The moon glimmers like bright snow/ and plum blossoms appear like reflected stars/ ah! the golden mirror of the moon passes overhead/ as fragrance from the jade chamber fills the garden - Sugawara no Michizane, from the series One hundred aspects of the moon

Sugawara no Michizane was a high official in the Heian court of the late 9th century. He was a brilliant scholar of Chinese literature and one of the finest poets who wrote in Chinese. Enemies blamed him for an eclipse of the Sun and forced him into exile and death in Kyushu, but his vengeful spirit was believed to have caused the deaths of his enemies and, subsequently, the emperor. Michizane was eventually pardoned and deified as Tenjin, the Shinto god of music, literature and calligraphy. He is also associated with harmonising Shinto with Zen Buddhism. It is unusual that Michizane is depicted here as a boy rather than as an influential adult.