The setting for this poem is Toshodai-Ji Temple. Moonlight bathes the temple as night falls, casting shadows from the pillars along the ground. When you tread through those shadows, you might imagine how envoys or the monk Ganjin may have passed through this place on their way to China. Or you might imagine the Parthenon in Greece. Naramachi is quiet in the night; we hope you’ll indulge your imagination with this poem as you go on a nightly stroll.