Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/450

364 Ri Tōten had done this painful deed by way of making a vow of allegiance to the King of Tartary. But the Emperor took it to be an act of noble self-sacrifice for his own sake, and bestowed greater favours than ever on this traitorous minister, until he thought he would give his younger sister, Princess Sendan, to him in marriage.

Princess Sendan was a beautiful and accomplished girl of sixteen summers, who was well versed in literature and intellectual in every way. The Emperor repeatedly urged her to accept Ri Tōten's suit, but she persistently refused. At last he thought of a plan. He ordered that two hundred of the beautiful inmates of his harem should be divided into two squadrons. Each member of one squadron was to bear a branch of flowering plum, and each member of the other was to bear a branch of cherry. The plum-blossom party was to be commanded by the Princess, and the cherry-blossom party by the Emperor himself, and in that manner a "battle of flowers" was to be fought. The Emperor suggested that the result of the battle should decide what answer his sister should give to Ri Tōten's proposal. The Princess agreed to this, and the two parties fought pellmell