Who Is Lord Hosokawa?
The Kyoto lord who made the lovers' wish come true
Lord Hosokawa is a powerful daimyo (feudal lord) of Kyoto in "The Story of Aoyagi" from Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan.
One of his retainers notices Aoyagi's beauty in the streets of Kyoto and tells the lord, and Aoyagi is taken into the Hosokawa mansion. Unable to see her, Tomotada sends her a Chinese poem full of his feelings. Its meaning is that once someone enters a great lord's house, they become as distant as if sunk in the deep sea, no more than a stranger passed on the road. When the lord sees the poem, he summons Tomotada. Tomotada expects to be punished, but the lord is moved by the couple's love and holds a new wedding for them in his own mansion.
Instead of tearing the young lovers apart, the powerful lord makes their wish come true. This scene is a moment of relief in an otherwise sad story.
