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This is a Sokyoku piece in the Kumiuta style from the Ikuta Ryû school . This piece was composed for koto by Ishizuka Kengyo .

History (from Tsuge Gen'ichi)
‘Hana no en’ was composed by Ishizuka Kengyo, a student of Yasumura Kengyo (d. 1779).

This song cycle is based on a chapter of the same title, ‘The Festival of the Cherry Blossoms’ (Hana no en), from ‘The Tale of Genji.’ The six song-texts are based on three episodes when prince Genji was twenty years old; the festival of the cherry blossoms in the Grand Hall, held in the Second Month; the wisteria banquet given at the mansion of the Minister of the Right in the Third Month; and an amorous adventure Genji has with Oborozukiyo (‘Lady of a Misty Spring Moon’), and imperial palace attendant and a younger sister of Kokiden who later causes Genji’s exile to Suma.

Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)
Spring after spring
The cherry blossoms
Of the Grand Hall
Increase in beauty.
Even the heavenly wind
Cannot compete
With the clouds of blossoms
Here in the palace.

When the prince dances
With a sprig of blossoms
In his cap,
The sheen
Of his purple sleeves
Reflects the color
Of the setting sun
Over Mt. Ouchi

In the evening
Through a faint mist-
Who is playing
On strings and pipes?
To a man
Full of love
Even music made for another
Stirs the heart.

From the Plum Court
Float a fragrance
Carried by the breeze.
Does it slip
Through the bamboo blind,
Or come from the blossoms
Of the plum
In the evening dark?

Who are they
Standing in the shadow
Of the gallery
At the Kokiden Pavilion?
Lady Oborozukiyo,
Head of the maids of honor,
And the Shining Genji,
Captain of the Palace Guards.

Now more than ever-
‘Late at night
We discover our fate,
The bond between us
Is not misty
Like the setting moon.’
I know
How deep is our bond.