(Voice actor) Ms.Carolyn Miller

The Ueno park is where the Toeizan Kan’ei-ji temple used to be. This temple was cherished by the Tokugawa regime as its Bodaiji temple (*a temple where one’s family grave is built). The Kan’ei-ji was also a tourist resort that attracted many visitors all year round. Especially during the cherry blossom season, many traveled from the town of Edo and spent a day there. During one cherry blossom season, a 13 year old daughter of a confectionery store in Nihonbashi Koamicho visited there with neighborhood kids. The girl’s name was Oaki (*autumn). Oaki was admiring the beauty of a particular cherry blossom tree named Ohannya-zakura standing next to the Kiyomizudo hall when two artisan looking guys walked by. They seemed to be drunk. One of them stumbled and held onto the wall of a water well. The other wrapped his arm around him saying, “Whoa! Watch out!” and together they walked away. Seeing this, Oaki made a haiku that goes “watch out sakura by the side of a well for drunken visitors” (by Shushiki). Oaki’s haiku name was Shushiki (*autumn color). She had been the pupil of a haiku poet, Kikaku Takarai, since she was nine, and with him her talent grew. Oaki tied her haiku to the cherry blossom tree. Then she went back playing with other kids. Zasu (*supreme abbot), the top position of the Kan’ei-ji temple had been filled by the Emperor’s family for generations. Therefore they were usually educated in waka and haiku. In Ueno, everyone was welcomed to come up with poems about cherry blossoms and make them known by tying them to trees. Every evening, the temple workers would come and collect all the poems and haiku that were tied to the trees. Then, the collected works were read and evaluated by prince Rinno-ji. Though, most of them were not much of a poem anyway. One day, prince Rinno-ji came upon Oaki’s haiku… This is Oaki’s success story whose name was later given to the cherry blossom.