical Japanese textbooks. Tadanori was the half-brother of Kiyomori Taira, the head of the Taira clan. The Taira clan declined after Kiyomori’s death and fell on the path to destruction in the war against the Minamoto clan. Tadanori also died in battle in the Battle of Ichinotani.
Tadanori was also a master of waka poetry, and he studied waka under the court noble Fujiwara Shunzei. After the Taira clan fled the capital, Tadanori returned to Shunzei’s mansion in the capital with six attendants and entrusted his collected waka poems to Shunzei. Then he sang aloud “The road ahead is long, I send my thoughts to the evening clouds of 雁山 (Ganzan)” and left for the battlefield.
After the turmoil subsided, Shunzei, who was ordered by Emperor Go-Shirakawa to compile an imperial anthology of waka poems, secretly included the poem “Sazanamiya” in the anthology “Senzai Shū” as “Author unknown”.
The white magnolia tree standing on the shore of the lake now reminds me of this famous scene from The Tale of the Heike whenever I see such a landscape.

さざなみや 志賀の都は荒れにしを 昔ながらの 山桜かな

『平家物語』の「忠度都落」は高校の古文に必ず出てくる有名な段です。忠度は平家の棟梁である平清盛の異母弟にあたる人物です。平家は清盛の死とともに衰退し、源氏との戦で滅亡の道をたどりますが、忠度も「一の谷の戦い」で戦死します。忠度は和歌の名手でもあり、公家の藤原俊成を師と慕って和歌を習っていました。平家一族が都落ちした後、忠度は従者6人と共に都にある俊成の邸に引き返し、自分の書き溜めた和歌を俊成に託します。そして「前途程遠し、思ひを雁山の夕べの雲に馳す」と高らかに口ずさんで戦場に旅立ちます。争乱が収まって、後白河院から勅撰和歌集を作るように命ぜられた俊成は、その和歌集『千載集』に密かに「さざなみや」の歌を「詠み人知らず(作者不明)」として収めました。今目にするのは湖岸に佇む白木蓮ですが、こういう風景を見る度に、この『平家物語』の名場面を思い出します。