If you visit the temple in the summer, you’ll find blue-violet flowers in the garden. The flower, which looks like a round and plump bud, is a kind of bellflower. One usually thinks of bellflowers as a star-shaped five petal flower, but this flower, which blooms in the garden of Zuishin-in, never opens up. It's like Ono no Komachi, whose life ended without ever fully completing and finding love. This flower is called "Komachi Bellflower", or “Komachi Balloon Flower.”

Ono no Komachi was a woman with unrivaled beauty and outstanding poetic talent. She was thought of as cold and full of herself, and surrounding women were always jealous. But was that really who she was?

The sentiment in her poetry about a love that ends before it starts resonates with audiences to this day. Heian era men who fell in love with Komachi may have been drawn not only by her beauty but by her talent and passion, too.

The poetry of Ono no Komachi has a fortune concealed within: May the passion of Komachi support you in your love.