Matsuyama tengu

The failure of the attempt by retired emperor Sutoku to seize power in the Hōgen rebellion led to his exile in Shikoku.

His former associate Saigyō was shocked by the events: "A great calamity shook society, and things in the life of Retired Emperor Sutoku underwent inconceivable change".

[1] Saigyō thereafter kept in touch with his former emperor,[2] and after his death made a pilgrimage to his place of exile, Matsuyama.

There he wrote the tanka: "Let it be, my lord./ Surely this is nothing/ like the jewel-floored/ palaces of your past, but can/ anything alter what’s occurred?".

[6] The tension between the non-attachment offered by the poet/monk’s poem, and the urge for revenge on the part of the ‘goblin’ emperor, formed the heart of the play.