These are the 100 poems behind karuta — the card game from the anime Chihayafuru — chosen near Kyoto over 800 years ago, and still memorized by children across Japan today. This is one of them.
What is Hyakunin Isshu? Read the full guide
The poem
花の色は 移りにけりな いたづらに わが身世にふる ながめせしまに
Romaji: Hana no iro wa / utsurinikeri na / itazura ni / waga mi yo ni furu / nagame seshi ma ni
The color of the blossoms has faded away, all for nothing —
while I gazed out, lost in thought, as the long rains fell, and my own beauty faded with them.
Who was Ono no Komachi?
Ono no Komachi (9th century) is the legendary beauty of classical Japan — a poet so famous that her name became a byword for a beautiful woman. She too is one of the Six Poetic Geniuses.
Meaning & background
This is a masterpiece of double meaning. “Furu” means both “the rain falls” and “I grow old”; “nagame” means both “long rains” and “gazing, lost in thought.” So the fading of the cherry blossoms in the spring rains and the fading of the poet’s own youth become a single, seamless image — beauty, time, and regret fused in 31 syllables, written by the woman who was herself the very symbol of beauty.
The commemorative medal
[ メダル画像をここに挿入 / alt: “Hyakunin Isshu Poem 9 Ono no Komachi commemorative brass medal” ]
Each poem in the Hyakunin Isshu is cast as a 31mm brass commemorative medal, struck by master craftsmen in Japan — the poem and its poet pressed into metal that will not fade.
Explore the series
Poem 8 (Kisen Hōshi) · Poem 10 (Semimaru) · What is Hyakunin Isshu? Full guide