Ubasute(姥捨てabandoning an old woman) (also called "obasute" and sometimes "oyasute") refers to the custom allegedly performed in Japan in the distant past, whereby an infirm or elderly relative was carried to a mountain, or some other remote, desolate place, and left there to die, either by dehydration, starvation, or exposure. It "is the subject of legend, but [...] does not seem ever to have been a common custom". The practice was most common during times of drought and famine, and was sometimes mandated by feudal officials.[citation needed] A poem commemorates the story: