Saijo (Talented women) combines classical Japanese lyrical content with a Scottish melody. The first of its two verses is about the Heian-period court lady and novelist Murasaki Shikibu, author of the Tale of Genji  (Genji monogatari). The second verse is about another Heian-period court lady and writer Sei Shônagon, who composed the Pillow Book (Makura no sôshi).

(Nihon no uta, vol. 1 Meiji-Taishô [Nobarasha, 1998], p. 31)

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