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- Oku no Hosomichi - 奥の細道 - おくのほそ道
The Narrow Road to the Deep North -
. Oku no Hosomichi - 奥の細道 - Introduction .
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sometimes spelled Kasashima 笠嶋 "Hat Island"
Now in Miyagi prefecture, Natori town 宮城県名取市.
Basho and his traveler's hat (kasa)
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .
- - - Station 16 - Kasajima 笠嶋 - - -
Passing through the castle towns of Abumizuri and Shiroishi, I arrived at the province of Kasajima, where I asked the way to the mound of Lord Sanekata of the Fujiwara family. I was told that I must turn right in the direction of the villages of Minowa and Kasajima visible at the foot of the mountains in the distance, and that the mound was still there by the side of a shrine, buried in deep grass. I wanted to go that way, of course, but the muddy road after the early rain of the wet season and my own weakness stopped me. The names of the two villages were so befitting to the wet season with their echoes of raincoat and umbrella that I wrote:
How far must I walk
To the village of Kasajima
This endlessly muddy road
Of the early wet season?
I stopped overnight at Iwanuma.
Tr. by Nobuyuki Yuasa
source : terebess.hu/english
鐙摺白石の城を過、笠嶋の郡に入れば、藤中将実方の塚はいづくのほどならんと人にとへば、是より遥右に見ゆる山際の里を蓑輪 笠嶋と云。道祖神の社、かた見の薄今にありと教ゆ。此比の五月雨に道いとあしく、身つかれ侍れば、よそながら眺やりて過るに、蓑輪笠嶋も五月雨の折にふれたりと、
笠嶋はいづこさ月のぬかり道
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笠島はいづこ五月のぬかり道
Kasajima wa izuko satsuki no nukari michi
Rainhat Island -
where is it in this rainy month
along muddy roads?
Tr. Barnhill
Kashima's
where now on the month of May's
mud-ridden highway
Tr. Corman/Kamaike
Kasajima -
Which way?
This muddy road of May.
Tr. Saito/Nelson
whereabouts is
Kasashima? this rainy month,
this muddy road
Tr. Ueda
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In the year 1689, June 20 - 元禄2年5月4日
source : itoyo/basho
This hokku is divided in two parts in the middle of line 2.
Kasajima wa izuko
satsuki no nukari michi
Where is it,
this Kasajima? The muddy road
of the swamp month.
Tr. Gabi Greve
satsuki 皐月 "swamp month"
is the fifth lunar month, now the rainy season of June, July.
五月 is also written with the character for 5 五.
. The Asian Lunar Calendar .
source : kikyou0123
The haiku sweet represents the stones on the muddy road of Basho.
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Toono chuujoo Sanekata 藤中将実方 Tono Chujo Sanekata
Fujiwara no Sanekata 藤原実方
(? - 998)
A waka poet of the Heian period, during the reign of the Emperor Ichijo (986-1011).
He has one poem in the collection "100 poems from 100 poets".
Legend knows that he was quite a quarreler, and after an argument in the palace with Fujiwara Yukinari he was ordered in exile, as Governor of Mutsu province 陸奥の国.
One day he passed a small shrine of the wayside deities Dosojin 道祖神 of Kasajima without getting off his horse. As divine punishment he was thrown from his horse and died.
When I must hide
these burning feelings,
I feel as though
my body is on fire
with Ibuki mugwort.
Ogura Hyakunin Isshu Poems 小倉百人一首
. Fujiwara no Sanekata Ason 藤原実方朝臣 .
. Doosojin 道祖神 Dosojin .
the Wayside Gods of Japan
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Saigyo also passed this village and wrote the following waka:
くちもせぬ 其の名ばかりを 留め置きて
枯野の薄 形見 にぞみる
kuchi mo senu sono na bakari o todome okite
kareno no susuki katami ni zo miru
He has left nothing
but an undying name
in this world . . .
On his grave in the withered moor
pampas grass is all I see.
Tr. Ueda
Saigyo and Basho 西行法師
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .
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Abumizuri 鐙摺 lit. "side of a horse where the stirrups rub"
A small town near tha Abumizuri mountain.
The pass through this mountain is so narrow that the stirrups of a rider almost scrape the sides.
Minowa 蓑輪 lit. "raincoat wheel"
Shiroishi 白石 lit. "white stone"
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