I-----T-----O
H I D E A K I

I N---G I F U, J A P A N

.....where he was born in 1975.

Even if only for that merit, the town is blessed.

Here in a hundreds-of-years-old local shrine, even dressing as a Japanese prince of 1150's,
Ito Hideaki looks like poetry.

In the real history of Japan Gifu means much more than just a launcher of a passing fad: it was in this hilly terra that Oda Nobunaga started to carve immortality onto the national remembrance. And without Oda Nobunaga there would have never been anything national to begin with.

[ CLICK HERE FOR EVERYTHING ABOUT ODA NOBUNAGA ]

Ito Hideaki, of course, has flown away from Gifu to snatch the chance of getting under some spotlight. But the fact that here is where he started out is not going to get altered by whatever happens around a marquee in Tokyo, from where Ito Hideaki has come to be known in all Asia, Europe, and the U.S. of A.

" From the age of the gods
Man has survived,
Men in their myriad
Fill the land.
Like the flights of wild duck
Bustling, they come and go.
But the one I love --
You -- are not here.
All day,
Till the darkness comes,
All night,
To the first light of dawn,
I think of you,
Unable to sleep --
Even to the end
Of this long night. "

[poem by Empress Saimei, 594-661, wife of Emperor Jõmei, and ruled as Regent after his death]

Although 'hideaki' means 'the autumn sun', spring is all over Ito Hideaki's smile, and the entire summer is pearls of his wonderful laughter. His expression of sadness is a beautiful vista of autumn, and the best of winter adorns his silence. Even Ito Hideaki's voice is truly like nothing prosaic; it's a song of all seasons.

" When the moonlight
Starts to seep
Through the trees,
Autumn has come
With trouble, with care. "

" Beating their wings
Against the white clouds,
You can count each one
Of the wild geese flying:
Moon, an autumn night. "

[by anonymous poets, 10th century]

" Had I only known
My longing would be so great,
Like a clear mirror
I'd have looked on you --
Not missing a day,
Not even an hour. "

[poem by Lady Õtomo of Sakanoue (Ikoma), 8th century]

Downtown Gifu affords no lavish view of its ageless hilly outskirt. It could have been any other dot on the map, as far as architectural eyesore goes. But you would know you are in a decidedly Japanese spot anyway: the town is characterized by nothing tamer than earthquakes.

" My native town
And in a borrowed bed:
Migrating birds. "

[poem by Mukai Kyorai, 1651-1704, samurai from Nagasaki and understudy of the most influential poet of the Tokugawan era, Matsuo Basho]

" 'There is no sky in Tokyo, Chieko said:
She longed to see the true sky.

Startled, I looked at the sky.

Through the young cherry leaves
Stretched a sky, infinite, tasting of the past.
The horizon's leaden gloom was tinted
With morning's sliver of damp pink.

Gazing through the distant haze,
Chieko spoke of the blue sky hanging
Each day over the hill at home.

That is Chieko's true sky:
Artless talk of an artless sky. "

[poem by Takamura Kotaro, 1883-1956]

" Spring:
A hill without a name
Veiled in morning mist. "

[poem by Matsuo Basho, 1644-1694]

" 'Long, long ago now' --
Telling of that earthquake
Around a brazier. "

[poem by Morikawa Kyoroku, 1656-1715,
a samurai serving the Lord of Hikone]

" My dreams always returned
To a lonely village at the foot of a mountain;
Wind sighing over the knot-grass,
Skylark singing and singing,
To a forest path in quiet noon.

In the blue sky, sun shining clear,
Volcano asleep,
And I
Talking of what I have seen -- islands, breakers,
headlands, sun, and moonlight;
Even though I knew none listened,
Talking, talking.....

Here the dream stops short.
I try to forget everything --
And when I forget even that I have forgotten,
The dream will freeze in midwinter's memories
And, opening the door,
Recede along the path lit by the Milky Way. "

[poem by Tachihara Michizo, 1914-1939]

Here Ito Hideaki is dressing as a Minamoto samurai of the first thousand years.

The great clan of Minamoto is immortal; will Ito Hideaki be?

I'd say yes -- though some say thereby I'm crazy.