Sarashinayama, Kamurikiyama

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Sarashinayama, Kamurikiyama

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

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Explanation

Sarashinayama さらしなやま【更科山】 is the old name of a mountain in Nagano prefecture, now called Kamurikiyama 冠着山. It is 547 meters high.

Ubasuteyama (姨捨山) is the common name of Kamurikiyama (冠着山), a mountain in Chikuma, Nagano, Japan.




quote
Ubasute (姥捨, abandoning an old woman) (also called "obasute" and sometimes "oyasute") refers to the custom allegedly performed in Japan in the distant past, whereby an infirm or elderly relative was carried to a mountain, or some other remote, desolate place, and left there to die, either by dehydration, starvation, or exposure. It "is the subject of legend, but [...] does not seem ever to have been a common custom".The practice was most common during times of drought and famine, and was sometimes mandated by feudal officials.

Ubasute has left its mark on Japanese folklore, where it forms the basis of many legends, poems, and koans. In one Buddhist allegory, a son carries his mother up a mountain on his back. During the journey, she stretches out her arms, catching the twigs and scattering them in their wake, so that her son will be able to find the way home.

A poem commemorates the story:

In the depths of the mountains,
Who was it for the aged mother snapped
One twig after another?
Heedless of herself
She did so
For the sake of her son

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External LINK with photos
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/walking-in-the/mountains-in-japan/kamurikiyama.htm


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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way


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HAIKU

一度見度さらしな山や帰る雁
ichido mitaki Sarashina yama ya kaeru kari

all eager to see
Mount Sarashina...
departing geese



我恋はさらしな山ぞかへる雁
waga koi wa sarashina yama zo kaeru kari

"My lover
is at Mount Sarashina!"
the goose flies north


Kobayashi Issa
3 haiku about Mount Sarashina / Tr. by David Lanoue


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地吹雪やさきのさきまで姥捨野
jifubuki ya saki no saki made Ubasute-no

snowstorm blowing from the earth -
as far as the eye reaches
fields where old people are abandoned

Obara Takuyo 小原啄葉
Tr. Gabi Greve



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Related words

***** WKD : Japanese place names and Haiku

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