Once upon a time, there was a man whose name was Monogusa-Taroh-Hijikazu in Atarashi village, Shinano County. Monogusa means to be lazy and to do nothing.

He stick four bamboos into the ground and covered it with a dirty straw mat. Day after day he spent there doing nothing but composing tankas (Japanese poem of thirty-one syllables). As he had not taken a bath for a long time, he was awfully filthy with dirt from top to toe, and what's more, a lot of fleas and louses were living with him in the straw mat. He felt too troublesome even to pick up a rice cake dropped from his hand. He drove it out with a stick from approaching dogs and rats aiming to eat it, and just was waiting for someone to come and hand it to him.

He, however, had a great skill to compose tankas. He was always doing nothing but only elaborating tankas, so that he became such a good composer of spicy ones.

Time passed, and the people came to have to pay tax by working or farm products gathered in each own field. Because he didn't have any field, he had to pay the tax with labor. So he went up to the capital city unwillingly.

He had been living free and lazy till then, it was hard for him to get used to his new life in the city. Everything was quite new to him. One day he happened to see a pretty woman who was working in the same mansion. As he was watching her everyday he fell in love her. But the woman always turned her blind eye to the shabby Taroh in worn out clothing and a rope-like ob, or a sash. He decided to work hard to catch her mind. It seemed that he became quite another man.

Finally the due date of the labor came and Taroh got free from the hard life. At once he made a proposal to the woman, but poor Taroh could not get any answer from her. Then he did again presenting a tanka which Taroh wrote with great feeling to her. She was moved a lot and finally she decided to say YES to him.

Since then she had helped him to be neat and taught proper etiquette and manners. And at last Taroh became a good handsome young man, who was a mere shadow of his former self once living with fleas and louses in the straw mat.

The rumor that there was a man worked hard and wrote elegant tankas, besides handsome, went around and passed to the Emperor. He wanted to meet him at all costs and Taroh was called to come to the Imperial Palace. Taroh read tankas of his forte there and satisfied the Emperor very much. His visit was a grate enjoyment for the Emperor, so that he gave two counties, Kai and Shinano as a reward for Taroh. Ever after he lived happily with his wife, whose heart was completely charmed with his tankas.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 　 　

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