(From "The Life of Taikenmon-in Tamako" by Bunei Tsunoda)
When Tamako was 15 years old, she fell in love with "Fuziwara noSuemiti” and young monk.
His biological father died at the age of seven, and his mother and sister were the nanny of Emperor Toba. The painter thinks it cruel to blame her, who was doted upon by her adoptive father, the most powerful man in Japan, and knew only the court. Perhaps she wanted to be exposed to the outside world, just as "Fujiwara no Takaiko" was once exposed to “Ariwara no Narihira”..... This delusional painting was painted from the perspective of “Fujiwara no Suemiti, a feudal lord who visited Shirakawa-in as a master So-no-Koto player.
