I find great comfort looking up at the stars.
Sometimes I think about the past.
Images in the sky remind me of stories I heard as a child,
and experiences I had.
In this part of the sky,
I look for the shape of Tsuzumi Boshi,
a traditional Japanese drum.
It's wide top and bottom...
and these three stars marked the chord at the drum's narrow waist.
I can even imagine the chord being stretched and pulled to
change the pitch of the Tsuzumi.
I can almost hear it...
It reminds me of when I was a child
and went to see a play that took place during the war
between the Heike and the Genji
nearly a thousand years ago.
The drum was a symbol of the rivalry between two brothers,
and sounds of the drum seemed both familiar and strange.
The play also mentioned a great archer I knew from anime...
the great marksman Nasu No Yoichi!
He was only 16 years old when he performed an impossible feat for the Genji Clan...
shooting an arrow through a small fan on the mast of their enemy's ship!
I imagined what it would be like to live in such a time,
for a young man to earn such respect from his family.
You can even see the colors of the two warring sides in the colors of the stars.
The Heike Clan fought under a red flag,
while the Genji Clan carried a white flag.
Eventually, the emblems of the clans were added to the flags.
The Heike's red flag showed a white butterfly,
while the Genji's white flag sported violet wildflowers and bamboo leaves.
The Tsuzumi Boshi has two especially bright stars,
one red,
and one white...
At the top of the drum,
the bright star Heike Boshi, or Betelgeuse,
is bright red like the Heike flag
. At the bottom of the drum,
Genji Boshi, or Rigel,
shines white like the Genji flag.
These also remind me of the colors of the reversible caps
we wore in elementary school.
One side red,
one side white,
for when we would separate into teams.
Once a year, we would also have Undokai,
or sports day at my school.
Students divided into red and white teams and competed in many games,
relay races,
and even a tug of war.
I always wished there would be an archery competition so I could
shoot arrows like Nasu No Yoichi!
When life becomes busy, or stressful,
I sometimes find relief as I gaze at the night sky.
My thoughts expand,
and I can remember the past and imagine the future.
I imagine that everyone sees something different,
but all of us look up
and see the same sky.