29

Michizane composes a poem by moonlight

Sugawara no Michizane (A.D. 845-903) was a courtier who was posthumously deified as a god of scholarship.  At age eleven, he composed the following poem in classical Chinese form, “The moon glimmers like bright snow and plum blossoms appear like reflected stars; ah! The golden mirror of the moon passes overhead as a fragrance from the jade chamber fills the garden.”