I listen to the sound of the cloth being pounded/ as the moon shines serenely/ and believe that there is someone else/ who has not yet gone to sleep - Tsunenobu, from the series One hundred aspects of the moon

Minamoto no Tsunenobu was active in the 11th century as an official at the Heian court. He also excelled in poetry and playing the Japanese short-necked lute, 'biwa'. One night, as he enjoyed the autumn moon, he heard the sound of a mallet pounding cloth in the distance. This inspired him to recite the poem in the title, which was actually composed by Ki no Tsurayuki, one of the Thirty-six Immortal Poets. As Tsunenobu finished his recitation, a giant monster – whose hairy leg occupies the upper half of the design here – appeared and recited a couplet by the famous 8th-century Chinese poet Li Bai in response: ‘In the northern sky geese fly across the Big Dipper/to the south cold robes are pounded under the moonlight.’