here again the fact that Shō Sammi deals with persons in a comfortable and prosperous situation, presents scenes of Court life and shows the world as we know it to-day could not fail to render this work far more attractive to the majority of these young critics. An opposite opinion was voiced by Heinaishi, who recited the verse: 'Shall we leave the deep heart of Ise's waters unexplored till time shall have effaced their secret, like a footprint that the tide washes from the shore?' 'Shall the fame of Narihira,'[1] she added, 'be eclipsed by modern tittle-tattle dressed up in the finery of a specious style? To this Daini no Naishi no Suke replied with the verse: 'Upon the topmost regions of the sky[2] our hero's heart is set; with scorn he views your shoals, upon which, heavy as a thousand watery fathoms, the ages rest.'
'Well,' said Fujitsubo, ambition such as that of Prince Hyōye[3] is no doubt a very valuable quality; but I sincerely hope that admiration for him and his like will never cause us to let the fame of Captain Laigo[4] sink into decay!' And she recited the verse: 'Has the old fisherman of Ise shore, like seaweed that the ebbing tide reveals, so long been flattered by the public eye, only to sink at last beneath the rising sea of scorn?'
These feminine discussions are capable of continuing, more or less at cross-purposes for an indefinite length of time. It would indeed be impossible to record all the arguments and counter-arguments that were expended over even one of these pictures. Moreover the younger and less considered of the gentlewomen present, though any one
