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- Yoshinoyama 吉野山 Mount Yoshino and the Cherry Blossoms -
Yoshino valley is famous for its three thousand or maybe more cherry trees, in the three lower, middle and upper levels of the valley.
Yoshino is also an old center of spiritual assertion, with the fierce deity Zao Gongen 蔵王権現 at its center.
source : library.pref.nara.jp/gallery/ezu/meisyo
. WKD : Yoshinoyama 吉野山 Mount Yoshino .
The following hokku by Basho are explained in this link:
今宵誰吉野の月も十六里
koyoi tare Yoshino no tsuki mo juuroku ri
待つ花や藤三郎が吉野山
matsu hana ya Toozaburoo ga Yoshinoyama
目に残る吉野を瀬田の蛍哉
me ni nokoru Yoshino o Seta no hotaru kana
吉野にて桜見せうぞ檜木笠
Yoshino nite sakura mishoo zo hinoki-gasa
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Basho visited Yoshino during his "Weatherbeaten Trip" in 1684 - 84.
He describes the small huts of the forest workers and the echo of the temple bells.
To him it looked like the famous Mount Lu in China.
At one temple, where he spent the night, he wrote the following hokku:
砧打て我に聞かせよや坊が妻
. kinuta uchite ware ni kikase yo ya boo ga tsuma .
pounding cloth
for me to hear ...
the wife of the priest
- - - - - and he also wrote about the hut of Saigyo:
露とくとく試みに浮世すすがばや
tsuyu tokutoku kokoromi ni ukiyo susugabaya
dew trickles down:
in it I would try to wash away
the dust of the floating world
Tr. Barnhill
. Basho and Saigyo 芭蕉 - 西行 .
Nozarashi Kiko 野ざらし紀行 The Weatherbeaten Trip
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .
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source : itoyo/basho
Memorial Stone at Hirao village.
花の陰謡に似たる旅寝哉
hana no kage utai ni nitaru tabine kana
On a journey,
Resting beneath the cherry blossoms,
I feel myself to be in a Noh play.
Tr. Takase
in the blossom’s shade
as in the no drama
a traveler sleeps
Tr. Ueda
Written in 1688, Basho stayed at Hirao Village 平尾村.
utai here refers to a famous Noh song 謡曲 (yookyoku) about "Futari Shizuka" 二人静.
While Basho enjoys to sleep on his travels, he is reminded of the tragic story of Shizuka and Yoshitsune.
. Oi no Kobumi 笈の小文 .
MORE - hokku about tabine, sleeping on the road whilst travelling
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .
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source : yunitake2000
futari shizuka 二人静 (ふたりしずか)
This is also the name of a plant, Chloranthus serratus, and a kigo for late spring.
quote
Futari Shizuka (二人静) - play attributed to Zeami
One early spring a Priest from Yoshino stood along the banks of the Natsumi River. It was the seventh day of the first month and he was watching over the women as they were plucking new shoots for the Festival of Young Herbs. He had called his Servant to him and instructed him to gather everyone up, since it was getting late in the day. One Village Woman malingered in returning, and the Servant scolded her for it.
- snip -
The Priest was shocked. Had the poor Village Woman lost her mind? Suddenly realizing that she had become possessed, he begged the spirit to speak its true name so he might better pray for them. Who are you, he said? One who served Yoshitsune replied the possessing spirit. Might you be Kanefusa, Yoshitsune’s loyal friend, asked the Priest?
Kanefusa was indeed a loyal vassal, said the possessing spirit, but I am not him. He ended his own life after the death of Yoshitsune, setting fire to the mansion and dying in the blaze. I am not he; in truth I am a woman and accompanied Yoshitsune as far as he would allow it. The sleeves of my robe are soaked with the endless tears of my love and devotion for him. It was beyond the possessing spirit’s ability to even speak her own name aloud.
Might you be the Lady Shizuka, asked the Priest?
If so, then you were well known for the beauty of your dance. Please, dance for us now, and I will pray for your release from this world with an open heart. It is true, I loved to dance, she said, and I had made an offering of my dancing robes to the Katte shrine before my departure.
If you are truly Shizuka, said the Priest, then what color were your robes?
The hakama were deepest azure, made of raw silk and striped with gloss, and the jacket was covered in flowers like the fields of autumn. The Priest looked in the shrine treasury, and behold, the dancing robes were just as the spirit of Lady Shizuka had described. Please, he said, put on these robes and dance for us. Gathering his attendants they watched, enraptured, as the possessed Young Woman donned Lady Shizuka’s robes.
From out of the gathering darkness, the spirit of Lady Shizuka appeared. Now there were two Shizuka Gozen, one spectral and living! They faced each other in their fine robes and recounted the tale of Yoshitsune’s flight:
- snip -
After Yoshitsune’s departure by his own hand, the Lady Shizuka had been summoned before Yoritomo. In her womb was Yoshitsune’s unborn son. Dance for me, Yoritomo declared; show me your renowned skills! With broken heart, and terrible longing she danced against her own desires, her soul overcome with bitterness.
The two Lady Shizuka’s danced slowly, their sleeves gracefully sweeping the ground, almost but not quite touching, almost but not quite intertwined. There was an old poem about love, about wishing that there was a way to make the past into the present – but for Shizuka the past brought only sadness. For her unhappiness was surely the only unchanging thing in this transient world.
Theatre Nohgaku Blog - David Surtasky
source : theatrenohgaku.wordpress.com
When Shizuka 静 had to leave the Yoshino mountains, because she was pregnant and could not proceed in the harsh mountain roads, she wrote the following poem and then went to Kamakura:
見るとても嬉しくもなします鏡
恋しき人のかげをとめねば
even if I look into the mirror, I do not feel happy
because it does not show the man I love
Her man, Yoshitsune, and his vassal, the strongman Benkei
Yoshitsune and Benkei viewing Cherry Blossoms
. Yoshitsune and Benkei 義経と弁慶 .
. 牛若丸 Ushiwakamaru 源の義経 Minamoto no Yoshitsune .
- Introduction -
source : kamigata.jp/kmgt
Yoshitsune Senbon-zakura by Kunihiro
Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura (義経千本桜)
Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees,
is a Japanese play, one of the three most popular and famous in the Kabuki repertoire.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !
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- - - - - - - - - - back to Bash in Yoshino, 1688, Oi no Kobumi
source : xxx
On the way down from Yoshino mountain Basho passed this mausoleum and the temple Nyoirin-ji.
御廟年経て忍は何をしのぶ草
御廟年經て忍は何をしのぶ草
. gobyoo toshihete shinobu wa nani o shinobugusa .
time passes by the mausoleum
and what is there to remember -
weeping fern
at the mausoleum of Emperor Godaigo 後醍醐 (1288 - 1339)
This is a pun with the word SHINOBU.
MORE about Godaigo Tenno and shinobugusa :
. WKD : shinobugusa 忍草 weeping fern, hare's foot fern .
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花盛り山は日ごろの朝ぼらけ
hanazakari yama wa higoro no asaborake
hana-zakari
blossoms at their peak,
with the mountains as always
at daybreak
Tr. Barnhill
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ほろほろと山吹散るか滝の音
. horo horo to yamabuki chiru ka taki no oto .
at the waterfall Nijkoo no Taki 西河の滝 Nijiko no Taki.
龍門の花や上戸の土産にせん
. ryuumon no hana ya joogo no tsuto ni sen .
At the Dragon Gate Waterfall 龍門瀧 in Yoshino.
- Reference : www.bashouan.com
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quote
In fact, Bashô often avoids writing a poem at the most famous sites in his travel accounts. Oi no kobumi tells us that at Yoshino, known for the most beautiful views of cherry blossoms in Japan, the poet
“was unable to find proper language to compose a poem, hence, kept silent.”
source : Basho-and-the-Dao - Peipei-Qiu
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. WKD : Yoshinoyama 吉野山 Mount Yoshino .
. Cultural Keywords used by Basho .
. - KIGO used by Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - .
[ . BACK to DARUMA MUSEUM TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]
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