Oku Station 4 - Muronoyashima

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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 4 - Muronoyashima, Muro no Yashima 室の八嶋 - - -

I went to see the shrine of Muronoyashima. According to Sora, my companion, this shrine is dedicated to the goddess called the Lady of the Flower-Bearing Trees, who has another shrine at the foot of Mt.Fuji. This goddess is said to have locked herself up in a burning cell to prove the divine nature of her newly-conceived son when her husband doubted it. As a result, her son was named the Lord Born Out of the Fire, and her shrine, Muro-no-yashima, which means a burning cell.
It was the custom of this place for poets to sing of the rising smoke, and for ordinary people not to eat konoshiro, a speckled fish, which has a vile smell when burnt.


Tr. by Nobuyuki Yuasa

- - - - - NOTES
Burning cell
The story from the Nihongi is this:
"The August Grandchild accordingly favored (i.e., married) her, whereupon in one night she became pregnant. But the August Grandchild was slow to believe this, and said:- 'Heavenly deity though I am, how could I cause anyone to become pregnant in the space of one night? That which thou hast in thy bosom is assuredly not my child.' Therefore Ka-ashi-tsu-hime was wroth. She prepared a doorless muro (called utsumuro), and entering, dwelt therein. Then she made a solemn declaration, saying: -
'If that which is in my bosom is not the offspring of the Heavenly Grandchild, it will assuredly be destroyed by fire, but if it is really the offspring of the Heavenly grandchild, fire cannot harm it.'
So she set fire to the muro. The child which was born from the extremity of the smoke which first arose was called Ho no Susori no mikoto (he was the ancestor of the Hayato)..." [W.G. Aston, p. 71-3]
The Heavenly Grandchild here is the deity who descended from the high plain of heaven to Takachiho and thus provides the living link between heaven and earth.

According to another version of the story, the princess secluded herself in a cave which became a birthing room and purified it with fire to insure a safe birth. She gave birth to three deities: Hosuseri, Hoakari, and Hohodemi.


Burnt
They say that this fish when cooked gives off the smell of burning human flesh and therefore is associated with the Lady of the Flowerbearing Trees. This is also why people are forbidden to eat this fish.

source : terebess.hu/english




室の八嶋に詣す。同行曾良が曰、「此神は木の花さくや姫の神と申て富士一躰也。無戸室に入て焼給ふちかひのみ中に、火々出見のみこと生れ給ひしより室の八嶋と申。又煙を讀習し侍もこの謂也」。将このしろといふ魚を禁ず。縁記の旨世に傳ふ事も侍し。

. the fish konoshiro コノシロ　(Konosirus punctatus) .

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The eight "islands" of Muro 室の八嶋


入りかかる日も糸遊の名残かな
irikakaru hi mo itoyuu no nagori kana

At Muro no Yashima 室の八嶋

with threads of
heat waves it is interwoven:
the smoke
Bashoo, tr. Barnhill

- Barnhill:
"Muro no Yashima is a Shinto shrine (now Oomiwa Shrine in the city of Tochigi).
The 'kami' enshrined there is Konohana Sakuya Hime (Princess of the Blossoming Trees), consort of the deity Ninigi no Mikoro. After he suspected that her pregnancy was not by him, she gave birth locked in a burning room in order to prove the divine nature of her offspring.
As a result, poems related to this shrine often mention smoke."

Written in 元禄2年, Oku no Hosomichi
hi mo is the origin of the word 日も＝紐 thread.



Muro no Yashima
source : ee4y-nsn


"Doorless Shrine of the Cauldron" - tr. by Keene


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糸遊に結びつきたる煙哉
itoyuu ni musubitsukitaru kemuri kana

with threads of
heat waves it is interwoven:
the smoke
Tr. Barnhill


. WKD : itoyuu 糸遊, 、yuushi 遊糸"playing threads" heat shimmers .


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- further reference -


BACK TO
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Oku Station 5 - Nikko

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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 5 - Nikko 日光 - - -

I lodged in an inn at the foot of Mount Nikko on the night of March the thirtieth. The host of my inn introduced himself as Honest Gozaemon, and told me to sleep in perfect peace on his grass pillow, for his sole ambition was to be worthy of his name. I watched him rather carefully but found him almost stubbornly honest, utterly devoid of worldly cleverness. It was as if the merciful Buddha himself had taken the shape of a man to help me in my wandering pilgrimage. Indeed, such saintly honesty and purity as his must not be scorned, for it verges closely on the perfection preached by Confucius.

On the first day of April l3, I climbed Mt. Nikko to do homage to the holiest of the shrines upon it. This mountain used to be called Niko. When the high priest Kukai built a temple upon it, however, he changed the name to Nikko, which means the bright beams of the sun. Kukai must have had the power to see a thousand years into the future, for the mountain is now the seat of the most sacred of all shrines, and its benevolent power prevails throughout the land, embracing the entire people, like the bright beams of the sun. To say more about the shrine would be to violate its holiness.

It is with awe
That I beheld
Fresh leaves, green leaves,
Bright in the sun.

Mount Kurokami was visible through the mist in the distance. It was brilliantly white with snow in spite of its name, which means black hair.

Rid of my hair,
I came to Mount Kurokami
On the day we put on
Clean summer clothes.

--written by Sora

My companion's real name is Kawai Sogoro, Sora being his pen name. He used to live in my neighborhood and help me with such chores as bringing water and firewood. He wanted to enjoy the views of Matsushima and Kisagata with me, and also to share with me the hardships of the wandering journey. So he took to the road after taking the tonsure on the very morning of our departure, putting on the black robe of an itinerant priest, and even changing his name to Sogo, which means Religiously Enlightened. His poem, therefore, is not intended as a mere description of Mount Kurokami. The last determination to persist in his purpose.

After climbing two hundred yards or so from the shrine, I came to a waterfall, which came pouring out of a hollow in the ridge and tumbled down into a dark green pool below in a huge leap of several hundred feet. The rocks of the waterfall were so carved out that we could see it from behind, though hidden ourselves in a craggy cave. Hence its nickname, See-from-behind.

Silent a while in a cave,
I watched a waterfall
For the first of
The summer observances

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

仏五左衛門
卅日、日光山の梺に泊る。あるじの云けるやう、「我名を佛五左衛門と云。萬正直を旨とする故に人かくは申侍まゝ、一夜の草の枕も打解て休み給へ」と云。いかなる仏の濁世塵土に示現して、かゝる桑門の乞食順礼ごときの人をたすけ給ふにやとあるじのなす事に心をとゞめてみるに、唯無智無分別にして正直偏固の者也。剛毅木訥の仁に近きたぐひ気禀の清質尤尊ぶべし。

卯月朔日、御山に詣拝す。往昔、此御山を「二荒山」と書しを空海大師開基の時「日光」と改給ふ。千歳未来をさとり給ふにや。 今此御光一天にかゞやきて恩沢八荒にあふれ、四民安堵の栖穏なり。猶憚多くて筆をさし置ぬ。

あらたうと青葉若葉の日の光

黒髪山は霞かゝりて、雪いまだ白し。

剃捨て黒髪山に衣更 曾良 - Sora

曾良は河合氏にして、 惣五郎と云へり芭蕉の下葉に軒をならべて予が薪水の労をたすく。このたび松しま象潟の眺共にせん事を悦び、且は羈旅の難をいたはらんと旅立暁髪を剃て墨染にさまをかえ惣五を改て宗悟とす。仍て黒髪山の句有。「衣更」の二字力ありてきこゆ。

廿餘丁山を登つて瀧有。岩洞の頂より飛流して百尺千岩の碧潭に落たり。 岩窟に身をひそめて入て]滝の裏よりみれば、うらみの瀧と申傳え侍る也。

暫時は瀧に篭るや夏の初

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あらたふと青葉若葉の日の光
ara tooto aoba wakaba no hi no hikari

so holy:
green leaves, young leaves,
in sun's light
Tr. David Landis Barnhill

Comment by Barnhill:
Basho is at Mt. Nikkoo, which literally means "sun's light." It is the site of an ancient Buddhist temple established by Kuukai as well as a Shinto shrine [Tosho Shrine] and mausoleum of the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, Ieyasu (1542-1616). The original version reads:
"so holy: / down even to the darkness beneath the trees, / the sun's light"
('ara tooto / ko no shitayami mo / hi no hikari').

hi no hikari 日の光 / Nikkoo 日光

. WKD : Basho in Nikko - Introduction .
with more translations of this famous poem in various languages.

The Basho Haiku Stone Monument in Nikko / 日光の句碑

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しばらくは瀧にこもるや夏の初め
shibaraku wa taki ni komoru ya ge no hajime

for a while
I will sit behind the waterfall -
summer retreat begins
Tr. Gabi Greve


Read another hokku about
Urami no taki 裏見の滝 - 裏見の瀧 "Back- view waterfall"
near Nikko, with a cave behind the waterfall for mountain ascetic practises.

. ango 安吾 (あんご) intensive retreat .

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Hotoke Gozaemon 仏五左衛門 Honest Gozaemon
- source : www.bashouan.com

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. Nikko Toshogu Shrine 日光の東照宮 Nikkō Tōshō-gū .
with the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康 . (1543 - 1616)
.
During the time of Basho, this Shrine was off limits for normal people. So Basho must have had a special permit from a high-ranking official in the government.
Speculation says
Basho (and his companion Sora) in 1689 had the secret order to check about the repair work of the buildings, carried out by the 伊達藩　Date clan of Sendai, after an earthquake in 1683 had damaged the Shrine.
The Bakufu government had ordered the Date clan, to have it spent a lot of money on the repair and thus not be able to spent money on preparing another war . . .
Date Masamune even donated a pair of special metal lanterns 南蛮鉄燈籠, which he had gotten from Portugal, placed in front of the stone steps to the Yommei-Mon gate.
By the way, two more lanterns were made from bronze 唐銅灯, dedicated by the lord of Shimazu. 島津家久 .

After visiting Nikko, Basho was on his way to Sendai to check out more about the Date clan.
He must have had a lot on his mind, since he did not write many haiku until he had left Sendai. He even passed Matsushima . . .

... おそらく、芭蕉は、日光の修復の状況及び伊達藩のその後の動きを偵察する目的を持っていた ...
- reference : shibayan1954.blog10 -


. Was Basho a ninja or onmitsu spy? .
Onmitsu : Oku no Hosomichi 隠密 - 奥の細道
Sora, Kawai Sora 河合曾良

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. Shirakawa Daruma 白川だるま .



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Oku Station 6 - Nasu

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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 6 - Nasu 那須 - - -

A friend was living in the town of Kurobane in the province of Nasu. There was a wide expanse of grass-moor, and the town was on the other side of it. I decided to follow a shortcut which ran straight for miles and miles across the moor. I noticed a small village in the distance, but before I reached it, rain began to fall and darkness closed in. I put up at a solitary farmer's house for the night, and started again early next morning. As I was plodding though the grass, I noticed a horse grazing by the roadside and a farmer cutting grass with a sickle. I asked him to do me the favor of lending me his horse. The farmer hesitated for a while, but finally with a touch of sympathy in his face, he said to me,
'There are hundreds of cross-roads in the grass-moor. A stranger like you can easily go astray. This horse knows the way. You can send him back when he won't go any further.'
So I mounted the horse and started off, when two small children came running after me. One of them was a girl named kasane, which means manifold. I thought her name was somewhat strange but exceptionally beautiful.

If your name, Kasane,
Means manifold,
How befitting it is also
For a double-flowered pink.

By and by I came to a small village. I therefore sent back the horse, with a small amount of money tied to the saddle.


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


那須の 黒はねと云所に知人あれば是より野越にかゝりて直道をゆかんとす。遥に一村を見かけて行に、雨降日暮る。農夫の家に一夜をかりて、明れば又野中を行。そこに野飼の馬あり。草刈おのこになげきよれば、野夫といへどもさすがに情しらぬには非ず「 いかゝすべきや、されども此野は縦横にわかれてうゐ／＼敷旅人の道ふみたがえん、あやしう侍れば、此馬のとゞまる所にて馬を返し給へ」とかし侍ぬ。ちいさき者ふたり馬の跡したひてはしる。独は小姫にて名を「かさね」と云。聞なれぬ名のやさしかりければ、

かさねとは八重撫子の名成べし kasane to wa yae nadeshiko no naru beshi 曾良 - Sora

頓て人里に至れば、あたひを鞍つぼに結付て馬を返しぬ。




source :　hosomichi.roudokus.com
With more information and modern Japanese text.



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いく春をかさねがさねの花ごろも
しはよるまでの老もみるべく

iku haru o kasane gasane no hana-goromo
shiwa yoru made no oi mo miru beku

Spring passes by
Again and again in layers
Of blossom-kimono
May you see wrinkles
Come with old age.

. - Blessings Unto Kasane - .
discussion of this tanka by Matsuo Basho

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kasane to wa yae nadeshiko no naru beshi

"Double"
must be another name
for "Eightfold Pink"

n Sora's poem, Nadeshiko, the pink, is the season word indicating summer. Although this flower is numbered among the seven grasses of autumn, in haikai it is considered to indicate summer.

Since ancient times there have been many examples in literature of children named
Nadeshiko; we see it used in The Tale of Genji in the "Broom Tree" chapter. Because this name is one of charm and beauty, Sora did not expect to find it in the rustic countryside, and consequently he took it to mean, "layered," a more commonplace word pronounced the same way.

Realizing his mistake, he combined the words to create "yae nadeshiko," the "layered pink." Although there is no such flower as the "layered pink," by using the poem to acknowledge his own mistake and correct it, Sora demonstrates his own sensibility. This notion of finding rude country people more esthetically senitive than expected is a leitmotif throughout this work in particular and Japanese literature in general.

Evidently meeting this little girl named Kasane in such an auspicious way greatly affected Basho for the memory of the encounter stayed with him. He dscribes the meeting in other places besides this diary, and once, when a friend asked him to suggest a name for his newborn daughter, gave Kasane as his recommendation.
On another occasion, Basho recalled this episode and told Sora that if he had had a little girl of his own, he would have named her Kasane.

Tr. and Comment by Ad G. Blankestijn

- quote
For haiku fans, the quiet former castle town of Kurobane in northern Tochigi is an important pilgrimage place, as Basho spent two weeks here in 1689 on his way to the Deep North.
- source : www.japannavigator.com - Ad Blankestijn



. WKD : nadeshiko 撫子 Fringed Pink, wild carnation .


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kasane to wa yae nadeshiko no naru beshi

„Vielfältige“ heißt du?
Dein Name – Kosekind – sei fortan:
„Vollprangende Nelke“!
Tr. G. S. Dombrady


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Basho stayed at the home of Suitoo 翆桃 Suito
Kanokobata 鹿子畑（かのこばた）豊明
The haikai poets from Nasu produced this volume : 秣おふの巻
with Basho, Sora, 芭蕉・曽良
Toosetsu 桃雪（とうせつ）（別号 Shuuo 秋鴉・しゅうあ）- Suitoo 翆桃- Shirin 翅輪（しりん）- Toori 桃里（とうり） Nisun 二寸（にすん）

- Reference -


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- - - - - Three Poems by Basho in the travel diary of Sora 曾良旅日記.


落ち来るや高久の宿の郭公
ochi kuru ya Takaku no shuku no hototogisu

falling from high above -
at a Takaku lodging,
cuckoo
Tr. Barnhill

the hototogisu at the lodging in Takaku

栃木県那須郡那須町高久の庄屋覚左衛門宅

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Sesshooseki 殺生石 The Killer Stone

石の香や夏草赤く露暑し
ishi no ka ya natsukusa akaku tsuyu atsushi

the stone's smell
summer grasses look red,
dewdrops warm
Tr. Ueda


. - - - Station 9 - Sesshoseki 殺生岩・蘆野 The Murder Stone - - - .


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湯をむすぶ誓ひも同じ石清水
yu o musubu chikai mo onaji iwashimizu


to be bound
by the same pledge
with Iwashimizu
Tr. Gabi Greve


The deity of this hot spring is Onsen Daimyoojin 温泉大明神 , related to the deity of Iwashimizu in Kyoto. Legend has it that if you scoop water from the Hot Spring and drink it, you have the benefit of visiting both places. This was called "yu o musubu" 湯が結ぶ.
It is also a pun with 掬ぶ - to scoop or to be bound by a common fate.



. WKD : Iwashimizu Hachimangū Gokokuji .


source : xxx


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おくのほそ道 - 七 那須の黒ばね
source : www.bashouan.com/Database

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Oku Station 7 - Kurobane

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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 .

9th day of the 4th lunar month, now May 27

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- - - Station 7 - Kurobane 黒羽 - - -

I arrived safely at the town of Kurobane, and visited my friend, Joboji, who was then looking after the mansion of his lord in his absence. He was overjoyed to see me so unexpectedly, and we talked for days and nights together. His brother, Tosui, seized every opportunity to talk with me, accompanied me to his home and introduced me to his relatives and friends. One day we took a walk to the suburbs. We saw the ruins of an ancient dog shooting ground, and pushed further out into the grass-moor to see the tomb of Lady Tamamo and the famous Hachiman Shrine, upon whose god the brave archer, Yoichi, is said to have called for aid when he was challenged to shoot a single fan suspended over a boat drifting offshore. We came home after dark.

I was invited out to the Komyoji Temple, to visit the hall in which was enshrined the founder of the Shugen sect. He is said to have travelled all over the country in wooden clogs, preaching his doctrines.

Amid mountains mountains of high summer,
I bowed respectfully before
The tall clogs of a statue,
Asking a blessing on my journey.


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


黒羽の館代浄坊寺何がしの方に音信る。思ひがけぬあるじの悦び、日夜語つゞけて、其弟桃翠など云が朝夕勤とぶらひ、自の家にも伴ひて、親属の方にもまねかれ日をふるまゝに、ひとひ郊外に逍遥して、犬追物の跡を一見し、那須の 篠原わけて玉藻の前の古墳をとふ。それより八幡宮に詣。与一扇の的を射し時、「別しては我国氏神正八まん」とちかひしも此神社にて侍と聞ば、感應殊しきりに覚えらる。暮れば、桃翠宅に帰る。

修験光明寺と云有。そこにまねかれて行者堂を拝す。

夏山に足駄を拝む首途哉 - natsuyama ni ashida o ogamau kadode kana

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. Basho and Tamamo no Mae 玉藻前 - Tamamo Gozen 玉藻御前 .
- - - Station 9 - Sesshoseki 殺生岩 - Ashino 蘆野 - - -


Nasu no Yoichi (那須 与一) (c. 1169 – c. 1232)
was a samurai who fought alongside the Minamoto clan in the Genpei War.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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夏山に足駄を拝む首途哉
natsuyama ni ashida o ogamau kadode kana

n the summer mountains
praying before the clogs:
setting off
Tr. Barnhill

Ad G. Blankestjin notes:
After Basho's timely visit to Unganji, the rains kept falling for several days. From the 6th to the 8th, he was not able to leave Choboji's house. On the 9th, however, he decided to go out in the rain and was taken to Komyoji, a shugendo temple in the fields on the east side of the town. This temple was famous for its Gyoja Hall, a hall dedicated to En no Gyoja, the legendary founder of the ascetic mountain Buddhism.

The 'ashida' mentioned in the poem (here translated as clogs) are a special kind of high geta, worn by those monks when practicing austerities. To make walking difficult, these geta had only one support instead of the normal two. The temple probably housed a statue of En no Gyoja wearing such high clogs.

Basho prays in front of them, wishing for strong feet and legs himself at the start of his long journey. Unfortunately, Komyoji was destroyed at the beginning of the Meiji period. The haiku stone stands forlorn in the high grass.


- quote
For haiku fans, the quiet former castle town of Kurobane in northern Tochigi is an important pilgrimage place, as Basho spent two weeks here in 1689 on his way to the Deep North.
- source : www.japannavigator.com - Ad Blankestijn


- geta　下駄 wooden clogs -




. En-no-Gyôja 役行者 .



source : kiribo.at.webry.info

Shugen Koomyooji 修験光明寺跡


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鶴鳴くやその声に芭蕉破れぬべし
. tsuru naku ya sono koe ni bashoo yarenu beshi .
a crane screaches . . .



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. Oku no Hosomichi - 奥の細道 - Introduction .



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Oku Station 8 - Unganji

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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 .

Basho reached Kurobane on the 3rd day of the 4th lunar month (now May 21) and stayed for about 2 weeks in the region.

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Shimotsuke, Temple Ungan-Ji 下野国の雲巌寺

- - - Station 8 - Unganji 雲岸寺 / 雲巌寺 Ungan-Ji - - -

There was a Zen temple called Unganji in this province. The priest Buccho (Butcho) used to live in isolation in the mountains behind the temple. He once told me that he had written the following poem on the rock of his hermitage with the charcoal he had made from pine.

This grassy hermitage,
Hardly any more
Than five feet square,
I would gladly quit
But for the rain.

A group of young people accompanied me to the temple. they talked so cheerfully along the way that I reached it before I knew it. The temple was situated on the side of a mountain completely covered with dark cedars and pines. A narrow road trailed up the valley, between banks of dripping moss, leading us to the gate of the temple across a bridge. The air was still cold, though it was April.

I went behind the temple to see the remains of the priest Buccho's hermitage. It was a tiny hut propped against the base of a huge rock. I felt as if I was in the presence of the Priest Genmyo's cell or the Priest Houn's retreat. I hung on a wooden pillar of the cottage the following poem which I wrote impromptu.

Even the woodpeckers
Have left it untouched,
This tiny cottage
In a summer grove.

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


当国雲岸寺のおくに佛頂和尚山居跡あり。

竪横の五尺にたらぬ草の庵

むすぶもくやし雨なかりせば

と松の炭して岩に書付侍りと、いつぞや聞え給ふ。其跡みんと雲岸寺に杖を曳ば、人々すゝんで共にいざなひ、若き人おほく道のほど打さはぎて、おぼえず彼梺に到る。山はおくあるけしきにて谷道遥に、松杉黒く苔したゞりて、卯月の天今猶寒し。十景尽る所、橋をわたつて山門に入。

さてかの跡はいづくのほどにやと後の山によぢのぼれば、石上の小庵岩窟にむすびかけたり。妙禅師の死関、法雲法師の石室をみるがごとし。

木啄も庵はやぶらず夏木立

と、とりあへぬ一句を柱に残侍し。



source :　www.bashouan.com/Database


芭蕉と仏頂禅師について
source : www.bashouan.com/pfBucchouZenji


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tr. Dr Tim Chilcott:

Behind Unganji temple in this province, up in the mountains, was a hermitage where the priest Butchō used to live. Butchō once told me that he had inscribed the following poem on a rock, in charcoal made from pine:

Oh how much I loathe
building a shelter at all,
even a grass-thatched
hut not five feet long or wide –
if only it never rained . . .

I wanted to see what remained of the hut, and so, walking-staff in hand, I set out. A group of young people accompanied me on the way, chattering away happily, and before I knew it we had reached the foot of the mountain. It seemed so deep. A valley path stretched far into the distance, lined by darkly clustering pines and cedars. Dew dripped from the moss, and even though it was the Fourth Month [early summer], the air still felt cold. When we had passed all the Ten Sights, we crossed a bridge and the temple gate.

Eager to discover the site of the hermitage, I scrambled up the hill behind the temple to a tiny hut built upon a rock, leaning against a cave. It was like coming upon the Death Gate of the monk Miao, or the stone chamber of the monk Fayun. I left an impromptu verse on a post in the hut:

even woodpeckers
leave the hermitage untouched
in the summer trees

source : Dr Tim Chilcott


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source :　itoyo/basho


啄木鳥も庵は破らず夏木立
. kitsutsuki mo io wa yaburazu natsukodachi .

even a woodpecker
won't (dare to) damage this hermitage -
summer grove
Tr. Gabi Greve


even woodpeckers
don't damage this hut:
summer grove
Tr. Barnhill



Even woodpeckers did not
Damage this hermitage
In the summer grove
Tr. Oseko


Basho left this message at the entrance post of the hermitage and left, because the Master was not at home.

In 1687, Basho had visited his master Butcho in Kashima.
He visited temple Kashima Konpon-Ji 鹿島根本寺 and stayed with the priest Butchoo 仏頂和尚 Butcho. Basho practised Zen with Master Butcho.
. WKD : Kashima Jinguu 鹿島神宮 shrine Kashima Jingu .


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Zen Master Butchoo 仏頂和尚 Butcho (1643– 1715).

Butcho had written this poem on the rock behind his hermitage:

竪横の五尺に足らぬ草の庵
結ぶもくやし雨なかりせば　　　

tateyoko no goshaku ni taranu kusa no an
musubu mo kuyashi ame nakeriseba

Ah, how I detest
building any shelter at all,
even a grass-thatched
hovel less than five feet square!
Were it not for the rainstorms . . .

Tr. Helen Craig McCullough
source : books.google.co.jp


In Länge und Breite
mißt diese Grashütte kaum
fünf Fuß! – Hätte ich mich
abgemüht, sie zu errichten,
wenn es den Regen nicht gäbe?
source : www.teeweg.de


quote
The impact of Zen Buddhism on Basho's haikai is a popular theme for Western writers. Basho's encounter with his Zen teacher, Butcho is estimated to have taken place around 1681 (Tenwa 1) a year after Basho moved to Fukagawa.
We may recall that just before the move he composed an important poem
kare eda ni karasu no tomari taru ya aki no kure

On the withered branch
A crow has alighted-
Nightfall in Autumn.
(Tr DK)

This autumn poem is said to reflect the influence on him of the monk-poets of the Gozan Zenrin. He made the famous trip to Kashima, east of Edo, to visit Butcho, now an old friend, at the Nemoto-ji Temple in 1687 (Jokyo 4) and it was a year before this that he composed the verse

furuike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto.

. Karumi and Zen - Susumu Takiguchi .

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quote
Basho - II. Second Metamorphosis: From Poet to Wanderer
Basho was thankful to have a permanent home, but he was not to be cozily settled there. With all his increasing poetic fame and material comfort, he seemed to become more dissatisfied with himself. In his early days of struggle he had had a concrete aim in life, a purpose to strive for. That aim, now virtually attained, did not seem to be worthy of all his effort. He had many friends, disciples, and patrons, and yet he was lonelier than ever. One of the first verses he wrote after moving into the Basho Hut was:

Against the brushwood gate
Dead tea leaves swirl
In the stormy wind.

Many other poems written at this time, including the haiku about the banana tree, also have pensive overtones. In a headnote to one of them he even wrote: "I feel lonely as I gaze at the moon, I feel lonely as I think about myself, and I feel lonely as I ponder upon this wretched life of mine. I want to cry out that I am lonely, but no one asks me how I feel."

It was probably out of such spiritual ambivalence that Basho began practicing Zen meditation under Priest Butcho (1642-1715), who happened to be staying near his home. He must have been zealous and resolute in this attempt, for he was later to recall: "...and yet at another time I was anxious to confine myself within the walls of a monastery." Loneliness, melancholy, disillusion, ennui - whatever his problem may have been, his suffering was real.


The master haiku Poet Matsuo Basho
by Makoto Ueda
source : terebess.hu/english


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quote
On a bright, clear day in May,
Master Butchō went to visit the hermitage of the poet Matsuo Bashō. Bashō had told Master Butchō that he wanted to meet with him and have sanzen (a private interview). Upon seeing each other, the two smiled broadly.

Butchō asked, “So, what have you realized?”
Bashō answered, “The rain has ended and the mountains are greener than ever. The moss is so bright, even greener than before!”
Butchō could not accept just that.
He asked, “What is the Buddhadharma prior to that bright green moss?”
He was asking about that pure transparent source of awareness prior to any division into good or bad, prior to any duality, prior to even a single mind moment.

People often misunderstand the “empty” state of mind of zazen as nihilism. Butchō was making certain Bashō had not made that error.
An answer came flying back:
“Jumping into the river, the sound of water.”

At that moment, something had broken the stillness by jumping into the water.
Most likely it was a frog, and this “plop” filled the ears prior to any division. Bashō expressed clearly that place without any preconceived notions, found in the very moment’s immediate encounter. He expressed pure awareness.
Butchō verified that Bashō had realized the Truth.
From this came, it is said, the famous poem:
Into the old pond the frog jumps —

Bashō is one of the four great haiku poets from Japan, and most regard him as the greatest. His art of haiku consisted of much more than composing verse. He was a very deep spiritual man who used his poetry as a tool for expressing his insights found in the world around him. Composing haiku is not about seeing how many clever poems one can write, but about expressing one's insights gained through years of introspective study.
If one can live a long life full of introspective study, perhaps one great haiku will result.

Moon by the Window:
The Calligraphy and Zen Insights of Shodo Harada
source : books.google.co.jp



quote
Haiku is simply what is happening in this place at this time.
- Matsuo Basho

Introduction
Zen Master Butcho suspected Basho's haiku writing to be distracting him from more serious meditation so he challenged Basho (who was one of his students) to give him a good reason why haiku was not a hindrance to his Zen practice. Basho replied immediately, saying "haiku is simply what is happening in this place at this time". The answer seems to have satisfied Butcho. But how is it pertinent to modern haiku poets?

It is my feeling that Basho's response points directly to what lies at the heart of haiku - life and death. These take place only in the present moment, and only in the specific place each sentient being occupies. In other words, we are not alive nor at the point of death yesterday or tomorrow, nor in any place other than where we are right here, right now.
So, if haiku is "simply what is happening in this place at this time", we ought to ask ourselves,
what is this place; what is this time?
source : Christopher Herold
Christopher Herold is founding editor of The Heron's Nest and is a lay Buddhist monk who wrote his first haiku in 1968.




source :　hiromi-k/07.html


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Oku Station 9 - Sesshoseki

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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 9 - Sesshoseki 殺生岩 - Ashino 蘆野 - - -

Taking leave of my friend in Kurobane, I started for the Murder Stone, so called because it kills birds and insects that approached it. I was riding on a horse my friend had lent me, when the farmer who led the horse asked me to compose a poem for him. His request came to me as a pleasant surprise.

Turn the head of your horse
Sideways across the field,
To let me hear
The cry of the cuckoo.

The Murder Stone was in the dark corner of a mountain near a hot spring, and was completely wrapped in the poisonous gas rising from it. There was such a pile of dead bees, butterflies, and other insects, that the real color of the ground was hardly discernable.

I went to see the willow tree which Saigyo celebrated in his poem when he wrote, "Spreading its shade over a crystal stream." I found it near the village of Ashino on the bank of a rice-field. I had been wondering in my mind where this tree was situated, for the ruler of this province had repeatedly talked to me about it, but this day, for the first time in my life, I had an opportunity to rest my worn-out legs under its shade.

When the girls had planted
A square of paddy-field,
I stepped out of
The shade of a willow tree.

Tr. by Nobuyuki Yuasa


Surprise
The farmer who led the horse asks for a poem card, a rectangular card on which one writes a poem and presents to a person. Basho characterizes this request as yasashiki koto an expression of gentle sensibility. This establishes a contrast with the sinister Murder Stone.

Poisonous gas
What actually vents from the ground around this stone is a combination of sulphur and arsenic gas.

Stream
In contrast to the poisonous miasma of the murder stone is the kiyomizu of the crystal stream. Here is where Saigyo is said to have stopped and composed his poem, Shinkokinshu #262:
(On the shore of this limpid rill/ beneath a weeping willow tree/ For a while I will lie still/ From the heat of summer free.
H.H. Honda).
The contrast between Saigyo's and Basho's poems is that Saigyo comes to this spot and pauses; Basho pauses and continues on his way.

Province
The ruler referred to here is Ashino Yasuyoshi who died in Genroku 5 (1692) at the age of 56.

Planted
There is no specific mention of girls planting the field in Basho's text, but the universal custom was for the fertile young women of the villages to do the planting in the hope that they would convey some of their fertility to the rice and insure a rich harvest.

source : terebess.hu/english



是より殺生石に行。館代より馬にて送らる。此口付のおのこ、短冊得させよと乞。やさしき事を望侍るものかなと、

野を横に馬牽むけよほとゝぎす - no o yoko ni uma hikimuke yo hototogisu

殺生石は温泉の出る山陰にあり。石の毒気いまだほろびず。蜂蝶のたぐひ真砂の色の見えぬほどかさなり死す。

又、清水ながるゝの柳は蘆野の里にありて田の畔に残る。此所の郡守戸部某の此柳みせばやなど、折々にの給ひ聞え給ふを、いづくのほどにやと思ひしを、今日此柳のかげにこそ立より侍つれ。

田一枚植て立去る柳かな - ta ichimai uete tachisaru yanagi kana


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no o yoko ni uma hikimuke yo hototogisu

The deputy of the mansion sent me off with a horse. The groom leading the way asked, “Could you please write me a poem card?” “Such a refined request,” I thought.

across the plain,
turn my horse over there!
cuckoo
Tr. Barnhill


Lead the horse
Across the moor
To where the hototogisu is singing!
Tr. Blyth


turn the horse’s head
towards that moor;
hototogisu
Tr. Haldane


The horse lifts his head:
from across deep fields
the cuckoo's cry
Tr. Hamill


Lead the horse sideways
Across the meadows -- I hear
A nightingale.
Tr. Keene


Across the field, turn
The direction of the horse
Towards the cuckoo!
Tr. Oseko


across the field
the horse pulls toward
the cuckoo
Tr. Reichhold


road across a plain --
turn my horse sideways
toward that hototogisu!
Tr. Ueda


The cut is at the end of line 2.

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ta ichimai uete tachisaru yanagi kana

The willow where the crystal stream flows” stands on a foot-path by a rice field in Ashino village. Several times the district official, someone named Kohoo , had said “I’d love to show you the willow,” and I always had wondered where it might be. And now finally I stand in that willow’s shade.
a whole rice paddy
planted — I depart
from the willow
Tr. Barnhill


One whole field planted:
I arise and take my leave
of the willow tree!
Tr. Burleigh

The willow that Priest Saigyo wrote of, "Rippling in the pure spring water," is at the village of Ashino, where it still grows on the ridge between two paddyfields. The magistrate of this area had sometimes said to me, "I wish that I could show you that willow of of Saigyo's," and I had wondered just where it might be. And today I have actually come and stood in its shade.
Planted, the single field -
All too soon I must leave the shade
Of Saigyo's willow.
Tr. Earl Miner, University of California, 1976


a whole field of
rice seedlings planted - I part
from the willow
Tr. Shirane


Das ganze Feld
mit Reis bepflanzt – nun scheide ich
vom Weidenbaum
Tr. Udo Wenzel


they planted one field
but now I have to leave
the willow (of Saigyo) . . .
Tr. Gabi Greve

The cut marker KANA is at the end of line 3.


- - - - - Saigyo had written

michinobe ni shimizu nagaruru yanagi kage
shibashi tote koso tachitomaritsure

by the side of the road
alongside a stream of clear water
in the shade of a willow tree
I paused for what I thought
would be just a moment
Tr. Vernick

. 　Basho and Saigyo 芭蕉と西行法師　.

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Print by Yoshitoshi

Tamamo no Mae 玉藻前 - Tamamo Gozen 玉藻御前
She was a courtesan under the Emperor Konoe (1142 – 1155), and was said to be the most beautiful and intelligent woman in of all Japan.
- snip -
After some time had passed, with Konoe all the while lavishing all his affection on the beautiful Tamamo-no-Mae, the Emperor suddenly and mysteriously fell ill. He went to many priests and fortune-tellers for answers, but they had none to offer. Finally, an astrologer, Abe no Yasuchika, told the Emperor that Tamamo-no-Mae was the cause of his illness. The astrologer explained that the beautiful young woman was in fact a kind or evil (depending on the story variant being told) nine-tailed fox (kitsune Good fox spirit. nogitsune malicious fox spirit) working for an evil daimyo, who was making the Emperor ill in a devious plot to take the throne. Following this, Tamamo-no-Mae disappeared from the court.

The Emperor ordered Kazusa-no-suke and Miura-no-suke, the most powerful warriors of the day, to hunt and kill the fox. After eluding the hunters for some time, the fox appeared to Miura-no-suke in a dream. Once again in the form of the beautiful Tamamo-no-Mae, the fox prophesied that Miura-no-suke would kill it the next day, and begged for its life. Miura-no-suke refused.

Early the next day, the hunters found the fox on the Plain of Nasu, and Miura-no-suke shot and killed the magical creature with an arrow. The body of the fox became the Sessho-seki, (殺生石) or Killing Stone, which kills anyone that comes in contact with it. Tamamo-no-Mae's spirit became Hoji and haunted the stone.
- snip -
In Matsuo Bashō's famous book The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Bashō tells of visiting the stone in Nasu.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


In Takamatsu, there is the Tamamo Castle 玉藻城 and Tamamo Park 玉藻公園 .
Tamamo is the makurakotoba pillow word for the region of Sanuki 讃岐, now Kagawa in Shikoku.
. WKD : tamamo 玉藻 gemweed .


. Gennoo Shinshoo, Gennō Shinshō 源翁心昭 Genno Shinsho .
The priest who smashed the "Murder Rock" in 1385.



Kyubi no kitsune 九尾狐 fox with nine tails
Ogata Gekko 尾形月耕 1897

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Poem by Basho in the travel diary of Sora 曾良旅日記.

Sesshooseki 殺生石 The Killer Stone

石の香や夏草赤く露暑し
ishi no ka ya natsukusa akaku tsuyu atsushi

the stench of the stone—
the summer grass red,
the scorching dew
Tr. Barnhill


the stone's smell
summer grasses look red,
dewdrops warm
Tr. Ueda

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A favorite dish of the Tochigi region is shimotsukare シモツカレ.
Shimotsukare is usually made by simmering vegetables, soybeans, abura-age (あぶらあげ or deep fried tofu skins, a favorite of foxes) and sake kasu (酒粕, literally rice pulp from fermented sake). Common additional ingredients include grated raw radish and carrots.



- - - - - Once upon a time
there lived a fox with nine tails at 殺生岩 Sesshoseki who caused a lot of trouble. The villagers killed it after luring it with this dish of Shimotsukare.
To appease the soul of the fox this dish is now prepared in a memorial service on hatsu-u-no hi (初午の日, literally; first day of horse in the month of February) together with sekihan ritual red rice as an offering to appease the legendary fox deity, Inari-no-shin (稲荷の神) Inari no Kami.

. kitsune kuyoo 狐供養と伝説 Legends about Fox memorial service .


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source : matt alt facebook

Kaizoji temple, Kamakura.
It was founded by a monk named Genō, who moved here after smashing the Life-Taking Stone, itself the revenant of the fallen Lady Tamamo-no-mae, the ninetailed fox.
As chronicled by Sekien himself -- see p. 202 of "Japandemonium Illustrated"!

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- - - - - 2022 March
Mist descends upon Japan’s “Killing Stone” after ceremony to appease nine-tailed fox spirit
Earlier this month, people in Japan were on edge after it was found that the famous Sesshoseki “Killing Stone” in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, had broken in two.
The mist that shrouded the stone after the ceremony certainly adds an extra layer of mystery to the broken boulder and the tale of the nine-tailed fox.
Was it a sign that the fox’s spirit had left the area? Or could it be an ominous sign of things to come?
. soranews - Japan’s “Killing Stone” .

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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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BACK TO
. 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.

- - -

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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. WKD : Asakayama ... 安積山 .

. WKD : Festivals - Fukushima Prefecture - 福島県 .



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