The poet, Tachibana-no-Akemi's Dokurakugin (Reciting Poetry for My Own Pleasure)

On a lunch break, I stopped by a cafe near GEN office OTEMACHI Cafe and saw wiritings on many pieces of paper on the wall.

 

Every writing on the papers, starts with “My own pleasure is…” and ends with “when I do ...”.
Elementary school students wrote these on the model of Tachibana-no-Akemi's Dokurakugin (reciting poet for my own pleasure).

 

“What a delight it is when, of a morning, I get up and go out to find in full bloom a flower that yesterday was not there.”
This is one of Tachibana’s Dokurakugin and the President of the United States Bill Clinton quoted in his speech when the Japanese emperor visited the USA in 1994.

 

As what's written in this poem, it is enjoyable to find joys from little things in our daily lives, and I think it enriches our lives as well.

 

To write down and remember these joys, Dokurakugin is perfect.

 

It is said that Akemi Tachibana used to like Japanese Sake as well as writing. There is an event, “Japanese sake and literature, and their pleasurable relationship between the two” is held at Fukui City Akemi Tachibana Literature Memorial Museum (until May 15th, 2016). Since I always liked Dokurakugin and on top of that I found that he liked sake, I feel more connected to him.

 

T.S