In Manyō-shū there is a song of Unai-Otome, a legendary virgin who was torn between two suitors and finally driven to suicide. In the “Ikuta-gawa” chapter of Yamato-monogatari the old song is reworked into a ballad called the “Otome-zuka” legend. Its third-person narration creates a space where the past and the present coexist for the transmission of literary heritage.