In an episode from the tenth-century literary classic The Tales of Ise, a courtier happens upon a Buddhist priest on an ivy-covered pass on Mount Utsu, a Japanese homonym for “Melancholy Mountain.” He entrusts the priest with a letter to a former lover in the capital whom he laments he can no longer see, even in dreams. The Tales of Ise features poems set within a basic narrative of the journeys of a courtier in exile.
