Tadakiyo Makino, the lord of the Nagaoka clan, wanted to visit Ryokan in his hut. Hearing about it, villagers rushed to Ryokan's hut in his absence and cleaned the hut and pulled off all the weeds. Seeing the beautifully prepared garden upon his return, Ryokan sighed and said, "As you have taken away all the weeds, the insects that sang until last night may not sing here anymore."
The arrived soon after, but Ryokan did not utter a word. Responding to the lord's gracious invitation to visit his castle, Ryokan wrote a poem:
The more you burn
fallen leaves,
the more leaves the wind will blow.
The lord asked Ryokan to take good care of himself.
---Kazuaki Tanahashi---
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