Now we were in the province of Musashi. There was nothing especially charming to be seen. The beaches were not white with sand but like mud, and the moors where they say purple gromwell grows had only reeds and rushes growing high, so thick that a man on horseback holding a bow could not be seen. Pushing our way through, we came to a temple called Takeshiba. Far off were the foundation stones of the galleries of a place called Hahaso.
When I asked, "What place is this?", they said that long ago a man who lived on the slope of Takeshiba was sent to serve at court, sweeping the palace gardens, and he said to himself, "Why must I suffer like this? Back home in Musashi, I used to watch the gourd ladles set in the wine jars sway north when the south wind blew, south when the north wind blew, east when the west wind blew, and west when the east wind blew."
The emperor's daughter heard him and wanted to see the gourd ladles sway. She called the man to her blind and said, "Take me there and show me." Awed though he was, he took the princess on his back and fled night and day, all the way down to Musashi.
When the pursuers arrived, the princess had already resolved to live with the man, and said, "I must have been destined to live in this province. Even if I am told to go back, I will not." The emperor had no choice but to put Musashi in the man's charge, and the house where the two lived was made into a temple: this, they said, was Takeshiba Temple.
So the party went on to the area of the Sumida, and came to a river called the Asuda between Musashi and Sagami: the very crossing where the Middle Captain Ariwara no Narihira had sung, "Let me ask you."