Matsushima

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Matsushima 松島

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Non-seasonal Topic
***** Category: Earth

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Explanation

Matsushima, a place name that resounds in the ears and
the heart of a seasoned haiku poet

... aaa, Matsushima ya!

Read more about the possible author
of this famous haiku below!




quote
Ranked by the Japanese as one of Japan's three great views (along with Miyajima and Amanohashidate), Matsushima has long been a popular touristical destination. The great poet Bashou Matsuo (1644-1694) came here and exclaimed in one of his most famous Haiku poem :

"Matsushima, Ah! Matsushima! Matsushima!".

Matsushima is made up of over 200 small, pine-tree covered (as its name indicated) islands. Take one of the boat cruises to Shiogama or Oku-Matsushima, or walk to the islands of Fukuura-jima and Oshima to fully appreciate the splendor of the landscape.

The Kanran-tei Pavillion (観欄亭) was given by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to the Date lords of Sendai for moon-viewing and tea ceremony.

The Godai-dou Hall (五大堂), a minor wooden temple, was founded in 807 and has five statues enshrined by the same priest who founded the Zuiganji. It is only open once every 33 years, the next time being in 2006.

Further inside the land, a few hundreds meters due North of Matsushima Kaigan station is the Zuigan-ji temple (瑞巌寺). It was founded by the Tendai sect as early as 828, long before Sendai existed. The current structure was build by Sendai lord Date Masamune　伊達政宗 in 1606, and is one of Tohoku's finest Zen temple. Don't miss the lavish Seiryuden (清流殿)
©　www.jref.com



Moon over Matsushima. The Japan Times, 2003

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Shiogama Town 塩竃市
is one of the doorways to tourism in the famed Matsuhima Bay.
In the“Narrow Roads to the Deep North", the poet, Matsuo Basho, describes traveling from Shiogama to Matsushima by boat.
What is not so well known, however, is thefact that over half of the“808 Matsushima Islands" are actuallyin Shiogama. In particular, the inhabited Urato Islands attract many visitors who enjoy sunbathing, marine-sports, clamming, fishing, and rape-blossom viewing.

Shiogama and the
Sail-cord Festival (hote matsuri)... and Haiku

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Translating the name MATSUSHIMA
Thoughts by Larry Bole

Yagi Kametaro (1908-1986), in his book, "Haiku: Messages from Matsuyama," has a brief essay titled, "Proper Names in Japanese Haiku."

"...However, it does not follow that haiku is saturated with Zen. R.H. Blyth tried to see something of Zen philosophy in haiku, but Zen's influence on haiku has never been as dominant as he supposed. Among present-day Japanese haiku devotees, most know nothing of Zen. Anyway it is extremely difficult to try to define haiku in terms of some philosophical essence.

"In order to emphasize the particular, Japanese haikuists often use proper names. In a collection of Basho's haiku that lies at hand, thirty-four of the ninety-eight contain proper names. I count fewer in a book of Issa's haiku, but both men frequently made topical reference understood as proper names. Masaoka Shiki, too, used proper names to make his haiku specific...

[Kametaro then gives a couple of Shiki's haiku, with explanations, as examples]

"Many proper names have been recognized as season-words; some have become obsolete but others are being added. For example, the Hototgisu School of haiku recently recognized 'ogi-kuyo' as a local season-word for winter...

"The nature of haiku, with its limitations in time and place, naturally invites the haikuist to use local names. Unlike Western poets, haikuists have never presumed that their efforts would reach a nationwide audience. All through its history, haiku has been a literature of a limited group (called 'renju') who were familiar with the local names of their area and enjoyed using them in their haiku.
(October, 1974)" [end of exerpts]

I'm not sure I agree with this last statement, since Basho and other haiku poets traveled extensively, and brought back to their local haiku groups haiku which sometimes included non-local place names.

If one is translating for haiku aficionados, then "Matsuhima" would work. If one is translating for a larger audience, then "pine islands" would be helpful, although one would probably want to add an explanatory note anyway; so why not just start with "Matsushima?"

So I suggest: translate "Matsushima" as "Matsushima," and translate "shimajima" as "pine islands" (with an explanatory note appended).



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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way



Matsushima Kokeshi Wooden Doll with Daruma

. . . . . Matsushima and Daruma


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HAIKU





松島やああ松島や松島や

Matsushima ya
aa Matsushima ya
Matsushima ya

attributed to Kyoka-Writer Monk Tahara Bo
狂歌師田原坊 (Tawara Boo, Tawarabo)


There is also this version by Monk Tawarabo
(his name can also be read TAHARA)

松島やさてまつしまや松島や
MATSUSHIMA ya sate Matsushima ya MATSUSHIMA ya


Other sources say
the author of this famous poem is not known.

About 90% of Japanese people would think this most famous poem about Matsushima was by Matsuo Basho, but it seems not the case. Japanese references say that Basho was too impressed by the beautiful landscape to write anything.
One commentator says he only came about the name TAWARABO when looking at English resources.

More LINKS about "Matsushima Ya" and 田原坊

Tawarabo 田原坊
He was born in Sagawa no Kuni (Kanagawa prefecture) in the late Edo Period. In Sagami, even now there are many people with the name of TAHARA.
He choose the reading of a famous warrior of the Heian period, Tawara no Hidesato 藤原秀郷, who was also called Tawara no Toota 俵藤太/ 田原藤太（たわらのとうた）.


©　www.bashouan.com

According to BashouAn, the first version of Tawarabo was the one with SATE (well then!), quoted above, which later changed to AA.

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There are the three most famous scenic places in Japan, which are Amano-Hashidate, Matsushima and Itukushima (Miyajima near Hiroshima).

Matsushima is so famous in the fact that Basho Matsuo who was the most famous in Haiku couldn't compose good Haiku that is a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables.

Finally he gave up to compose his Haiku by the really beautiful great view.
So, his Haiku in Matsushima is...

Matsushima Ya,
Ah Matsushima Ya,
Matsushima Ya.

He just called Matsushima three times in his Haiku.
Can you guess how beautiful it is?

Look at some wonderful photos !
©　mtfujiblog.blogspot.com


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Matsushima, close to the northern city of Sendai

A cave is all that is necessary for Zen, and as a bonus nature provides the view of the island-dotted bay, of rocks and pines molded in fantastic shapes, so beautiful that it rendered even Basho (who visited Matsushima in 1689) speechless - the tradition tells that the great poet was so paralyzed by the scenic grandeur that he could not capture it in a haiku.

But this is a place of Zen and in the poet's "no-words" all words are contained. Emptiness, feeling no attachment, is the true attitude of the Zen adept and, in fact, all Buddhists. It is time to close my mouth and leave Matsushima alone.

©　Ad G. Blankestijn, Japan



So it was NOT Matsuo Basho who wrote this famous poem!
Maybe by NOT writing about this place during his walk through the North of Japan, he made us aware of its unique beauty even more.




The Scenery of Matsushima
Tani Buncho (1763-1841), Edo period
The Clark Family Collection


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Matsuo Basho and his disciples

島々や千々に砕きて夏の海
shimajima ya chiji ni kudakete natsu no umi

islands and islands--
shattered into a thousand pieces,
summer's sea

Matsuo Basho
Tr. Barnhill



松島や鶴に身を借れほととぎす
matsushima ya tsuru ni mi o kare hototogisu

At Matsushima
Borrow your plumes from the crane
O nightingales!

Sora 曾良
(Tr. Donald Keene)


Clear voiced cuckoo,
Even you will need
The silver wings of a crane
To span the islands of Matsushima.
(Tr. Nobuyuki Yuasa)


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朝よさを誰松島ぞ片心
朝夜さを誰松島ぞ片心
asayosa o taga matsushima zo katagokoro

morning and evening,
as if someone waits for me at Matsushima:
my unfulfilled love
Tr. David Landis Barnhill


morning and evening
someone waits at Matsushima!
one-sided love

"It was published in Basho's day in the brief 'zo' section of a seasonal collection.")
Tr. Higginson

WKD: Senryu and Haiku


This last haiku has no season word. Basho argues that if it has a well-known place name like Matsushima, there is no need for a season and it will be in the section of "miscellaneous" haiku.


More translations and information
by Nobuyuki Yuasa
......20 Shiogama
......21 Matsushima


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ISSA about Matsushima


松島や一こぶしづつ秋の暮
matsushima ya hito kobushi-zutsu aki no kure

little pine islands
fist after fist...
autumn dusk





松島や小隅は暮て鳴雲雀
matsushima ya kosumi wa kurete naku hibari

darkness settles
over a tiny isle of pines...
a skylark singing



名月や角の小すみの小松島
meigetsu ya sumi no kosumi no ko matsushima

harvest moon--
in a little pine island's
little nook


Issa is referring to Matsushima, the famous sightseeing resort consisting of many tiny pine islands. Issa imagines that they look like fists jutting up from the water. While the Japanese reader will instantly get a mental picture from the proper name, Matsushima, the English reader may or may not. For this reason I have translated the name literally as "pine island." In an undated rewrite, Issa starts the poem with the phrase shima-jima: "islands."
The third phrase of this haiku, aki no kure, means both "autumn night" and "autumn's end."

Tr. David Lanoue




松島やあちの松から又雲雀
matusima ya achi no matsu kara mata hibari

Matsushima--
from yonder isle
another lark
Tr. David Lanoue

Haiga by Nakamura Sakuo

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Issa, translated by Lewis MacKenzie

Nomi domo ni Matsushima misete Nigasu zo yo

Come on, Fleas,
I'll show you Matsushima--
Then let you go.



Meigetsu ya Matsu nai shima mo Atama kazu

A radiant moon!
I can count them over too
The islets without pines.



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Related words


walking
a long, long path -
haiku

***** Oku no Hosomichi 2007


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