The First Poem

Japanese tradition gives Susanoo an ending almost nobody expects. He marries Kushinada-hime, looks for somewhere in Izumo to settle, and at Suga finds a place that makes his heart light — the sources say clouds rose as he raised the hall. He composes a short verse about those clouds and the eightfold fence they make, and Japanese literary tradition regards it as the first waka. The figure expelled from heaven for wrecking a house closes his arc by building one and writing about it.