Many, many years ago there lived in Nara, the ancient Capital of
Japan, a wise State minister, by name Prince Toyonari Fujiwara. His
wife was a noble, good, and beautiful woman called Princess Murasaki
(Violet). They had been married by their respective families
according to Japanese custom when very young, and had lived together
happily ever since. They had, however, one cause for great sorrow,
for as the years went by no child was born to them. This made them
very unhappy, for they both longed to see a child of their own who
would grow up to gladden their old age, carry on the family name,
and keep up the ancestral rites when they were dead. The Prince and
his lovely wife, after long consultation and much thought,
determined to make a pilgrimage to the temple of Hase-no-Kwannon
(Goddess of Mercy at Hase), for they believed, according to the
beautiful tradition of their religion, that the Mother of Mercy,
Kwannon, comes to answer the prayers of mortals in the form that
they need the most. Surely after all these years of prayer she would
come to them in the form of a beloved child in answer to their
special pilgrimage, for that was the greatest need of their two
lives. Everything else they had that this life could give them, but
it was all as nothing because the cry of their hearts was
unsatisfied.

So the Prince Toyonari and his wife went to the temple of Kwannon at
Hase and stayed there for a long time, both daily offering incense
and praying to Kwannon, the Heavenly Mother, to grant them the
desire of their whole lives. And their prayer was answered.

A daughter was born at last to the Princess Murasaki, and great was
the joy of her heart. On presenting the child to her husband, they
both decided to call her Hase-Hime, or the Princess of Hase, because