"A model of both literary style and scholarship."
--Robert L. Backus in the Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese

"This first translation of a prose fiction tale ascribed to [Teika] is welcome indeed. [The book] should appeal to readers and scholars interested in both a charming tale and the development of prose fiction in world literature."
--A. V. Heinrich in Choice

"A welcome contribution to our understanding of [The Tale of Matsura's] place in the monogatari tradition and the role it played in the development of Fujiwara Teika's poetics."
--Thomas H. Rohlich in the Journal of Japanese Studies

Fujiwara Teika is known as the premier poet and literary scholar of the early thirteenth century. It is not so widely known that he also tried his hand at fiction: Mumyôzôshi (Untitled Leaves; ca. 1201) refers to "several works" by Teika and then names Matsura no miya monogatari (The Tale of Matsura; ca. 1190) as the only one that can be considered successful. The work is here translated in full, with annotation.