Oku Station 10 - Shirakawa

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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 .



source :　itoyo/basho
白河の関（「芭蕉翁絵詞伝」 Shirakawa no Seki


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- - - Station 10 - Shirakawa no Seki 白川の関 - - -

After many days of solitary wandering, I came at last to the barrier-gate of Shirakawa, which marks the entrance to the northern regions. Here, for the first time, my mind was able to gain a certain balance and composure, no longer victim to pestering anxiety, so it was with a mild sense of detachment that I thought about the ancient traveller who had passed through this gate with a burning desire to write home. This gate was counted among the three largest checking stations, and many poets had passed through it, each leaving a poem of his own making. I myself walked between trees laden with thick foliage with the distant sound of autumn wind in my ears and a vision of autumn tints before my eyes. There were hundreds and thousands of pure white blossoms of unohana in full bloom on either side of the road, in addition to the equally white blossoms of brambles, so that the ground, at a glance, seemed to be covered with early snow. According to the accounts of Kiyosuke, the ancients are said to have passed through this gate, dressed up in their best clothes.

Decorating my hair
With white blossoms of unohana,
I walked through the gate,
My only gala dress.

-- written by Sora


Tr. by Nobuyuki Yuasa
source : terebess.hu/english


心許なき日かず重るまゝに、白川の関にかゝりて旅心定りぬ。いかで都へと便求しも断也。中にも此関は三関の一にして、風騒の人心をとゞむ。秋風を耳に残し、 紅葉を俤にして、青葉の梢猶あはれ也。卯の花の白妙に茨の花の咲そひて、雪にもこゆる心地ぞする。古人冠を正し、衣装を改し事など、清輔の筆にもとゞめ置れしとぞ。

卯の花をかざしに関の晴着かな - u no hana o kazashite sekii no haregi kana 曾良 - Sora

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source :　www.yumekougei.com


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Basho wrote some hokku in Shirakawa, not mentioned in the main story.


西か東かまづ早苗にも風の音
. nishi ka higashi ka mazu sanae ni mo kaze no oto .

from the west? from the east?
above all in the rice sprouts
the sound of the wind
Tr. Barnhill

from the east or west?
among the first rice-sprouts now
the sound of the wind
Tr. Chilcott


In memory of a waka by Priest Noin

都をば霞と共に立ちしかど秋風ぞ吹く白河の関

At the capital
it was with the spreading [spring] haze
that I took to the road.
Now the autumn wind is blowing
at Shirakawa Barrier
Tr. Donald Keene

. Nooin, Nōin, Noo-In 能因法師 Priest Noin .

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早苗にも我が色黒き日数哉
sanae ni mo waga iro kuroki hikazu kana

Rice just sprouting
Yet already suntanned I am -
So many days.
Tr. Saito/Nelson


Basho had left Edo quite a while ago and now the young rice plants are already out. His own skin had darkened from the many days spend on the road.

This hokku has the cut marker KANA at the end of line 3.


the rice plants still young
and yet my skin is dark
from many days (travelling) . . .
Tr. Gabi Greve

Basho uses the expression "my color is black" waga iro kuroki.

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田や麦や中にも夏のほととぎす
. ta ya mugi ya naka ni mo natsu no hototogisu .

rice fields and barley -
and among them also
summer's cuckoo
Tr. Barnhill


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Written at - - - - Station 11 - Sukagawa 須賀川 - - -

関守の宿を水鶏にとをふもの　
. sekimori no yado o kuina ni toou mono .


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Waka by Fujiwara no Suemichi　藤原 季通　(Heian period, around 1158)

見て過る人しなければ卯の花の 咲ける垣根やしらかわの関
mite suguru hito shi nakereba unohana no / sakeru kakine ya Shirakawa no seki

Since no one passes
without looking
at the shrub fence
blooming with white deutzia,
it must be Shirakawa Barrier.
Tr. Shirane


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Sakai no Myoojin 境の明神 (福島) Sakai no Myojin Shrine, Fukushima
Two shrines at the border to the Northern Territories. One on each side of the frontier line. On the inner side a shrine for the female deity (Tamatsushima Myojin 玉津島) to protect the interior. On the outer side a shrine for a male deity (Sumiyoshi Myojin 住吉明神) to protect from enemies of the outside.　Travellers in the Edo period used to pray here for a safe trip and gave thanks after a trip was finished.

. Basho in Shirakawa .

. Sumiyoshi Jinja 住吉神社 Sumiyoshi Shrines in Japan .


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白河の関の章段
source : www.bashouan.com


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. Oku no Hosomichi - 奥の細道 - Introduction .


. Shirakawa Daruma 白川だるま .



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Oku Station 11 - Sukagawa

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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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- - - Station 11 - Sukagawa 須賀川 - - -

Pushing towards the north, I crossed the River Abukuma, and walked between the high mountains of Aizu on the left and the three villages of Iwaki, Soma, and Miharu on the right, which were divided from the villages of Hitachi and Shimotsuke districts by a range of low mountains. I stopped at the Shadow Pond, so called because it was thought to reflect the exact shadow of any object that approached its shore. It was a cloudy day, however, and nothing but the grey sky was reflected in the pond. I called on the Poet Tokyu at the post town of Sukagawa, and spent a few days at his house. He asked me how I had fared at the gate of Shirakawa. I had to tell him that I had not been able to make as many poems as I wanted, partly because I had been absorbed in the wonders of the surrounding countryside and the recollections of ancient poets. It was deplorable, however, to have passed the gate of Shirakawa without a single poem worth recording, so I wrote:

The first poetic venture
I came across --
The rice planting-songs
Of the far north.

Using this poem as a starting piece, we made three books of linked verse.

There was a huge chestnut tree on the outskirts of this post town, and a priest was living in seclusion under its shade. When I stood there in front of the tree, I felt as if I were in the midst of the deep mountains where the poet Saigyo had picked nuts. I took a piece of paper from my bag, and wrote as follows:

"The chestnut is a holy tree, for the Chinese ideograph for chestnut is Tree placed directly below West, the direction of the holy land. The Priest Gyoki is said to have used it for his walking stick and the chief support of his house.

The chestnut by the eaves
In magnificient bloom
Passes unnoticed
By men of the world.


Tr. by Nobuyuki Yuasa
source : terebess.hu/english


とかくして越行まゝにあぶくま川を渡る。左に会津根高く、右に岩城相馬三春の庄、常陸下野の地をさかひて山つらなる。かげ沼と云所を行に、今日は空曇て物影うつらず。

すが川の駅に等窮といふものを尋て、四五日とゞめらる。先白河の関いかにこえつるやと問。長途のくるしみ身心つかれ、且は風景に魂うばゝれ、懐旧に腸を断てはか％＼しう思ひめぐらさず。

風流の初やおくの田植うた - fuuryuu no hajime ya

無下にこえんもさすがにと語れば、脇第三とつゞけて、三巻となしぬ。

此宿の傍に、大なる栗の木陰をたのみて、世をいとふ僧有。橡ひろふ太山もかくやとしづかに覚られてものに書付侍る。其詞、

栗といふ文字は西の木と書て西方浄土に便ありと、行基菩薩の一生杖にも柱にも此木を用給ふとかや。

世の人の見付ぬ花や軒の栗


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quote
After having arrived at the post station of Sukagawa, I called upon a man named Tôkyû, who insisted that we stay at his house for a few days. He asked me how I had fared at the barrier of Shirakawa. I replied that I was unable to compose any poems. I had been totally exhausted from the long journey, partly because I had been overwhelmed by the scenic landscape and by nostalgic thoughts of the past. It would have been regrettable, however, to cross the barrier without writing a single verse, so I wrote:

The beginning of fûryû!
the rice-planting song
in the remote north.

My verse is followed by a second and third verse, and we produced three linked-verse sequences.

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While the existing English translations of the poem have been relatively concurrent in translating the term as “poetry” or “the poetic,”
Ebara Taizô and other Japanese scholars interpret it as the aesthetic or artistic experience the speaker had when he stepped into the unexplored area on his journey. Some early Japanese scholarship has also suggested that the term fûryû here means the musical performance furyû, but this point of view is not widely accepted, as no solid evidence has been found that furyû evolved from rice-planting songs.

Given its semantic complexities and compositional contexts, this poem in Oku no hosomichi poses intriguing questions to the reader. Either as praise of the host’s homeland or as an announcement of the speaker’s poetic quest, the poem has assumed a natural relationship between poetic quality and the rice-planting song in a rustic area.

A question naturally arises as to what kind of poetry or poetic quality Bashô’s fûryû relates and designates.
Fûryû is an important aesthetic concept in traditional Japanese culture, but the precise meaning of the term has been a complicated issue.
It derives from the Chinese word fengliu.

MORE is here :
source : Basho-and-the-Dao - Peipei-Qiu


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風流の初めや奥の田植えうた
fuuryuu no hajime ya Oku no taue uta

Basho at Sukagawa, visiting Sugara Tokyu and
. WKD : Ichihara Tayo-Jo 市原多代女 .



The beginning of all art:
a song when planting a rice field
in the country's inmost part.
Tr. Henderson


beginning of poetry -
the rice-planting song
of the Interior
Tr. Shirane




jetzt wirds langsam poetisch ...
das Lied der Reispflanzer
von den Nordprovinzen
Tr. Gabi Greve



世の人の見付けぬ花や軒の栗　　
. yo no hito no mitsukenu hana ya noki no kuri .
greeting for priest Kashin 僧侶可伸, and in memory of Saint Gyoki 行基菩薩 Gyogi Bosatsu.

In the Tohoku region, where rice did not grow well, people had taken to plant sweet chestnut trees for food to survive the harsh winters.


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Written at Sukagawa, when Basho stayed with Sagara Tokyu
in a letter to poet Kaun 何云 （かうん）

関守の宿を水鶏にとをふもの　　
sekimori no yado o kuina ni toou mono

the home of the barrier guard
I will ask to the
water rail, yes
Tr. Gabi Greve

The MONO at the end of line 3 gives a strong impression.
It is a greeting hokku to his host

There is now a stone memorial at the temple Nenbooji 聯芳寺 Nenbo-Ji near Shirakawa.


The voice of the kuina birds sounds like someone knocking on a door,
. kuina tataku 水鶏たたく a Kuina knocks .




source - more photos of his residence :　fuuten.blog.so-net.ne.jp

- - - Sagara Tookyuu 相楽等躬 Sagara Tokyu (1638 - 1715)
He studied hokku with Ishida Mitoku 石田未得 (1587 - 1669) and
岸本調和 Kishimoto Chowa (1638 - 1715).
Basho stayed a few days at his home.
In later years he had contact with 内藤露沾 Naito Rosen.
His name was 伊左衛門, his haikai names 乍憚, 乍単斎, 藤躬

One of his hokku collections is called Date-i 伊達衣.

It is said that he asked Basho about his impression of OKU after crossing the Shirakawa barrier, and Basho answered with the above hokku about FUURYUU - the beginning of all art.


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須賀川と芭蕉
source : city.sukagawa.fukushima.jp

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. WKD : taue uta, taue-uta 田植歌 song for rice planting .


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Oku Station 12 - Asaka

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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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- - - Station 12 - Asaka Yama あさか山 - - -

Passing through the town of Hiwada, which was about five miles from the house of the Poet Tokyu, I came to the famous hills of Asaka. The hills were not very far from the highroad, and scattered with numerous pools. It was the season of a certain species of iris called katsumi. So I went to look for it. I went from pool to pool, asking every soul I met on the way where I could possibly find it, but strangely enough, no one had ever heard of it, and the sun went down before I caught even a glimpse of it. I cut across to the right at Nihonmatsu, saw the ancient cave of Kurozuka in a hurry, and put up for the night in Fukushima.


Tr. by Nobuyuki Yuasa
source : terebess.hu/english


等窮が宅を出て、五里計桧皮の宿を離れてあさか山有。路より近し。此あたり沼多し。かつみ刈比もやゝ近うなれば、いづれの草を花かつみとは云ぞと人々に尋侍れども、更知人なし。沼を尋、人にとひ、かつみ／＼と尋ありきて日は山の端にかゝりぬ。二本松より右にきれて、黒塚の岩屋一見し、 福崎に宿る。


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Kurozuka is the most well-known demon woman in Japanese folklore, and a very popular subject in the arts, starring in everything from paintings to ukiyoe prints to noh plays. She has gone by many names. Kurozuka, or the witch of “the black mounds,” is the most famous one, but she is also known as the
Demon of Adachigahara, or even just simply Onibaba, “the demon hag.”




安達が原の鬼女伝説 Adachigahara demon woman legend
. Kurozuka 黒塚 Kurozuka Black Mound legend .


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source :　fks-happy.com/naka
Basho and Fukushima - Exhibition in 2012
｢芭蕉の足跡を辿る｣ In the Footsteps of Basho


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奥の細道絵巻 - paintings by 米倉兌筆
福島県桑折町・朝日山法圓寺所蔵 Fukushima, Koorimachi
source : www.bashouan.com


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BACK TO
. Oku no Hosomichi - 奥の細道 - Introduction .


. WKD : Asakayama ... 安積山 .

. WKD : Festivals - Fukushima Prefecture - 福島県 .



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Oku Station 13 - Shinobu

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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 .

4月29日

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- - - Station 13 - Shinobu no Sato 忍ぶの里 / 信夫 - - -

On the following morning I made my way to the village of Shinobu to look at the stone upon whose chequered face they used to dye a certain type of cloth called shinobu-zuri. I found the stone in the middle of a small village, half buried in the ground. According to the child who acted as a self-appointed guide, this stone was once on the top of a mountain, but the travellers who came to see it did so much harm to the crops that the farmers thought it a nuisance and thrust it down into the valley, where it rests now with its chequered face downward. I thought the story was not altogether unbelievable.

The busy hands
Of rice-planting girls,
Reminiscent somehow
Of the old dyeing technique.


Tr. by Nobuyuki Yuasa
source : terebess.hu/english


あくれば、しのぶもぢ摺の石を尋て忍ぶのさとに行。遥山陰の小里に石半土に埋てあり。里の童部の来りて教ける。昔は此山の上に侍しを往来の人の麦草をあらして此石を試侍をにくみて此谷につき落せば、石の面下ざまにふしたりと云。さもあるべき事にや。

早苗とる手もとや昔しのぶ摺 - sanae toru temoto ya mukashi shinobuzuri


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sanae toru temoto ya mukashi shinobuzuri


the pattern-rubbing stone

planting seedlings
with the hands—ancient patterns
from the fern of longing
Tr. Barnhill


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. Kawara no In 河原院 源融 Minamoto no Toru . (822 – 895)
百人一首

みちのく（陸奥）の　しのぶもぢずり（忍ぶ 綟摺り）
誰ゆえに　乱れ染めにし　我ならなくに

Michinoku no shinobu mojizuri tare yue ni
midaren somenishi ware naranaku ni

As wholly confused
as cloth dyed in moss-fern design
from Michinoku
so distraught is my heart now
and for no one else but you.
Tr. Steven D. Carter


shinobu mojizuri is a special cloth dyed in the region of the village
Shinobu gun Fukushima 福島県信夫郡.
Made from shinobugusa 忍ぶ草、hare's-foot fern, deersfoot fern
Davallia bullata and others
MORE
. Michinoku roads みちのく路 .


and

I long to find a path
to the depths of Mount Shinobu
that I might fathom
the secrets of
another’s heart
Tr. Shirane

Ise Monogatari

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- quote
Shinobu Mottling Rock, Fukushima
6 km north-east from Fukushima City sits the village of Shinobu (present-day Mojizuri). Three seemingly unconnected objects - a large, moss-dappled rock, the Michinoku (Tohoku) kimono design of mottled ferns made famous in the Heian period (794 - 1185), and an impossible love story - have together made Shinobu a vastly recognized and esteemed location of utamakura. Utamakura is a place-name used in waka (traditional Japanese poetry) which, through alternative readings of the name's kanji (Chinese characters) or its associations with national histories and figures, can be used as an allusive tool towards sentiment and meaning within waka; an incredibly popular and admired poetic device which was employed even in everyday conversation at the Heian Kyoto Court.

In the 9th century, Minamoto no Toru (a high-ranking noble of the Heian Imperial Court in Kyoto) traveled to the "great north," Michinoku, which was at that time deemed an uncivilized land due to its distance from the shining capital. At some point, he passed through Shinobu, a village well-known by the Imperial Court for its unique production of a kimono design called Shinobu Mojizuri (fern mottle). It was not uncommon for high-ranking nobles to undertake vast journeys north for state affairs. And on these journeys, it wasn't completely unheard of to learn of nobles falling in love with villagers of little, or no, social status.

Unfortunately for Minamoto no Toru and the lady of Shinobu, he did just so. Staying with the lady's father and delaying his return to the capital for over a month, he was eventually called back to court and the separation was impossible to withstand for both of them. Minamoto no Toru did as all Heian courtiers in his day could do; he wrote a poem about it. And the lady of Shinobu took to her bed with grief, dying before the verse could reach her. The verse adopts the word 'shinobu' and its three potential readings in Japanese: the name of the village Shinobu; the type of fern found in abundance around the village, called shinobugusa; and the verb shinobu, "to love secretly." In just five lines, Minamoto no Toru encapsulates his sentiment, the history and relevance of the setting to his story, and appropriate similes for such a saddening poem in incredible subtlety and talent in his employment of utamakura.

Like the cloth printed
with ferns in far Shinobu
of the deep north —
if not for you
for whom would I dye my heart
with tangled love?

Minamoto no Toru (822 – 895)

Since this all occurred over twelve centuries ago, Shinobu has welcomed such admirers of its history and poetry as Basho Matsuo, who came to compose a haiku on the subject in his Oku no Hosomichi pilgrimage of Michinoku utamakura locations.

早苗とる手もとや昔しのぶ摺

Deft hands that now pluck
seedlings, once you used to press
patterns from the stones.
Tr. Donald Keene

The mottling rock upon which the famous Michinoku kimono was mottled with fern is enshrined by an open gate. The two poems are also on the grounds, set in stone. All are surrounded by a wonderful view of Fukushima, the Kannon-Do Temple and Phoenix Pagoda, and a river also famous in traditional waka, the Abukumagawa.
- source : http://ja.japantourist.jp


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source :　HeartLand-Icho

mojizuri ishi 文字摺石 - 信夫文知摺石 mojizuri mottlilng stone, rock
shinobu mojizuri しのぶもじずり / 忍捩摺り／信夫捩摺り

The lower part of the stone has been used so often that it is all shining and the stone was once called kagami ishi 鏡石 mirror stone.

This famous rock is now located in a temple at the foot of the mountain.
in Shinobu village, Fukushima. It tells a sad love story of the Heian period and now a story of radioactive contamination after the accident in March 2013 . . .


芭蕉忌や文字摺石は除染中　
bashooki ya mojizuri ishi wa josenchuu

Basho Memorial Day -
the Mojizuri Rock needs
to be decontaminated

Chinen Tetsuo 知念哲夫

. WKD : bashooki 芭蕉忌 Basho Memorial Day .


. Japan after the BIG earthquake March 11, 2011　.


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Oku Station 14 - Satoshoji

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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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- - - Station 14 - Sato Shoji, Satoshoji 佐藤庄司 旧跡 - - -

Crossing the ferry of Moon Halo, I came to the post town of Rapid's Head.
The ruined house of the brave warrior Sato was about a mile and a half from this post town towards the foot of the mountains on the left. I pushed my way towards the village of Iizuka, and found a hill called Maruyama in the open field of Sabano. This was the site of the warrior's house. I could not refrain from weeping, when I saw the remains of the front gate at the foot of the hill. There was a lonely temple in the vicinity, and tombs of the Sato family were still standing in the graveyard. I wept bitterly in front of the tombstones of the two young wives, remembering how they had dressed up their frail bodies in armor after the death of their husbands. In fact I felt as if I were in the presence of the Weeping Tombstone of China.

I went into the temple to have a drink of tea. Among the treasures of the temple were the sword of Yoshitsune and the satchel which his faithful retainer, Benkei, had carried on his back.

Proudly exhibit
With flying banners
The sword and the satchel
This May festival day.


Tr. by Nobuyuki Yuasa
source : terebess.hu/english


Tsuki no Wa no Watashi　（Moon Halo)
月の輪のわたしを越て、瀬の上と云宿に出づ。佐藤庄司が旧跡は左の山際一里半計に有。飯塚の里鯖野と聞て尋／＼行に、丸山と云に尋あたる。 是庄司の旧館なり。梺に大手の跡など人の教ゆるにまかせて泪を落し、又かたはらの古寺に一家の石碑を残す。中にも二人の嫁がしるし先哀也。女なれどもかひ％＼しき名の世に聞えつる物かなと袂をぬらしぬ。堕涙の石碑も遠きにあらず。寺に入て茶を乞へば、爰に義経の太刀弁慶が笈をとゞめて什物とす。

笈も太刀も五月にかざれ帋幟 - oi mo tachi mo satsuki ni kazare kami nobori

五月朔日の事也。



source :　blogs.yahoo.co.jp/bgydk072

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笈も太刀も五月に飾れ紙幟　
oi mo tachi mo satsuki ni kazare kaminobori

satchel and sword, too,
displayed for Fifth Month:
carp streamers
Tr. Barnhill

The temple where Basho stayed when he wrote this poem was in possession of the famous sword of Minamoto no Yoshitsune and the satchel (bag) by Benkei.

佐藤庄司, 元禄2年5月2日 1689, second day of the 5th lunar month


- quote
Ioji-temple 医王寺 and the Sato family
Ioji-temple was built in 826 in Iizaka, Fukushima-shi, and is now known for housing a Buddhist image that protects people against sickness. In the temple are the tombstones of Motoharu Sato, a feudal load, and his family, which is an “Important Prefectural Cultural Asset.
. . . Heike enjoyed tremendous prosperity for about 20 years. However, the Genji once again rose in arms against the ruling Heike.
A feudal load, Motoharu Sato, took the side of the Genji during the battle.He had two sons, Tsugunobu and Tadanobu. He ordered them to go to the western part of Japan, to support the Genji.

The first son Tsugunobu was killed at Yashima, in Kagawa prefecture. While the second son, Tadanobu, was also killed in KyotoThey were killed in defense of Yoshitsune, who was a younger brother of the leader of the Genji.

After the battle, Yoshitsune visited Ioji-temple taking the two brother's hair, along with his first vassal Benkei. At that time, Bushi used to offer the hair of the warriors killed in battles to the family's grave. In front of the tombstone, Yoshitsune praised the two brothers' courage offering his sword. For Japanese warriors, Bushi, the sword was thought the most important possession. Benkei offered his bag called Oi. The bag is displayed in the Ioji museum now.

This Haiku (by Basho) literally means that you should decorate the bag and sword with paper-made carp-shaped streamers on the Boy's Festival Day.

- source : www10.plala.or.jp/mikio-michiyo



source :　itoyo/basho/okunohosomichi

Tomb of the Sato brothers


source :　asahi-ecom.jp

oi from Benkei, used during his religious training
kept as Asahi village 朝日町


. oi 笈 backpack of the Edo period .


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- quote
Auf den Spuren des treuen Vasallen Satô Motoharu
Wir bedienten uns der Fähre vom „Mondhof“, um über den Fluß zu kommen und schon waren wir bei der Wechselstation „Oberfurt“. Die alten Ruinen der Stätte, die jener Gutsherr von Satô bewohnt hatte, finden sich links in einem Bergwinkel in einer Entfernung von etwa eineinhalb Meilen, und zwar bei Sabano in der Nähe des Dorfes Iizuka“ – sagte man uns.

Wir schlugen die empfohlene Richtung ein und fragten uns solange durch, bis wir endlich die Maruyama genannte Anhöhe fanden, wo die ehemalige Burg des Gutsherren stand. Die Überreste am Ausläufer des Berges sollen die des vorderen Eingangstores sein – im guten Glauben an die Verläßlichkeit dessen, was man uns sagte, ließen wir unseren Tränen freien Lauf.

Am alten Tempel nebenan sind übrigens die gesamten Grabstelen des Satô-Hauses erhalten geblieben. Von allen berührten mich die Grabschriften der Schwiegertöchter am tiefsten. Denn was sie taten, ist Frauen gar nicht erst zuzumuten, und so ging der Ruf ihrer Tapferkeit wahrhaftig durch die ganze Welt.

Es blieb uns kein Auge trocken – das bezeugten auch meine nassen Ärmel. Um einer Grabstele willen, wie die der Chin-Zeit, „wo jeder Tränen vergießen muß“, in die Ferne zu schweifen – das ist wirklich nicht nötig.

Wir betraten daraufhin den Tempel und baten um Tee. Das Schwert des Helden Yoshitsune und der Tragkorb seines treuen Vasallen Benkei werden hier als Tempelschätze aufbewahrt.

Oi mo tachi mo satsuki ni kazare kami-nobori

Jener Tragkorb, jenes Schwert
diene dem Festmonat genauso als Schmuck!
Wie die Papierbanner...

All dies begab sich am ersten Tag des Fünften Monats.

tr. G. S. Dombrady
- source : www.k5.dion.ne.jp/~litterae/common

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元禄２年５月

Iooji soba 医王寺そば buckwheat noodle soup from temple Io-Ji
with Kawamata Shamo chicken
sold even today in Memory of Matsuo Basho

. Kawamata Shamo Chicken 川俣シャモ　ー　Fukushima .

- - - - -

「笈（おい）も太刀（たち）も五月に飾れ紙のぼり」と詠んでいる。

句意は、「五月の初めなので（あちこちに）紙幟がひるがえっている。
笈も太刀も飾って（端午の節句を祝ってもらいたい）」。



Entrance Gate to the Temple 医王寺山門

source : yougo-iiouji.htm

This important temple is sometimes called the
Koya-san of the East.

Famous for Sato Tsugunobu 佐藤継信 (1158 - 1185)
Tsugenobu was called Yushooji 湯庄司.
and his brother
Sato Tadanobu 佐藤忠信 (1161 - 1186)


. WKD : Benkei and Yoshitsune 弁慶　義経 .


sakura no tsue 桜の杖 walking stick from cherry wood
In the 10th month of the year 1180 the local regent 信夫庄司　Shinobu Shoji Satō 佐藤元治 Sato Motoharu had his two children,
嗣信 Tsugunobu and 忠信 Tadanobu become retainers of Yoshitsune.
As a proof of their loyalty he planted a stick of cherry wood in the ground and spoke:
"If my two sons will be loyal to Yoshitsune, this stick will grow into a tree.
Otherwise this stick will wither away!"
「わが子が君に忠であれば生きよ、さもなくば枯れよ」
The stick grew into a beautiful cherry tree and was called 庄司戻し桜 Shoji modoshi sakura.

Tsugunobu (1158 – 1185) was killed at Yashima, in Kagawa prefecture, protecting Yoshitsune from an arrow by the enemy Taira no Noritsune.
Tadanobu (1153 - 1186) was killed in Kyoto. Both were killed in defense of Yoshitsune.



The tree withered later but was replanted.

. 源の義経　Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159 - 1189) .

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Oku Station 15 - Iizuka

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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 .

1st of the Fifth month.

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- - - Station 15 - Iizuka 飯塚 - - -

I stopped overnight at Iizuka. I had a bath in a hot spring before I took shelter at an inn. It was a filthy place with rough straw mats spread out on an earth floor. They had to prepare my bed by the dim light of the fire, for there was not even a lamp in the whole house. A storm came upon us towards midnight, and between the noise of the thunder and leaking rain and the raids of mosquitoes and fleas, I could not get a wink of sleep. Furthermore, an attack of my old complaint made me so ill that I suffered severely from repeated attacks while I rode on horseback bound for the town of Kori. It was indeed a terrible thing to be so ill on the road, when there still remained thousands of miles before me, but thinking that if I were to die on my way to the extreme north it would only be the fulfillment of providence, I trod the earth as firmly as possible and arrived at the barrier-gate of Okido in the province of Date.


Tr. by Nobuyuki Yuasa
source : terebess.hu/english


其夜飯塚にとまる。温泉あれば湯に入て宿をかるに、土坐に筵を敷てあやしき貧家也。灯もなければゐろりの火かげに寝所をまうけて臥す。夜に入て雷鳴、雨しきりに降て、臥る上よりもり、蚤蚊にせゝられて眠らず。持病さへおこりて消入計になん。短夜の空もやう／＼明れば、又旅立ぬ。猶夜の余波心すゝまず、馬かりて桑折の駅に出る。遥なる行末をかゝえて、斯る病覚束なしといへど、羈旅辺土の行脚、捨身無常の観念、道路にしなん、是天の命なりと気力聊とり直し路縦横に踏で伊達の大木戸をこす。

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奥の細道絵巻-飯塚の里

- source : www.bashouan.com/OYemaki

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It was on the 1st of the Fifth month.

That night we stopped over at Iizuka. A hot spring is there, and we bathed and rented a room.
It was a crude, shabby place with straw mats covering a dirt floor. There wasn't even a lamp, so we bedded down by the light of a sunken fireplace. Night came, thunder rolled, rain poured down. The roof leaked over our heads and I was harrassed by fleas and mosquitoes.
My old illness too cropped up and I almost fainted.
Finally the sky of the short summer night began to lighten, and we set off once again.
But the night's afflictions stayed with me and my spirits would not rise. We borrowed a horse and headed for the post town of Koori. My distant journey remained, I was anxious about my illness, and yet this was a pilgrimage to far places, a resignation to self-abandonment and impermanence.
Death might come by the roadsice but that is heaven's will. With those thoughts my spirits recovered a bit, I began to step broadly on my way, and jauntily I passed through the Great Gate of Date.

- source : Barnhill


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Oku Station 16 - Kasajima

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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


.............................................................................


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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Oku Station 17 - Takekuma no Matsu

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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 .

5月4日

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- - - Station 17 - Takekuma no Matsu 武隈 - - -

My heart leaped with joy when I saw the celebrated pine tree of Takekuma, its twin trunks shaped exactly as described by the ancient poets. I was immediately reminded of the priest Noin who had grieved to find upon his second visit this same tree cut down and thrown into the River Natori as bridge-piles by the newly-appointed governor of the province. This tree had been planted, cut, and replanted several times in the past, but just when I came to see it myself, it was in its original shape after a lapse of perhaps a thousand years, the most beautiful shape one could possibly think of for a pine tree. The poet Kyohaku wrote as follows at the time of my departure to express his good wishes for my journey:

Don't forget to show my master
The famous pine of Takekuma,
Late cherry blossoms
Of the far north.

The following poem I wrote was, therefore, a reply:

Three months after we saw
Cherry blossoms together
I came to see the glorious
Twin trunks of the pine.


Tr. by Nobuyuki Yuasa
source : terebess.hu/english

岩沼に宿る。

武隈の松にこそめ覚る心地はすれ。根は土際より二木にわかれて、昔の姿うしなはずとしらる。先能因法師思ひ出、往昔むつのかみにて下りし人、此木を伐て、名取川の橋杭にせられたる事などあればにや。松は此たび跡もなしとは詠たり。代々あるは伐、あるひは植継などせしと聞に、今将千歳のかたちとゝのほひて、めでたき松のけしきになん侍し。

武隈の松みせ申せ遅桜と挙白と云ものゝ餞別したりければ、

桜より松は二木を三月越シ sakura yori matsu wa futaki o mitsukigoshi (mitsuki-goshi)

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. Nōin、Nooin Hoshi, No-In Hoshi 能因法師 Priest Noin .
(988-1051)

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第26回「奥の細道」岩沼サミット



Haiku Meeting at Iwanuma, Miyagi - in honor of the Takekuma Pines
source : www.city.iwanuma.miyagi.jp


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Natorigawa 名取川 River Natori

I don’t know how many of the
Natorigawa’s shoals I will cross,
maybe seven, maybe eight of them –
but when night comes, I’ll cross them.
Tr. Edward Kamens


Natorigawa, “The River of Scandal,” is
in far-off Michinoku, they say: and
oh how terrible it is to have my name
be used in a way it does not deserve!
Tr. Edward Kamens

Mibu no Tadamine　壬生忠岑

MORE about the River
source : tohokupillows.wordpress.com


------------------------------------- quote - comment by Scott Watson
Cross the Natori River, entering Sendai.
It is the day to thatch with sweet flags. Finding an inn, [we] stay four or five days. There is an artist here named Kaemon. [We] hear that his heart has a joyous ring. A good man to know. [He] remembers places of note that are long since obscure, and he shows around one day. Hagi [bush clover] is thick at Miyagino, and we can sense what the scene must be like in autumn. At Tamada, Yokono, Tsutsuji-ga-oka asebi [horse drunk tree] is in bloom. Enter a pine woods where no sun penetrates, a place called Kinoshita [under trees]. Long ago, too, the dewfall was such that "Attendants! An umbrella. . . ." was composed. Praying at Yakushidō and the Tenjin Shrine, come to the day's end. Kaemon sends us off with drawings he made of places here and there in Matsushima and Shiogama. [And he] makes us a farewell gift of two pair of waraji [straw sandals] with cords dyed dark blue. That is why [he] is known as a man of utmost cultivation, a fact shown in what is here attained.

Feet bound with
blue flag cords.
waraji.

Notes
Kaemon: Kitanoya Kaemon.
He was a high ranking student of haikai poet Oyodo Michikaze. He was also a woodblock artist and ran a bookstore that specialized in haikai books.
Hagi: Bush clover has tiny white or deep pink blossoms and has been a famous early autumn flower since ancient times. It is mentioned 125 times in the ancient anthology The Manyōshū. Courtiers off to autumnal flower viewing gatherings sometimes decorated themselves with spray of hagi or dyed their robes hagi colors.
Asebi: A plant with small temple bell shaped flowers. It is mentioned in The Manyōshū. If horses eat the plant they suffer, thus the ideograms that read "horse drunk tree" (drunk = sick drunk).
Waraji: Straw sandals. The Yakushi Nyorai (Medicine/healing Bodhisattva) Bashō visited is thought to strengthen legs, which is why travelers petition there and why the offering they make is straw sandals. It might be of interest for some readers to know that a traveler on foot wore out a few pair of sandals each day.
I tried walking in a pair for half a day before blisters rose up between my toes.

Scott Watson, facebook, April 2024


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source :　itoyo/basho

The two pines at Takekuma 武隈の松


. Genji Monogatari　 源氏物語　 .

Lady Akashi to Genji

Whose ends are far
the twin-leaf little pine
now torn away -
I wonder when the day will come
to gaze on its lofty shade.


Genji answering Lady Akashi

Since its roots grow deep
that long since began to grow
the little pine tree
by the Takekuma pines
for a thousand years shall stand.
Tr. Cranstone


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Oku Station 18 - Sendai

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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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- - - Station 18 - Sendai 仙台 - - -

Crossing the River Natori, I entered the city of Sendai on May the fourth, the day we customarily throw fresh leaves of iris on the roof and pray for good health. I found an inn, and decided to stay there for several days. There was in this city a painter named Kaemon. I made special efforts to meet him, for he was reputed to be a man with a truly artistic mind. One day he took me to various places of interest which I might have missed but for his assistance. We first went to the plain of Miyagino, where fields of bush-clover were waiting to blossom in autumn. The hills of Tamada, Yokono, and Tsutsuji-ga-oka were covered with white rhododendrons in bloom. Then we went into the dark pine woods called Konoshita where even the beams of the sun could not penetrate. This darkest spot on the earth had often been the subject of poetry because of its dewiness - for example, one poet says that his lord needs an umbrella to protect him from the drops of dew when he enters it.

We also stopped at the shrines of Yakushido and Tenjin on our way home.

When the time came for us to say good-bye, this painter gave me his own drawings of Matsushima and Shiogama and two pairs of straw sandals with laces dyed in the deep blue of the iris. In this last appears most clearly perhaps the true artistic nature of this man.

It looks as if
Iris flowers had bloomed
On my feet --
Sandals laced in blue.


Tr. by Nobuyuki Yuasa
source : terebess.hu/english


名取川を渡て仙台に入。あやめふく日也。旅宿をもとめて四五日逗留す。爰に 画工加衛門と云ものあり。聊心ある者と聞て知る人になる。この者年比さだかならぬ名 ところを考置侍ればとて、一日案内す。宮城野の萩茂りあひて、秋の景色思ひやらるゝ。玉田よこ野つゝじが岡はあせび咲ころ也。日影ももらぬ松の林に入て爰を木の下と云とぞ。昔もかく露ふかければこそ、みさぶらひみかさとはよみたれ。薬師堂天神の御社など拝て、其日はくれぬ。猶、松嶋塩がまの所〃画に書て送る。且、紺の染緒つけたる草鞋二足餞す。さればこそ風流のしれもの、爰に至りて其実を顕す。

あやめ艸足に結ん草鞋の緒 ayamegusa ashi ni musuban waraji no o


gakoo Kae'mon 画工加衛門 the painter Kaemon / 画工加右衛門 (がこうかえもん) painter Kaemon


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In 1689 Matsuo Basho (松尾芭蕉) crossed the Natori River and entered Sendai, Miyagi on ‘ The Narrow Road to Oku.’ It was the day they celebrate by converting their roofs with ‘Sweet flags’, or Calami’ (あやめ). He visited there around the time of the Sweet Flags Festival (あやめの節句)(5th day of Fifth Month, also called the Boy’s Festival), when sweet flags were displayed on the eaves of houses to drive away evil spirits, or they took “Shobuyu, or 菖蒲湯 (bath with floating sweet flag leaves)” baths. The leaves keep mosquitoes and snakes away with strong fragrance. As the strong fragrance was believed to drive away bad air, people began to take baths with sweet flag leaves.
Furthermore, the plant ‘Sweet Flag’ was believed to be a symbol of the samurai’s bravery because of its sharp sword-like leaves. Even now many families with young boys enjoy “Sweet Flag Bath(shobu yu)” in the Boy’s Festival on May 5.
source : Akita Haiku



ayamegusa ashi ni musuban waraji no o

irises in bloom
let me tie around my feet
the cords of the sandals
Tr. cirje/research


I will bind iris
Blossoms round my feet―
Cords for my sandals!
Tr. Keene


I shall tie
irises to my feet -
sandal thongs

Grass of the sweet flag -
I shall use them to tie
my straw sandals
Tr. Shirane


. WKD : iris, Ayame .


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quote
In Sendai ... he hoped to meet Michikaze (1649 - 1707), a prominent haikai master who had developed a considerable following in the area, but Michikaze was absent, leaving only Kae'mon (d. 1765), one of Michikaze's disciples, who appears .. as the eccentric painter.
- Shirane, Traces of Dreams, p. 250
source : books.google.co.jp



「おくのほそ道」と仙台
source : www.bashouan.com - Sendai

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On the 8th day of the 5th lunar month 5月8日 Basho left Sendai and arrived in Shiogama around 3 in the afternoon.　After eating some rice 茶漬け he visited some of the famous places of the town, like Sue no Matsuyama.
Next morining he was back in Sendai at the home of Kaemon 加右衛門.

. Basho at Tsubo no Ishibumi 壺の碑 .


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quote
Like fûga, fûryû is one of many Chinese-origin words Bashô uses frequently in his work. In “Sansei zu san” (Eulogy on the painting of the Three Sages), a short haibun piece written in his later years, he writes:
“A person who puts his whole heart into fûryû and harmonizes himself with the four seasons would find the things worthy of verse as inexhaustible as the grains of sand on the beach.”

In this passage, fûryû seems to refer to poetry in general and is almost interchangeable with fûga. More often, however, Bashô uses fûryû to describe a quality or taste that is closely associated with the life and spirit of a recluse/wayfarer.
In Oku no hosomichi, for example, Bashô writes about his visit to a painter at Sendai. He tells us that when the time came for him to leave, the painter gave him some drawings and two pairs of straw sandals with their laces dyed deep blue. Bashô comments on the sandals:
“It was with the last gifts that he demonstrated most clearly his character as a connoisseur of fûryû.”

It is noteworthy here that the poet does not pay much attention to the beautiful drawings of famous landscapes, but rather stresses the artist’s taste of fûryû as demonstrated in the sandals he gave to the traveler, objects that are often associated with rusticity and a wayfarer’s life. The interesting example above reveals that the taste and lifestyle of a recluse/traveler was a basic element of Bashô’s fûryû.

source : Basho-and-the-Dao - Peipei-Qiu

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. Oku no Hosomichi - 奥の細道 - Introduction .


. Matsukawa Daruma from Sendai 仙台の松川だるま .


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Oku Station 19 - Tsubo no Ishibumi

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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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- - - Station 19 - Tsubo no Ishibumi 壺の碑 - - -

Relying solely on the drawings of Kaemon which served as a guide, pushed along the Narrow Road to the Deep North, and came to the place where tall sedges were growing in clusters. This was the home of the famous sedge mats of Tofu. Even now it is the custom of the people of this area to send carefully woven mats as tribute to the governor each year.

I found the stone monument of Tsubo no Ishibumi on the ancient site of the Taga castle in the village of Ichikawa. The monument was about six feet tall and three feet wide, and the engraved letters were still visible on its surface through thick layers of moss. In addition to the numbers giving the mileage to various provinces, it was possible to read the following words: This castle was built upon the present site in the first year of Jinki (724) by General Ono no Azumabito dispatched to the Northern Provinces by His Majesty, and remodelled in the sixth year of Tempyohoji (762) by His majesty's Councillor and general Emi no Asakari, Governor of the Eastern and Northern Provinces.

According to the date given at the end of the inscription, this monument was erected during the reign of Emperor Shomu (724-49), and had stood here ever since, winning the increasing admiration of poets through the years. In this ever changing world where mountains crumble, rivers change their courses, roads are deserted, rocks are buried, and old trees yield to young shoots, it was nothing short of a miracle that this monument alone had survived the battering of a thousand years to be the living memory of the ancients. I felt as if I were in the presence of the ancients themselves, and, forgetting all the troubles I had suffered on the road, rejoiced in the utter happiness of this joyful moment, not without tears in my eyes.


Tr. by Nobuyuki Yuasa
source : terebess.hu/english


かの画図にまかせてたどり行ば、おくの細道の山際に 十符の菅有。今も年々 十符の菅菰を調て国守に献ずと云り。

壷碑 市川村多賀城に有

つぼの石ぶみは高サ六尺餘横三尺計歟。苔を穿て文字幽也。四維国界之数里をしるす。此城、神亀元年、按察使鎮守府将軍大野朝臣東人之所置也。天平宝字六年、参議東海東山節度使、 同将軍恵美朝臣獲修造而十二月朔日と有。聖武皇帝の御時に当れり。むかしよりよみ置る哥枕、おほく語傳ふといへども、 山崩川落て、跡あらたまり、石は埋て土にかくれ、木は老て若木にかはれば、時移り代変じて、其跡たしかならぬ事のみを、爰に至りて疑なき千歳の記念、今眼前に古人の心を閲す。行脚の一徳、存命の悦び、羈旅の労をわすれて泪も落るばかり也。

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Tofu
There are many poems about the sedge mats of Tofu (Tofu no Suge　十符の菅　 or Tofu no sugamono).



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Tsubo no Ishibumi
This refers to an ancient stone monument found at Tsubomura just north of Shichinoe. Later the stone monument at Taga Castle came to be called by the same name.





Tagajōhi 多賀城碑 - Memorial stone from Tagajo castle
another name for this stone.
.... a Nara period inscription that gives distances to Nara, the province of the Emishi, and a number of other regions. Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉) creatively recounts his viewing of the stele in Oku no Hosomichi (奥の細道), concluding 'there are seldom any certain vestiges of what has been, yet in this place there are wholly trustworthy memorials of events a millennium ago', and is moved to tears. In his account the monument functions as a poetic place or utamakura.
In 1998 it was designated an Important Cultural Property.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !


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Ono no Azumabito 大野東人
Ono no Azumabito accompanied Fujiwara Umakai in his attack on the barbarian Emishi. He built Taga Castle. According to Zoku Nihongi, he died in the 14th year of Tempyo.


©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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source :　itoyo/basho

壺の碑を見る芭蕉（「芭蕉翁絵詞伝」より）
Basho looking at Tsubo no Ishibumi.

On the 8th day of the 5th lunar month 5月8日 Basho left Sendai and arrived in Shiogama around 3 in the afternoon.　After eating some rice 茶漬け he visited some of the famous places of the town, like Sue no Matsuyama.
Next morining he was back in Sendai at the home of Kaemon 加右衛門.

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- quote
From The Essential Basho by Sam Hamill, Shambhala, 1998, pp 14-15:

‘At Taga Castle, we found the most ancient monument Tsubo-no-ishibumi, in Ichikawa Village. It’s about six feet high and three feet wide. We struggled to read the inscription under heavy moss:

This Castle Was Built by Shogun Ono-no-Azumabito in 724. In 762, His Majesty’s Commanding General Emi-no-Asakari Supervised Repairs.



‘Dated from the time of Emperor Shomu, Tsubo-no-ishibumi inspired many a poet. Floods and landslides buried trails and markers, trees have grown and died, making this monument very difficult to find. The past remains hidden in clouds of memory. Still it returned us to memories from a thousand years before. Such a moment is the reason for a pilgrimage: infirmities forgotten, the ancients remembered, joyous tears trembled in my eyes.’

Note: Emperor Shomu [聖武天皇, Shōmu-tennō, 701 – June 4, 756]

- source : okunomichi.wordpress.com - The Path Beyond


- further reference -

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. Shiogama 塩竃市 .



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