This small plaque sits unassumingly on a corner in front of a flower shop, less than a block away from the main entrance of the Pike Place Market in Seattle. The plaque reads:”I have always known that at last I would take this road. But yesterday I did not know it would be today.” This poem was written by Ariwara no Narihira (825-880), one of the most notable poets of the Heian period of Japanese literature and poetry. It was published in a volume called Kokinshū, the first known anthology…
