Akari would have been a photographer; however, photography hadn’t been invented until well after the time of Emperor Kanmu. She knew all about calligraphy, painting, needlework, and ikebana, but these arts were too slow and painstaking for her. Yet she would walk across a garden and frame in her mind a perfect composition of light and shadow, texture and form. Akari was a dresser for the princess. When she would be arranging a gown, she would see a perfect set of lines, solid and pattern, color and absence of color, and if she framed it in a certain way, its image would take her breath away.
Unusual characters