It always seems to me that people who hate me must be suffering from some strange form of lunacy.
– Sei Shōnagon, The Pillow Book, Circa 1000 C.E.
On the third day of the third month, the good people of court traveled by ox-drawn carriage from the Imperial Palace to the Divine Spring Garden, the carriage boys running ahead to ensure the common people didn’t block our way. The colored sleeves of so many elegant ladies showing through the curtains must have been a wondrous sight as the carriages rattled past.