Kumoi Imperial Palace

When Emperor Sutoku was exiled to Sanuki Province, no official imperial residence had yet been prepared. It is said that he temporarily stayed at the residence of Aya Takato, a local official who served at the provincial government office of the time.
Far removed from the refined court life of Kyoto, the Emperor found the deep, overgrown countryside a place of loneliness and longing. Yearning for the capital, he composed the following poem: This too has become a false Kumoi, my life, drifting like the moonshadow in the sky. *Kumoi, or ‘among the clouds’, is a classical metaphor for the imperial palace, also used to evoke distance. It was from this poem that the Emperor’s temporary quarters came to be known as the Kumoi Imperial Palace.