Yamato

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Yamato

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

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Explanation

Yamato (大和)
was originally the area around today's Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan. Later the term was used as the name of the province and also as an ancient name of Japan. The term was semantically
extended to mean “Japan” or “Japanese” in general,
and carries many of the same connotations as Americana does for the United States.




Yamato Province (大和国, Yamato no Kuni)
was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū.
It was also called Washū (和州). At first, the name was written with one different character (大倭; cf. Names of Japan), and for about ten years after 737, this was revised to use more desirable characters (大養徳). The final revision was made in the second year of the Tenpyō-hōji era (c. 758). It is classified as a great province in the Engishiki.

The name Yamato derives from the Yamato people; the Yamato Period in the history of Japan refers to the late Kofun Period (c. 250–538) and Asuka Period (538–710). Japanese archaeologists and historians emphasize the fact that during the early Kofun Period the Yamato chieftainship was in close contention with other regional powers, such as Kibi Province near present-day Okayama Prefecture. Around the 6th century, the local chieftainship gained national control and established the Imperial court in Yamato Province.

The provincial capital was Wakigami in Katsujō District (modern northeastern Gose), but accompanying the Heijō-kyō capital transfer, it was moved to Takaichi District (Jōroku in modern Kashihara, where the Ōgaru and Ishikawa towns meet, called Karu no Chimata). Where exactly the capital was is guessed at by various sources, but not known for sure. There was no shugo's mansion; the Kōfuku-ji played that role.
The primary shrine was Sakurai’s Ōmiwa Shrine.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


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. WASHOKU
Yamatoni, Yamato-ni 大和煮
simmering meat of wild animals



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HAIKU

雲雀鳴通りに見ゆる大和哉
hibari naku toori ni miyuru yamato kana

Yamato looks
just as the skylark
sings it
Tr. Chris Drake

This hokku was written on 2/14 (March 25) in 1804, when Issa was in or near Edo. The hokku does not seem especially patriotic, and there is no hint of nationalism or jingoism in it. Rather, the hokku uses synesthesia to exclaim at how beautiful the Japanese landscape looks on one spring day. A lark, obviously taken with something, has been singing on and on, and Issa says the land looks exactly the way the lark's song sounds.

In the previous year Issa had begun to seriously study the Chinese classics, especially the Book of Poems and the Book of Changes, and he also studied various Japanese classics. Yamato was the ancient name for Japan, but in Issa's time it was first of all the name of the province south of Kyoto in which the old the imperial capital of Nara was located. Among literate people in Issa's time Yamato was also used as an ordinary name for Japan as a whole country. Only later, when used by proponents of emperor-worship, would it become a nationalistic name for Japan. Using the word Yamato is in Issa's time is a bit like Blake writing about Albion.

For Issa Yamato seems to be a slightly idealistic vision from the past of all the Japanese islands as one land, a vision that transcends the real Japan under the shogunate -- a land divided up into a patchwork of many small domains ruled by local daimyo lords loosely subordinate to the shogunate in Edo. The shogunate and its samurai allies wanted to keep Japan divided into numerous semi-feudal domains, while commoners and some farmers and non-establishment samurai were beginning to see visions of a more unified land. This does not mean Issa was a nationalist. He was simply dissatisfied with shogunal and samurai rule that relied on divide-and-conquer tactics, and the lark in his hokku flies and sings freely, ignoring all the laws against free speech and the feudalistic boundaries that have been erected all over the country.

Issa has some hokku on "the emperor's realm" (kimi ga yo), but they mean little more than "Japan at peace," and his few poems about Nippon are not about Japan as a nation superior to other nations. He has a handful of hokku about "great Nippon" (dai-nippon), but he uses "great" either in the sense of having a large land area or in the sense of "How wonderful Japan is" on special occasions, as when the cherries are in full bloom.

Chris Drake

. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 Issa in Edo .


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邪鬼が踏む大和盆地の暑さかな
jaki ga fumu Yamato bonchi no atsusa kana

as if the demons
tread on the Yamado plains -
this heat

Kadokawa Haruki 角川春樹 (1942 - )


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曇りのちさくらちりゆく大和かな
kumori nochi sakura chiri-yuku Yamato kana

cloudy and later
cherry blossoms fall ...
Yamato province

Ooya Tatsuji 大屋達治 (1952 - )


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梅雨明けて大和青垣入日どき
tsuyu akete Yamato-Aogaki iribi-doki

end of the rainy season -
Yamato-Aogaki
during sunset time

Hottta Tomoe 堀田知永


Yamato-Aogaki is a quasi national park
大和青垣国定公園（やまとあおがきこくていこうえん）in Nara prefecture.


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Related words

***** Placenames used in haiku



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Groundbreaking ceremony

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Ground-breaking ceremony (jichinsai )

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

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Explanation



Usually a Shinto ceremony for purifying a building site; a ground-breaking ceremony
じちんさい(地鎮祭)
..... "Earth Ceremony" ji matsuri

In Japan, purification ceremonies are performed before the commencement of all important events and functions. When a new home or building is to be constructed, a groundbreaking ceremony, which is called "earth pacifying ceremony", jichinsai is performed to pacify the earth deity and to purify the spot where construction will be carried out.

Before my own Daruma Do Hall was erected in 1997, our carpenter, who was in charge of the construction, called a Buddhist Mountain Ascetic (the carpenter knew about my interest in this kind of Buddhism, so he did not call the local shinto priest but this Yamabushi) to purify the field beside our home.
The carpenter also needed this ceremony to pray for the safe construction itself and the protection of the lives of our carpenters and workers.

We erected an altar outside with "offerings from the sea and the mountains" and some ceremonial rice wine.
The monk/priest came in full robes, with his conch/trumpet blowing away all evil spirits and shooting his magic arrows in the four directions. Purifying salt and sake was layed out in the four directions too and later a sip was taken by each of us. My husband and the carpenter then did the first dig into the purified ground.
A special meal for all ended this eventful morning ceremony. I felt all the evil demons had been blown away for miles and eons and the new Hall should be safe for at least my own lifetime !

Gabi Greve

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quote

The Jichinsai ceremony is a Shinto ritual intended to calm the kami (god) of the earth whenever a new building or other construction begins. It was/is believed that without going through the protocol of requesting permission from the earth kami, any building constructed would anger the kami and lead to it's destruction. Another purpose is to pray that the actual construction proceeds without any "incidents".

Even when Japanese construct buildings offshore (the construction of factories in China, Europe and the USA for example) a Jichinsai is inevitably held. The ceremony is not so much religious but more of a cultural more. There have been examples of court cases in Japan where the use of public funds to pay for Jichinsai for public works projects has been questioned due to the official (at least in terms of the US imposed constitution) separation of religion and state, but so far at least the courts have ruled that the Jichinsai is purely a social custom. In any case it would be difficult to say otherwise in a country where there are few clear boundaries on just about anything.
Read the full discription HERE
©　www.yamasa.org







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地神　Earth Deity
in Ohaga/Japan



winter walk -
the gods of Japan
at my side

Look at our local Gods here:
Gabi Greve, Ohaga, Japan 2006


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. Sake 酒 for rituals and festivals .


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HAIKU

spring snow sprinkles
the earth god's
festival song

haru no yuki ji matsuri uta ni kakaru kana
春の雪地祭り唄にかかる哉

by Issa, 1807

This haiku seems to refer to a song sung at a festival in honor of earthly deities; see Issa zenshuu (Nagano: Shinano Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1976-79) 2.392, note 3.

Tr. David Lanoue
chimatsuri chichinsai
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ite tsuchi o tsuma ga kuwa uchi jichinsai

to purify our house lot
my wife ritually hoes ...

©　Katayama Fuyou


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地祭りの太鼓の音に夏の草
ji matsuri no taiko no oto ni natsu no kusa

the sound of the drum
of the groundbreaking ceremony
and the green weeds of summer

©　古井一歩 / Furui Ippo
Tr. Gabi Greve



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Related words


***** Gods of the Elements : 地神 Chijin, 地天 Chiten : God of Earth

***** Ta no Kami, God of the Rice Fields　田の神さま


***** . WKD : "Ground-purification rites" .

the five ikasuri-no-kami (protectors of court lands):

生井神　Ikui no kami, Protector of life
福井神　Sakui no kami, Bringer of good luck
綱長井神　Tsunagai no kami, Luck for fishing
波比岐神　Hahiki no kami, Protector of home and garden
阿須波神　Asuwa no kami, Protector of legs and travelling

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Echigo - blind woman

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Blind woman (from Echigo) : Echigo Goze

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

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Explanation

blind woman, goze 女盲, ごぜ, ゴゼ, 瞽女
blind nun, ama goze 尼ごぜ、あまごぜ

blind woman from Echigo, Echigo goze 越後女盲
越後ごぜ , 「瞽女（ごぜ）」
海御前（あまごぜ）



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The ideographs for goze mean "blind" and "woman."
The ideographs are, however, read in this manner because the word goze already existed. In fact, it probably derived from the term mekura gozen 盲御前, which also means blind woman (gozen is a formal second-person pronoun). Although the term goze can be found in medieval records, other terms such as mōjo 盲女, jomō 女盲　and the like were also in use (especially in written records) until the modern era. In the spoken language, the term goze was usually suffixed by an honorific: goze-san, goze-sa, goze-don, and the like.

Organizations

From the Edo period (1600-1868) goze organized themselves in a number of ways. Few large-scale organizations have been found in urban areas, though during the nineteenth century some documents speak of a goze association in the city of Edo. In Osaka and some regional towns goze were sometimes informally linked to the pleasure quarters, where they were called to perform their songs at parties and the like.

Goze organizations developed most in rural areas and continued to exist in Niigata (once known as Echigo) and Nagano prefectures well into the twentieth century (the last important active goze, Kobayashi Haru 小林ハル, died in 2005, age 105).

From the Edo period onward, other goze groups were found from Kyushu in the south to approximately Yamagata and Fukushima prefectures in the north. Farther north blind women tended to become shamans (known as itako, waka, miko or the like) rather than goze.

Large and important groups were especially active in the Kantō and surrounding areas, in what are today Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Shizuoka, Yamanashi, Tokyo-to. Other groups were formed in Nagano and Gifu prefectures, and somewhat farther south, in Aichi prefecture. In addition to the well-known groups of Niigata prefecture, groups existed in other areas along the western seaboard, including Toyama, Ishikawa, and Fukui prefectures.

Suzuki Shōei (1996 and elsewhere) divides the organizations of Echigo goze into three main types.

1. Goze organizations such as the one in Takada (today Jōetsu-shi), in which a limited number of goze houses (in early twentieth-century Takada 17) were concentrated in the city and in which each house was led by a master teacher who passed on the rights to her position and property to her top (or favorite) student after her death. Girls who wished to become goze had to move to the city and enter the house (fictitious family) of the goze teacher. Sometimes they were adopted by the teacher as a daughter.

2. Organizations such as the one centered on Nagaoka, in which goze remained in the countryside, often their own home, after completing their apprenticeship with a goze elsewhere. These goze teachers were loosely linked to one another by their relation to the goze head in Nagaoka (a position assumed by a goze who, after becoming the head, assumed the name Yamamoto Goi). Once each year the goze of the Nagaoka group assembled at their headquarters, the house of Yamamoto Goi, to celebrate a ceremony known as myōonkō (妙音講) in which their history and the rules of their organization was read out loud. A this they deliberated on what to do about members who had broken rules, ate a celebratory meal, and performed for one another.

3. Organizations such as the one found in Iida (Nagano prefecture), in which the position of head rotated among members.

The repertory of most goze has been lost, but songs of goze from Niigata, Nagano, Saitama, and Kagoshima prefectures have been recorded. The vast majority of these recordings are from what is today Niigata prefecture.

©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !




Japanese Reference

高田瞽女の成り立ち Takada Goze
長岡瞽女 Nagaoka Goze
source : 越後瞽女（えちご ごぜ）

Singing On YouTube: ごぜうた・瞽女歌・ごぜ歌
source : www.echigo-gozeuta.com/


瞽女と瞽女唄の研究 : Groemer, Gerald
近世の川柳に見られる瞽女
source : bookweb.kinokuniya


瞽女(ごぜ)という盲目の女旅芸人がいた。
source : saikaku/yobansshi


ごぜのつらはらずに置いてしちをかり　　
江戸川潜流　安永四年　

気の毒なことに、盲目の女と交わった後では、一発殴っておくと後難がないという俗信があったらしい。しかし、身体を戴いた上に金を借り，その上に殴るなど後味が悪い.

- Reference -


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Echigo Province

Echigo (越後国, Echigo no kuni) was an old province in north-central Japan, on the Sea of Japan side, northernmost part of the Hokurikudō (北陸道）circuit. It bordered on Uzen, Iwashiro, Kozuke, Shinano, and Etchu provinces. Today the area is part of Niigata prefecture, which also includes the island which was the old Sado province.



Echigo was established by the division of Koshi province (越国 or 古志国) in the end of 7th century AD with Iwafune and Nutari District. It occupied the northeast part of Niigata prefecture today and was one of two border provinces with Emishi (the other is Mutsu). Echigo was given four districts of Kubiki, Koshi, Uonuma and Kanbara in 702. When Japan extended the territory a little northward in 708, Dewa District was established under Echigo. But this district transformed to Dewa Province in 712. Temporally Sado Province had been merged between 743 and 752. Since the division of Sado in 752, the territory of Echigo had never been changed.

Echigo was ruled by Uesugi Kenshin and his heirs during the Sengoku period; later it became a fief of Ieyasu's Matsudaira relatives.

©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


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. Echigo joofu 越後上布（えちごじょうふ）
Joofu cloth from Echigo 　

kigo for all Summer



. Echigojishi 、越後獅子（えちごじし）lion dance from Echigo

kigo for the New Year


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................... Issa's Haiku about Echigo


こがらしや壁のうしろはえちご山
kogarashi ya kabe no ushiro wa echigo yama

winter wind--
behind the wall
is the deep north

In Issa's time "the mountains of Echigo" would have been synonymous with a cold place in the north, but for most English readers this connotation is nonexistent.

another version

. facing the river--
next door, it seems
Echigo mountains



大雪や膳の際から越後山
ôyuki ya zen no kiwa kara echigo yama

heavy snow--
from the dinner tray's edge
Echigo mountains


越後馬夜露払って通りけり
echigo uma yo tsuyu haratte tôri keri

Echigo horse--
sweeping away the evening dew
in passing


Tr. David Lanoue




the "Jumping Horse of Echigo" appears on the slope of Mount Myokosen when the snow begins to melt and announces the spring season to the farmers.

Myookoosen 妙高山の雪形　”跳ね馬 ”Mount Myokosan


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Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉and his walk through the North of Japan:

. - - - Station 33 - Echigo 越後路 - - - .


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HAIKU

in Fifth Month rain
behind me too...
a blind woman from Echigo

satsuki ame mata ato kara mo echigo goze
五月雨又後からも越後女盲

by Issa, 1821

Shinji Ogawa notes that mata ato kara mo means "from the behind also (a blind woman from Echigo)," implying that there are other blind women from Echigo in front. He adds, "They may or may not be beggars. They might be on the way to Zenkooji Temple."

Tr. David Lanoue


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干し稲やごぜの姿となりにけり
hoshi ine ya goze no sugata to nari ni keri

drying rice -
they really look like
the blind singers



©　shunrai.shashin-haiku.jp


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Related words

***** . Niigata Ryoori 新潟郷土料理
Local Food from Echigo and Niigata

***** . World Handicap Day / Black Day .


***** . WKD : Blind People .
shakutoo-e 積塔会 (しゃくとうえ)
ceremony for blind people

- #echigo -
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I .. the first person

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I .. the first person

***** Location: Japan, worldwide
***** Season: Non-seasonal Topic
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation

Haiku is the poetry of the first person.
Verbs used in Japanese Haiku

This sentence is often heared from Japanese haiku teachers. The Japanese language is structured in a way that very often the verb somehow implies the person who is doing the activity and the explicit word for I or YOU is not mentioned directly. In translating such a haiku, the I is often not mentioned, which might give the impression of an undefined actor.

But some haiku use this pronoun explicitly.
And they are not only the death haiku of famous poets, but many others too.

I will try and collect some here as I find them.

Gabi Greve

There are many different words to be used when talking about oneself in Japanese, differing on the social status of the other person and whether a man, woman or child is talking. But this is a different problem of the Japanese language.

ware 吾 我
watakushi 私
wagami, waga mi, waga-mi 我が身 "my body"

ore, ora　俺、おら　mostly used by men



External Japanese LINK
Haiku with the first person
© 私
一身●憂き身●俺　己●俺様●愚生●吾人●此方人等（こちとら）●此方（こちら）●自家●自身●自分●小職●小生●拙者●某●手前●当人●不肖●僕●本人●予●余輩●老生●吾輩●我が身●儂●私●我　吾●吾等●われわれ



mi o ai su(ru) 身を愛す "I love my body"

temakura ni mi o aisu nari oborozuki
Buson

手枕に身を愛すなりおぼろ月　
蕪村 　
これらの中世以降の用例では、同様に事実の叙述である、と見ることができます。ねこまたの例のように、人のいひける、ということばが、第三者からの伝聞であることを示しています。
なり、は、その情報を事実と信じて、次ぎの行動へ移る、という、事実の叙述をあらわすと考えられます。


onmi o aisu おん身を愛す I love you
（Ich liebe dich）



The consept of using the word "I" when necessary in languages other than Japanese should not be mixed up with the consept of using judgemental images, which feel like leading the reader to a conclusion, like authorial intrusions on the free image.
Authorial intrusion is a literary device where the author inserts his own thoughts and opinions into the poetry, and should be avoided in haiku.


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quote
by Jack Galmitz, THF

The tradition of eliminating the “I” from haiku
coincided with the idea (fostered by Blyth, a student of D.T. Suzuki) that haiku was an offshoot of Zen Buddhism and that haiku aimed at enlightenment. While it is true that there were haiku written that purposely were meant as such expressions, haiku generally were not viewed as a medium of such expression. Basho was not a Buddhist, had minimal understanding of the religion, and was a poet first and foremost.

This tradition of relinquishing a sense of “I” carried on into American haiku (perhaps because early proponents, Ginsberg, Kerouac, Snyder, et al, were erstwhile students of Buddhism), and understood it that way as advanced their own interests and their esteem for Blyth/Suzuki.

I believe their interest and purpose was to find a way of life that advocated peace (amongst other reasons) in a cold war world, in a world dominated by the “millions” manipulated by and coming to resemble the “machinery” of the 20th century.

Ironically, though, it was just these poets (and there were notable others), that introduced the lyrical and interior “I” back into poetry after the formalism of the preceding period. When we think of the 1950s in poetry, we think of this great energy evoked by the “I,” by its resuscitation from the organizational man of the time. James Hackett, remember, was a Buddhist monk prior to becoming a haiku poet.

The ideal of no-self of Buddhism also found its way into American haiku as a rule that the form be an enactment of enlightenment: lower-case lines of “objective” things existing without reference to anything other than themselves; a belief that the “I” is an arrogance and corrupter of the pure-field of things-in-themselves, to be presented and cherished by what? (as no-self was writing wasn’t it).

Of course, in order for something to exist for us, we must make room for it and to do so we must yield our opinions, preferences,etc., otherwise everything is just understood as we understand it. Many good and great poems were made by attempts to yield to the “idea” of things as existing independently; it gave value to the “natural” world, in particular, something our century had not and still does not do.

However, another, and equally valid way of valuing the world is by examing it, looking at it, and by expressing what it is and does to our internal life (another field that is side-swept and under-priveleged and down-trodden by our production-era ethos).

That is why in Japan and here in the USA, poets created a form that moved from the “objective” to “subjective” world; why they championed the internal response to the world (not insisting on their ego so much as the inner landscape that the outer landscape evokes for all of us).
Just think of Ozaki Housai, Fura Maeda, Kyoshi Takahama, Arou Usuda, Fusei Tomiyasu, etc.

That things and we are preceded and superceded is true and is a legitimate end to express in haiku. But, that we exist, that the world exists in us and through us, is equally important and an equal end to express by haiku.

The idea that Buddhism or haiku as an ancillary art require the denial of the small self, feelings, perceptions, cognitions, etc. is simply not true. To think that there is an essential self behind these phenomenon is true.
source : THF, Periplum 9



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not much
and yet
my autumn

Read a review by Susumu Takiguchi, WHR December 2011

. Editor’s Choice : Gabi Greve .


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HAIKU

Some haiku by Kobayashi Issa

我好て我する旅の寒さ哉
ware sukite ware suru tabi no samusa kana

though I'm loving
these travels of mine...
it's cold!



出て見れば我のみならず初旅寝
dete mireba ware no mi narazu hatsu tabine

off on a journey
I'm not alone...
first inn of the year



夕ぐれやかがしと我と只二人
yuugure ya kagashi to ware to tada futari

evening falls--
me and a scarecrow
just us two



行春や我を見たをす古着買
yuku haru ya ware o mitaosu furugigai

spring departs--
the old clothes buyer
ignores me



我死なば墓守となれきりぎりす
ware shinaba haka mori to nare kirigirisu

when I die
guard my grave
katydid!



いかな日も鶯一人我ひとり哉
ikana hi mo uguisu hitori ware hitori kana

whatever the day brings
the nightingale's alone
I'm alone


More haiku with WARE
Tr. David Lanoue


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mi hitotsu 身一つ - - just for me, all by myself
This also implies a feeling of loneliness and solitude.


身一つに大な月よ梅がかよ
mi hitotsu ni ookina tsuki yo ume ga ka yo

just for me...
the great moon!
the plum blossom scent!


身一ッにあらし木がらしあられ哉
mi hitotsu ni arashi kogarashi arare kana

just for me
a storm, winter wind
and hail


待々し桜と成れどひとり哉
machi-machishi sakura to naredo hitori kana

cherry blossoms
I waited and waited for...
I'm alone

Robin D. Gill helped me to grasp Issa's meaning. He paraphrases:
"I've waited and waited for these cherries to bloom but, hell,
here I am with none of my poet buddies around, all alone, out in the boondocks! Damn!"

Tr. David Lanoue


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めでたさも中ぐらいなりおらが春
medetasa mo chuu gurai nari ora ga haru

my reason to celebrate
is about medium-size -
my new spring

Ora ga Haru
by Issa, published in 1852

. Reference


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Matsuo Basho

散る柳あるじも我も鐘を聞く
chiru yanagi aruji mo ware mo kane o kiku

willow leaves scattering -
the master and I
listen to the temple bell
Tr. Gabi Greve



我が宿の淋しさ思へ桐一葉
waga yado no sabishisa omoe kiri hitoha

I think of the loneliness
of my own lodging -
one leaf of the paulownia
Tr. Gabi Greve



MORE - hokku about his life and personal situation :
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


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The use of HITORI 一人　"only me"　as the first person, relating to a strong human being, has been used in Japanese poetry and in haiku.


On contrast
here is one modern example of HITORI used by the young man who shot some people in Akihabara in 2008, he said (and this is not in haiku form)

I am alone/lonely on the internet (intaanetto de mo hitori)
I am alone/lonely in my life

expressing a very weak human being that can not bear to be alone.


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虚子一人銀河と共に西へ行く
Kyoshi hitori ginga to tomo ni nishi e yuku

Kyoshi all alone
goes with the Milky Way
to the West

or

me, Kyoshi
I go with the Milky Way
toward the West



The West, implies the Buddhist Paradise of the West.
Kyoshi wrote this at age 75.
Kyoshi wrote this, as I understood, with respect to his own way of writing haiku, different from some of the haiku poets of his time, to show he was going his own way, whatever the criticism would be. It shows a strong self confidence in this word HITORI.



彼一語我一語秋深みかも
kare ichigo ware ichigo aki fukami kamo

he says one word
I say one word
and autumn deepens



WKD : Takahama Kyoshi 高浜 虚子



other possibilities of the translation

Kyoshi hitori ginga to tomo ni nishi e yuku
source : WHC workshop



I, Kiyoshi,
alone with the Milky Way
headed West


Bill K


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

I, Kyoshi
and a million galaxys
on my way

I, on the southern cross
know the way
to the otherside

shanna


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鴉啼いてわたしも一人
karasu naite watashi mo hitori

The cawing of a crow -
I also am alone.
Santoka

Unison (shoowa　唱和) haiku by two friends


咳をしても一人
seki o shite mo hitori

even when I cough
I am alone



ichinichi mono iwazu choo no kage sasu

all day I say nothing
a butterfly casts a shadow


Ozaki Hoosai, Ozaki Hosai (1885 - 1926)



. honkadori 本歌取り alluding to a poem .


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落椿われならば急流へ落つ
ochi-tsubaki ware naraba kyuuryuu e otsu

if I were a fallen camellia
I would fall
into a rapid stream
Tr. Fay Aoyagi

. Takaha Shugyo 鷹羽狩行 .


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Related words

***** Verbs used in Haiku
implying an actor



. My Life, my fate (mi no ue 身に上) and Haiku 　　



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Matsushima - Ojima

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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-do 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

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Zuiganji 瑞巌寺 Zuigan-Ji
91 Matsushima Chōnai, Matsushima-chō, Miyagi-gun
宮城県宮城郡松島町松島字町内９１

- quote
Seiryuzan Zuigan-ji 青龍山 瑞巌寺
The temple, commonly referred to as Zuigan-ji, was originally founded in 828 by Jikaku Daishi 慈覚大師, but was rebuilt by the feudal lord Date Masamune from 1604 onwards using lumber brought from Mount Kumano in Wakayama Prefecture and skilled workmen from Kyoto and Kii. Hondō (Hōjō), the main building, which was completed in 1609, measures 39 meteres by 25.2 meters and houses the principal Buddhist image. Many parts of the temple have been designated as natural treasures and cultural assets. The haiku poet Bashō wrote a tribute to the golden walls inside the temple.
The Zuigan-ji temple caves housed the ashes of the deceased.

Zuigan-ji temple features a number of caves carved into the rock. These caves were used for memorial services and as a cinerarium to house the ashes of the deceased. The caves were constructed in the Kamakura period and remained in use until the Edo period.

The temple grounds also contain The Zuigan-ji Art Museum established on October 1, 1995 to display various artifacts, including calligraphy by former head monks, Fusuma paintings, tea cups and portraits.

The temple sustained major damage in the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


. . Pilgrimages to Fudo Temples 不動明王巡礼
Fudo Myo-O Junrei - - Tohoku Introduction . 　 .

The main statue is a Fudo Myo-O, but this is secret and now shown.
The Maedachi statue is non known 前立不動尊

28 瑞巌寺 天台宗 - 五大明王　/ 前立不動尊 Maedachi Fudo Son

- Chant of the temple

松島の邊りに浮かぶ五大堂
除災招福願い祈らん




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. Ennin -　Jigaku Daishi 慈覚大師 .
(794 – 864)


Date Masamune 伊達政宗 (1567 - 1636)
Haiku by Masamune


A souvenir from Matsushima,
from the temple Zuigan-Ji and Godai-Doo 瑞巌寺と五大堂
. Etsuki Daruma 江月だるまこけし Kokeshi from Etsuki .


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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




見せばやな雄島のあまの袖だにも
ぬれにぞぬれし色はかはらず

Misebaya na Ojima no ama no Sode dani mo
Nure ni zo nureshi Iro wa kawarazu

Let me show him these!
Even the fishermen's sleeves
On Ojima's shores,
Though wet through and wet again,
Do not so change their colors.

90 - Inpu Moin no Taifu 殷富門院大輔
Attendant to Empress Inpu

. Ogura Hyakunin Isshu Poems 小倉百人一首 .

Ojima Island 雄島
is a pea shaped small island of 40 meters wide and 200 meters long.
The island used to be the spiritual training area for Bhuddist monks. There used to have about 100 caves used for the training. Also the island has stone monuments for Haiku poet Basho and Raiken, the Buddhist monk.
It is said the name of Matsushima originally derived from this island.
source :　www.tripadvisor.com.sg

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- shared by Tadashi san - facebook


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Matsushima Kokeshi Wooden Doll with Daruma

. . . . . Matsushima, Fuku-Ura 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.


. Tawara Toota Hidesato 俵藤太秀郷 Tawara Tota .

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

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


. Tani Bunchoo 谷文晁 Tani Buncho .


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. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


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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source :　British Museum



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
asa yosa o taga Matsushima zo kata kokoro

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.



day and night
it is only Matsushima -
my great longing
Tr. Gabi Greve

Basho was planning his trip to Sendai and Matsushima
(Oku no Hosomichi) and was looking forward to see this famous place.



Waves at Matsushima
by 俵屋宗達 Tawaraya Sotatsu


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

- - - Station 20 - Shiogama - - -
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .

Station 21 - Matsushima
Much praise has already been lavished on the wonders of the islands of Matsushima. Yet if further praise is possible, I would like to say that here is the most beautiful spot in the whole country of Japan, and that the beauty of these islands is not in the least inferior to the beauty of Lake Dotei or Lake Seiko in China. The islands are situated in a bay about three miles wide in every direction and open to the sea through a narrow mouth on the south-east side. Just as the River Sekko in China is made full at each swell of the tide, so is this bay filled with the brimming water of the ocean and the innumerable islands are scattered over it from one end to the other.

Tall islands point to the sky and level ones prostrate themselves before the surges of water. Islands are piled above islands, and islands are joined to islands, so that they look exactly like parents caressing their children or walking with them arm in arm. The pines are of the freshest green and their branches are curved in exquisite lines, bent by the wind constantly blowing through them. Indeed, the beauty of the entire scene can only be compared to the most divinely endowed of feminine countenances, for who else could have created such beauty but the great god of nature himself? My pen strove in vain to equal this superb creation of divine artifice.

Ojima Island where I landed was in reality a peninsula projecting far out into the sea. This was the place where the priest Ungo had once retired, and the rock on which he used to sit for meditation was still there. I noticed a number of tiny cottages scattered among the pine trees and pale blue threads of smoke rising from them. I wondered what kind of people were living in those isolated houses, and was approaching one of them with a strange sense of yearning, when, as if to interrupt me, the moon rose glittering over the darkened sea, completing the full transformation to a night-time scene. I lodged in an inn overlooking the bay, and went to bed in my upstairs room with all the windows open. As I lay there in the midst of the roaring wind and driving clouds, I felt myself to be in a world totally different from the one I was accustomed to.
My companion Sora wrote:

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

I myself tried to fall asleep, supressing the surge of emotion from within, but my excitement was simply too great. I finally took out my notebook from my bag and read the poems given me by my friends at the time of my departure - Chinese poem by Sodo, a waka by Hara Anteki, haiku by Sampu and Dakushi, all about the islands of Matsushima.

I went to the Zuiganji temple on the eleventh. This temple was founded by Makabe no Heishiro after he had become a priest and returned from China, and was later enlarged by the Priest Ungo into a massive temple with seven stately halls embellished with gold. The priest I met at the temple was the thirty-second in descent from the founder. I also wondered in my mind where the temple of the much admired Priest Kenbutsu could have been situated.

Tr. by Nobuyuki Yuasa

- - - Station 21 - Matsushima 松島 - - -
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


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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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Matsushima – ein Gedicht　
Die Inselwelt von Matsushima gehört zu den drei schönsten Landschaften Japans, zusammen mit Amanohashidate in der Präfektur Kyoto und dem Shintō-Schrein Itsukushima in der Nähe von Hiroshima.
Vom Schiff aus bieten unzählige Inseln mit knorrigen, gewundenen Kiefern, zackigen Felsen und tief eingeschnittene Buchten immer wieder neue, faszinierende Ausblicke. Aus dem Wasser ragen an vielen Stellen die Stangen der Austernfarmen und die Restaurants im Hafen von Matsushima erfreuen den hungrigen Reise-Gourmet mit einer Vielfalt von Austerngerichten.

Selbst bei Regen und Nebel ist diese Klippenlandschaft noch faszinierend schön. Daher ist es nicht weiter verwunderlich, dass Matsu­shima ein Motiv zahlreicher literarischer Werke wurde. Auch der bekannteste Haiku-Dichter Matsu Bashō (1644–1694) kam nach Matsushima. Er beschrieb die Inseln als »Meisterwerke himmlischer Schöpfergottheiten – welcher Mensch könnte sie ausführlich genug mit Pinsel oder mit Worten beschreiben?«

In der japanischen Literatur spielt Reisedichtung eine bedeutende Rolle. Die Gedichte und Wegbeschreibungen, die auf Reisen entstanden, waren äußerst geschätzt und populär. Die Wanderungen oder Pilgerreisen von Dichtern waren dabei oft Ausdruck einer religiös-philosophischen Haltung. »Die Jahre, die vorbeiziehen, sind auch nur Reisende im Laufe der Zeiten«, schrieb Matsuo Bashō im Vorwort zu seinem bekannten Reisebericht durch Tohoku »Auf schmalen Pfaden durchs Hinterland« oku no hosomichi ... das koennte man wohl gross schreiben Oku no Hosomichi ? . Er folgte den Spuren namhafter Poeten vor ihm, insbesondere Saigyō Hōshi (1118–1190), dem bekanntesten dichtenden Wanderpriester der Heian-Zeit (794–1185).

Matsuo Bashō wurde 1644 in Iga Ueno geboren, einer kleinen Stadt in der heutigen Präfektur Mie. Hier schrieb er seine ersten Gedichte. Später lebte er im damaligen Regierungssitz Edo, dem heutigen Tokyo. In Fukagawa, einem Vorort von Edo, wohnte er in einem ruhigen Anwesen mit einer Bananenstaude (Bashō) am Tor, der er seinen Dichternamen verdankt – Bashō-san, Herr Bananenstaude.
Gemeinsam mit seinem Schüler Sora brach Bashō, damals 45-jährig, im Mai 1689 auf und bewältigte 2400 Kilometer zu Fuß. Diese außerordentliche Leistung erforderte gute Gesundheit und Selbstdisziplin. Denn neben der mühsamen Wanderung über enge Bergpfade warteten unterwegs zahlreiche andere Widrigkeiten. Allein ein geeignetes Nachtlager zu finden und darauf zur Ruhe zu kommen, war bei der großen Zahl der Flöhe und Läuse nicht leicht.
Bashō beobachtete auf seinen Reisen die Menschen bei ihren alltäglichen Verrichtungen auf den Feldern oder in der Küche:

Eine Frau wäscht Kartoffeln . . .
Wenn ich der Dichter Saigyō wäre,
würde ich jetzt ein Gedicht schreiben

Das Essen und die je nach Saison unterschiedlichen Zutaten spielen seit jeher eine wichtige Rolle für den aufmerksamen Reisenden und werden oft in der Dichtung Japans besungen. So freut sich Bashōs Reisebegleiter Sora auf dem Weg entlang des Japanischen Meeres im Ort Kisagata auch auf kulinarische Genüsse und dichtete:

Kisagata an einem Festtag!
Was es hier wohl für
Spezialitäten gibt?

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March 11, 2011 - Great East Japan Earthquake -

. The Great East Japan Earthquake .


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