Who Is The Man of Old (Mukashi Otoko) (Ariwara no Narihira)?
Romantic hero of The Tales of Ise
The Man (Otoko)
The Man of Old (Mukashi Otoko) is the hero of The Tales of Ise, a Heian-period collection of short tales built around poems. Many episodes open with the line "Long ago, there was a man." The original text never names him. Many of his poems are by the poet Ariwara no Narihira, though, so he is widely thought to be modeled on Narihira.
In Episode 1, "Akutagawa," he steals away a high-born lady he has loved for years. On a night of thunder and rain he stands guard with bow and arrows at the door of a ruined storehouse, and while he watches, an oni devours her in a single gulp. He mourns her in a poem: "When she asked, 'Is it a pearl?' I should have answered 'It is dew,' and vanished with it." In Episode 8, "Is This Not the Moon?" he pines for a lover who has moved far away. A year later he returns to her old rooms and composes the poem "Is this not the moon? Is this spring not the spring of old?" (Tsuki ya aranu haru ya mukashi no haru naranu).
Ariwara no Narihira is one of the Six Poetic Immortals (Rokkasen). He also wrote "Chihayaburu kamiyo mo kikazu Tatsutagawa," a poem in the famous Hyakunin Isshu anthology.
Episodes featuring this character2
NEWEpisode 1
She Asked 'What's That?' He Never AnsweredThe Tales of Ise: Akutagawa
Episode 1 of the series. After years of longing, a man runs off into the night carrying the woman he loves on his back. Along the way she keeps asking, "What's that?" He never answers her last question. When a thunderstorm hits, he hides her in an old storehouse and stands guard at the door until morning. At dawn, she is gone. This is a thousand-year-old story of an elopement, and of one question that went unanswered.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 8
One Night, She Was Suddenly Out of ReachThe Tales of Ise: "Is This Not the Moon?"
Last plum season, a man visited her every night, until one night she was suddenly moved somewhere he could never reach. A year later, on the same plum-scented night, he steps into her room once more.
19 pages