Shokyu-Ni

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Arii Shokyu-Ni
shokyuu-ni shokyuuni shookyuuni Kohakuan Shokyū-ni


有井諸九尼 (1713-1781) "the Nun Shokyu"
Arii Shokyuu 有井諸九（ありい しょきゅう）

Before she married, she was called Nagamatsu Nami
永松　なみ ― ながまつ　なみ―

other names:
Namijo 波女（なみじょ）, Shokyuu 雎鳩（しょきゅう）. Soten 蘇天（そてん）。

Nagamatsu Shookyuu Ni 永松諸九尼（ながまつ・しょうきゅうに）
１７１４（正徳４）－１７８１（天明１）
Her haiku name was Kohakuan 湖白庵, says one source.


There seems a bit of a mix up of information about her and her husband, Kohaku alias Arii Fufuu. And she was certainly not born in Echigo.


During the middle of the Edo period, there was this courageous travelling haiku poetess in the footsteps of Basho, travelling to the Deep North of Japan.

She was the daughter of the village headman Nagamatsu Juugoroo 永松十五郎 in Chikugo, Takeno Division, Shimamura Village 筑後国竹野郡島村 in Kyushu. She was married in the village to one of her cousins, but at the age of 29 she made a brave decision that began her wandering life: she was running away from her home with the haiku poet Kohaku 湖白.
Another source says his name was Arii Fufuu 有井浮風.
She lived with him in Kyoto in a small place called "Tsukumo An"
九十九庵（つくもあん), a place belonging to Gakuta Shozaburo (Shoozaburoo) 額田正三郎, who hid the couple there after they had eloped.


When Kohaku (Arii Fufuu) died of illness, she became a haiku poetess herself and took on the name of Shokyu. She was 49 at that time.
She travelled (that means walking) many times from Kyushu to Kyoto and in her old age made her dream come true to walk the "Oku no Hosomichi" in the footsteps of Basho.

She met the young haiku poet Chomu (Choomu) 蝶夢 and they each build a hermitage in Okazaki (Kyoto prefecture) to revere the memory of Matsuo Basho. Her place was called Kohakuan and his was Goshoo-An 五升庵. He was 34, she was 52 at that time, living like mother and son, one source says.
In 1771 she went to Edo.
Her Hermitage in Okazaki burned down in 1773. She wrote on the occasion

焼けし野の所々やすみれ草
yakeshi no no tokorodokoro ya sumiregusa
see below


She later returned to the birthplace of her husband and lived in a small hermitage in the mountains called again Kohakuan 湖白庵.
She now rests with her husband in a grave at the temple Zuisen-Ji 随専寺 in Nogata.

This area is famous for its spring water and lotus ponds


Her main publication is
Shuufuu Ki 秋風記（しゅうふうき）
Autumn Wind Collection, "Record of an Autumn Wind", the diary of her walk in memory of Basho.
Arii Shokyu, Hiroaki Sato : in Monumenta Nipponica
Vol. 55, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), pp. 1-43: Arii Shokyû




筑後国（ちくごのくに）

江戸時代の中ごろ、芭蕉の後をたどり「奥の細道」を旅した女俳諧師がいた。名はなみこと諸九尼。筑後の庄屋の嫁だったが、２９歳のとき旅の俳諧師・湖白と欠落ち。湖白が病いにたおれた後、プロの俳諧師として自立した。京都から九州へ何度も足を運び、晩年、念願の「奥の細道」へ。

Japanese Reference


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湖白庵浮風 Kohakuan Fufu (Fufuu)
Arii Fufuu 有井浮風（ありい・（ふふう）
also known as Chidori-an 千鳥庵　
筑前直方藩士　野坡門　
1702 - 1762
He was a samurai from Nogata in Chikuzen (Fukuoka, Kyushu). He was a student of Shida Yaba, school of Basho disciples.
Fufuu left for Osaka with young Nami and made a living as a doctor. He died in 1762.


松葉とは散りての名なり松葉塚　
matsuba to wa chirite no na nari matsubazuka

(the Matsuba Pine Needle Mound is at the temple Shogen-Ji 聖眼寺（しょうげんじ Shoogenji ） in Osaka. It as a stone memorial of one of Basho's Haiku.)
Photos of this Pine Needle Mound



................. and his death poem


tsure mo ari ima wa no sora no hototogisu

My companion in the skies
of death,
a cuckoo.


Fufuu 浮風
"Died on the seventeenth day of the fifth month, 1762,at the age of sixty-one."
Fufu, trans. Yoel Hoffmann


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Chomu 蝶夢（ちょうむ Choomu)
享保17年（1732年） － 寛政7年12月24日（1796年2月2日））

Born in Kyoto. He entered Buddhist priesthood at the age of nine at the temple Hokoku-Ji 法国寺 in Kyoto.
He became a haiku poet at age 13 under the guidance of Sooku (Soo oku 宗屋（そうおく）.
Other names Kuuzoo 九蔵。号を洛東・Goshoo-An 五升庵・Hakuan 泊庵.
He later became priest at the temple Amida-Ji 阿弥陀寺（浄土宗), Kihaku-In Hermitage 帰白院.


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Let us go back to the haiku of Nami / Shokyu-Ni


一雫こぼして延びる木の芽かな
hito shizuku koboshite nobiru konome kana

one drop falls
and it swells -
this tree bud

Tr. Gabi Greve Tree Buds and Haiku


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Compiled by Larry Bole:

Faubion Bowers, in "The Classic Tradition of Haiku: An Anthology," calls her Yagi Shokyuu-ni, and says:

"Wife of Shida Yaba's [Yaha's] secretary."

Stephen Addiss, in "Haiku Landscapes," says:

"Born in Echigo (present-day Niigata Prefecture), Shokyuu took the tonsure after her husband's death and traveled widely."

And Sato includes her in his recent book, "Japanese Women Poets: An Anthology."

Not many of her haiku have been translated into English:


wasuregusa wa sakedo wasure nu mukashi kana

The "forget-me" has bloomed, but ah!
I can not forget old days together.

trans. Asataroo Miyamori (1869-1952)
originally in "One Thousand Haiku: Ancient and Modern." Tokyo Doobunsha. 1930. Reprinted in "The Classic Tradition of Haiku," edited by Faubion Bowers, Dover, 1996.

Bower's note:
"Written on the 13th anniversary of her husband's death. 'Wasuregusa' (literally, 'forget-me-grass') is a tiny, emphemeral day-lily."


The forget-me-not is blooming;
But the things of long ago,--
How can I forget them?
trans. Blyth


shiraga to mo narande yanagi no chiri ni keri

Lo! willow leaves have gone,
Without getting grey-haired.
trans. Asataroo Miyamori, 'ibid.'



焼けし野の所々やすみれ草
yakeshi no no tokorodokoro ya sumiregusa

Violets have grown here and there
on the ruins of my burned house.
trans. Asataroo Miyamori, 'ibid.'



violets have grown
among the ruins
of my burned house
trans. Patricia Donegan


. . . . .

行春や海を見て居る鴉の子
yuku haru ya umi o mite iru karasu no ko

Spring passes--
looking at the sea,
a baby crow
trans. Stephen Addiss



Spring goes by--
crow's child scans
the sea
trans. Beichman

comment from Oka Makoto :
From 'Shokyuu-Ni Kushuu'.
The most famous example of a woman of good family who awoke after an arranged marriage and eloped with her lover is Yanagihara Byakuren, who was born into the nobility. But there were such women even in pre-modern times of course, and the author of this poem was one. Born into a well-off family of Chikugo in Kyuushuu, Shokyuu married a relative, but later eloped with Arii Fufuu, a disciple of Yaba, himself one of Basho's favorite disciples. Fond of traveling, she observed nature with fresh eyes, as in this poem, and became a well-known haiku poet in the 18th century. After her husband died, she shaved her head and became a Buddhist nun.



spring goes by--
the crow's child
scans the sea
trans. unknown

Look at a HAIGA here
... thegreenleaf.co.uk


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the forget-me-not is blooming
but the things of long ago
how can I forget them?

mal me quer
coisas de antes
quem não quer

Alice Ruiz

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Japanese Haiku by Shokyuu 諸九
Tr. Gabi Greve


鶏頭や老ても紅はうすからず
keitoo ya oite mo beni wa usukarazu

oh cockscomb !
even as you get older,
the colors do not fade

or

cockscomb -
even as I get older,
the lipstick is not thinner



世を捨てて見る分別や山さくら　
yo o sutete miru funbetsu ya yama sakura

leaving the world behind,
looking at all the "good sense" ...
mountain cherries

　　　

夢見るも仕事のうちや春の雨
yume miru mo shigoto no uchi ya haru no ame

having a dream
is part of the job ...
rain in spring



けふの月目のおとろへを忘れけり
kyoo no tsuki me no otoroe o wasurekeri

the moon of today -
I forget that my eyes
get weaker



音のした戸に人もなし夕時雨
oto no shita to ni hito mo nashi yuu shigure

the door made a noise
but there is nobody -
evening winter drizzle


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坂下りて月夜も闇し鴨の声　　　
saka orite tsukiyo mo kurashi kamo no koe

as I walk down the slope
the moon becomes dark -
call of the ducks


She is walking down to a pond where the ducks are swimming.


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夕がほや一日の息ふつとつく
yuugao ya ichinichi no iki futto tsuku

bottle gourd flowers -
here is a sigh
for the whole day

yuugao, lit. evening face, flowers that start blooming at night.




枯るるほど草にしみこむか冬の月
紫陽花や雨にも日にも物ぐるひ
朧夜の底を行くなり雁の声
北山の日暮は白し帰る雁　
暮むつはその暁やほととぎす　
掃捨て見れば芥や秋の霜：剃髪の時　
百合咲くや汗もこぼさぬ身だしなみ


Japanese Reference: るしゃな界


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