Nozawa Boncho and Ukoo

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Nozawa Boncho 野沢凡兆

寛永17年（1640年）？ - 正徳4年（1714年））

(野沢凡兆, Nozawa Bonchoo) was a Japanese poet born c.1640 in Kanazawa. He spent most of his life in Kyoto working as a doctor. Boncho was one of Matsuo Basho's disciples and wrote many famous haiku and renku of his period. Boncho died in 1714.

This is perhaps Boncho's most famous haiku:

The brushwood,
Though cut for fuel,
Is beginning to bud.


市中は物のにほひや夏の月
ichinaka wa mono no nioi ya natsu no tsuki

Downtown
the smells of things . . .
summer moon
(tr. Sean Price)

©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


Throughout the town
above the welter of smelly things
the summer moon
Tr. Earl Miner


In the town
smells of things
under a summer moon.
Tr. Mayhew

. . . . .



shimo kyoo ya ...


Further reading : Ichinaka wa – Downtown - Haikai



Nozawa Boncho / further reference

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上行くと下来る雲や秋の空
ue yuku to shita kuru kumo ya aki no sora

clouds floating above
and clouds floating below -
autumn sky

. Haiku about Sky (sora, ten)




禅寺の松の落葉や神無月
zendera ni matsu no ochiba ya kannazuki

In the Zen temple,
Pine needles are falling;
The god-less month.
tr. Blyth

Haiku about the god-less month




たけの子や畠隣に悪太郎
take no ko ya hatake tonari ni aku taroo

bamboo shoots -
beside the fields
such unwelcome company
Tr. Gabi Greve

"aku taroo", bad taroo, bad first son, villain ...


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from Sarumino

灰汁桶の雫やみけりきりぎりす
aku-oke no shizuku yami-keri kirigirisu

the alkaline water tub
stopped dripping -
grashoppers



(These kinds of wooden tubs were used to get the bitterness out of food items, such as horse chestnuts. They were also used for dyeing cloth.)




鶯や下駄の歯につく小田の土
uguisu ya geta no ha ni tsuki oda no tsuchi


下京や雪つむ上の夜の雨
ShimoKyoo ya yuki tsumu ue no yoru no ame


呼かへす鮒売みえぬあられ哉

鶏の声もきこゆるやま桜

桐の木の風にかまはぬ落葉かな


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His wife was Tome, 野沢とめ
Haiku name: Ukoo, 羽紅(うこう).


縫物や着もせでよごす五月雨
nuimono ya ki mo sede yogosu satsukiame

The embroidered dress
though not yet worn already soiled
by summer rain
trans. Earl Miner and Hiroko Odagiri


The needlework,--
Soiled without wearing it,
In the rains of June.
trans. Blyth


Miner and Odagiri say they follow the interpretation that "dampness has produced some mold on her clothes. The reason she has not worn them is that from 1682 to 1689 sumptuary laws forbade people not of the aristocracy or warrior classes to wear certain kinds of dress. Perhaps a slight critical tone here?"


And Blyth says:
"This is haiku in that the wetting of the garment brings out the meaning of the rain, but the clothes were perhaps more important to her than the rain."

Compiled by Larry Bole
Translating Haiku Forum




this needlework--
spoiled before it's even worn
by June rains' dampness

Tr. Larry Bole


The following was also compiled by Larry:

Here are some things that Earl Miner and Hiroko Odagiri say about her in their translation of "The Monkey's Straw Raincoat" (Sarumino):

Ukoo (d. ca. 1716-35) lay name Tome. Surname unknown. She was born in Kyoto, lived in Osaka, and married Bonchoo, taking orders as a result of ill health and perhaps for freedom of movement as a poet. In 1689 she appeared as a poet in 'Arano' ["The Uncleared Moor"--one of the seven collections ('Shichibushuu) that best represent the Basho-school of haikai].

Her care of Basho while at Kyorai's hermitage moved the master to comment in his 'Saga Nikki'. Although not the poetic equal of her husband she is one of the finest poets in 'Sarumino' and suitably appears in the 'Ume Wakana' ["Plum Blossoms and Fresh Shoots"--Ume Wakana no Maki, 1690] sequences as well as in the hokku parts.
[end of biographical statement]

Here are Ukoo's hokku from the four opening hokku sequences in "The Monkey's Straw Raincoat," all translated by Miner and Odagiri:

damasareshi hoshi no hikari ya sayo shigure (#11, Winter)

The stars that sparkled
have now been put to silence
drizzle in the night



shimoyake no te o fuite yaru yukimaroge (#70, Winter)

Where they are chilblained
the mother blows her child's hands
smarting from snow

(from the translators' note: Whether or not she is writing about their daughter Tei, Ukoo's use of "yaru" implies a mother's actions for her child, who here has been playing in the snow.)



odooshi ya te no okaretaru hitogokoro (#91, Winter)

The last days of the year
they sit with hands upon their knees
anxious in thought

(from the translators' note: Ukoo shows sympathy for debtors in hiding as year's end bills fall due. If they had money, their hands would be busy in preparations for the season...)



iriai no hibiki no naka ya hototogisu (#102, Summer)

The temple bell at dusk
reverberates with its singing
the hototogisu

(translators' note: The implications are variously taken. Our interpretation suggests a lovely description of mingled sounds, rather than the bell sounding evanescence with the bird's song giving joy.)

[Blyth's translation:

Through the tolling
Of the evening bell
The cry of the hototogisu.]



nuimono ya...(#142, Summer--for translation see above)



yuugao ni yobarete tsuraki atsusa kana (#179, Summer)

For some hot gourd soup
the invitation is a strain
in full summer heat

(translators' note: "Tsuraki" ("strain") governs what goes before and comes after.)



mayoigo no oya no kokoro ya susukihara (#211, Autumn)

Her child gone astray
she worries with a mother's heart
the wide pampas field

(translator's note: This seems sentimental if just. But the frequent personification of these tall grasses [in hokku] is now in a manner reversed. The mother must take on the pliancy and readiness of the plant if she is to find her child.)



tsuki mireba hito no kinuta ni isogawashi (#239, Autumn)

As I look on the moon
the women fulling cloth are heard
at their busy work

(from the translators' note: She implies that the women at their labor also see the moon. ...)
Fulling block (kinuta)



harusame no agaru ya noki ni naku suzume (#330, Spring)

The light spring rains
seem to lift so now the eaves
have sparrows twittering



momo yanagi kubari ariku ya onna no ko (#335, Spring)

She goes to distribute
extra peach flowers and willow strands
a happy young girl

(translators' note: Having received so much in this line for the doll festival, the good-hearted child walks about to share things with her friends.)



"Being weak in body and given to ill health, I thought how hard it was to tend my hair and so changed the style this spring."

koogai mo kushi mo mukashi ya chiritsubaki (#352, Spring)

The fancy hairpins
along with combs are useless now
camellia flowers fall

(translators' note: The headnote modestly tells us that she has become a nun. Since camellias fall as whole flowers rather than petal by petal, they were associated with the human head. The stanza is poignantly sad and yet combines beauty with religious resolution.)



"On seeing illustrations of 'The Tale of Genji'."

obashima ni yoru chiru hana no tachisugara (#371, Spring)

On the balustrade
as the flowers fall in the night
he stands there radiant

(translators' note: Many commentators treat the standing form as a woman's. But in illustrations of 'The Tale of Genji', a standing woman is very rare. Genji himself must be meant.)
Genji Monogatari, The Tale of Genji 源氏物語



And finally, a well-known verse translated by Blyth:

waga ko nara tomo ni wa yaraji yoru no yuki

Were he my child,
He should not accompany you,
This night of snow!



If my child, I wouldn't let him go with you in tonight's snow
(trans. Hiroaki Sato)

Takeda (Tome) Uko-ni -- wife of Boncho and sister of Kyorai. On a wintry, slippery night, Boncho, with his 12-year-old servant boy, was about to leave for a haikai no renga party. Uko recited this poem on the spur of the moment. Boncho, awed and ashamed, went on alone."
In "The Classic Tradition of Haiku -
An Anthology, ed. Faubion Bowers"



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***** WKD : Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets

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Goto Takatoshi

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Goto Takatoshi (Gotoo Takatoshi)
五島高資 （ごとう・たかとし） 別号・篁風 （こうふう）.

Born 1968 in Nagasaki


©　五島高資のプロフィール


Graduated from Jichi Medical School.
In 1995 the Modern Haiku Association Debut Prize.
In 1997 Sweden Haiku Prize.
In 2001 the Modern Haiku Association Critic Prize.
The representative director of "Haiku Square" since 1998.
©　"Haiku Square"




©　俳句スクエア



Takatoshi Gotoh / Reference


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review: *Thunderbolt* by Takatoshi Gotoh

a review by Zolo

The first thing one immediately notices about *Thunderbolt*, a brand new offering by award-winning Japanese haiku poet, Takatoshi Gotoh, is that it is truly beautiful to look at. The next thing a western reader might notice is the right to left orientation of the book, the reverse of our usual reading order, an amusing confusion to think for just a moment that the front is where the back should be! That soon passes, and one sees a cover that is a strikingly powerful piece of digital art:

under thunderbolts
a string of electric lights
ignites bare branches

Zolo

The poems themselves are compelling, using concise and effective language to draw the reader in deeply. The imagery is highly original and interesting, yet it reflects everyday things. And they strike the reader as genuine realizations.


Some pieces that immediately caught my eye:

The skyscraper in the winter rain
just like a vein

. . . a poem with tremendous movement and scope, and while we rarely use similes or metaphors in English-language haiku, I feel this is completely successful. The comparison of the skyscraper, flowing with light and life in the winter rain, and a vein, is almost like stating a synonym. . . they are profoundly alike, only one is a man-made achievement flowing with the lives of people and business. . . and the other a natural conduit of the life force.


Beams of light are sweet
in the splash of the waterfall

. . . again, a taste of sweet light, a splash of sweet water carrying it to us. . . wondrous interpenetration of forces.


In the desert island
convolvuli
with their mouth open

. . .the paradoxes contained in this poem are almost indescribable. . . to find convolvuli on a desert island, first. . . and then, to find their mouths open, fantastic! From the barren island, the beauty of the convolvuli grows. . . & yet, with open mouths expressing the hunger of the desert
island setting.

In some poems, such as the piece above, the translations have a slightly off-grammar appeal, something I find charming in a translation, and which somehow enhances the unusual qualities of the images with a syntax that lends a rather exotic tone to the poems. I find this far more acceptable in the exchange of languages than translations that become too deeply interpretive.


What part of my body,
I wonder,
is a jellyfish

. . .wonderful humor, and a deep realization, all the evolution of man is contained within this rhetorical question.


It seems to be still another room
deep in the azuki-bean jelly

. . .again, marvelous, we are immediately transported to "another room", directly in the metaphysical world of interconnected realities from the mundane glimpse within the shimmer of azuki-bean jelly!


A nuclear power plant
beyond a road mirage

. . .breathtaking! Amazing imagery and juxtaposition. The fusion of natural elements to create a "road mirage" waving before the stark reality of the "power plant". . . the suggestion, really, almost more than we can speak about!


The summer clouds;
I'm falling into a doze
on the toilet seat

. . .great humor! Vivid, and real. Fine English-language haiku.


The auroral dawn
is treasured
in the oyster

. . .simply beautiful, the language in perfect keeping with the context, and an epiphany in unity.


These are just a few samples that jumped out at me at once, and there are so many more to contemplate and enjoy!

In a letter, Takatoshi said to me:

"You know, I am very interested in the supernatural beyond the language.
Beyond the language we may catch a glimpse of the truth and the existence of myself. I believe that Haiku holds a unique position and bring us another world through "Kire" which is a device developed by Basho Matsuo. Polyphony rising from monophony in "Kire" is the core of Haiku, I guess."

And I guess that this is a book many haiku poets will want to read, for Takatoshi Gotoh approaches the haiku with discipline and humor, always with an eye open to a broader sensibility, and as a philosophical tool, an instrument that opens doors to an elastic dimension.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/haijinx-wire/message/10


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一九九九年の破魔矢かな
senkyuuhyaku kyuujuunen no hamaya kana

a lucky arrow
for the year nineteenhundred
ninety nine

Goto Takatoshi (Gotoo) 五島高資
Numbers in Haiku

Tr. Gabi Greve


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Japanese Reference

五島高資


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***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　

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Mitsuhashi Takajo

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Mitsuhashi Takajo 三橋鷹女

(1899-1972) 明治32年12月24日～昭和47年4月7日



She was born in Narita City, close to Tokyo, on December 24, 1899.
She wrote very individualistic haiku and was full of talent, imagination and vitality, but later experienced loneliness in her old age.

She is one of the four famous T in the Haiku world

Nakamura Teijo 中村汀女
Hashimoto Takako 橋本多佳子
Hoshino Tatsuko 星野立子

There name literally means "hawk woman".


Haiku Group: The SWING
Yusahari Kukai 「ゆさはり句会」
Founded by Mitsuhashi Takajo in Narita.



Bronze Statue in Narita



Japanese Reference

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老いながら椿となつて踊りけり
oinagara tsubaki to natte odorikeri

as I get older
I will become a camellia
and dance and dance



秋の蝶です　いつぽんの留針です
aki no choo desu ippon no tomebari desu

I am an autumn butterfly
I am just one pin

Tr. Gabi Greve

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moyuru ma ga inochi onna to toogarashi

the life for flame
Woman
And a red pepper


白露や死んでゆく日も帯締めて　

White dew
My dying day
Tie an obi


この樹登らば鬼女となるべし夕紅葉

Climb up the tree
I will become a demon
Evening red leaves


Call a snow
the other side is white
Living flatfish



Everything is dream
edelweiss bloom isn`t it?



shuusen wa kogu mono ai uaubau mono


Compiled by Etsuko Yanagibori


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Back in 1964, Blyth, in his History of Haiku, identified Takako as
"the chief woman writer of haiku in Japan."

Ueda quotes her as saying,
"To write a haiku is to remove a scale. Doing so is proof that we are alive."

Two translations by Ueda:


moyuru ma ga inochi onna to toogarashi

their lives last
only while aflame--
a woman and a pepper pod


kono ki nobonaba kijo to naru beshi yuumomiji

climb this tree
and you'll be a she-devil--
red leaves in the sunset glow


千の虫鳴く一匹の狂ひ鳴き　
sen no mushi naku ippiki no kuruinaki

among thousands
of singing insects, one
singing out of tune

Compiled by Larry Bole



Hiroaki Sato
led a translating workshop at the HSA Metro Northeast Regional meeting on June 20, 2009, in New York City, at the Tenri Institute.

Niji kiete shimaeba kaeru hitozuma ni

Keshi chitte kokoro ni daku wa tori-kemono

Yuki o yobu katami no shiroki iki-garei

Manjushage sakeri ikusa no ba o omou
Tsuwamono no inochi wa kenuru manjushage

Bakugekiki ni noritashi tsuyu no mishin fumeri

Aware waga ite kareshi koe ga mono ieri

. Larry Bole discussing the workshop 　



MORE
Explicating the Haiku of Mitsuhashi Takajo
by Hiroaki Sato, New York
Frogpond, March 2009
Haiku Society of America


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her haiku about

. terifuri-gasa 照り降り傘 umbrella for rain and shine .


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雪をよぶ 片身の白き生き鰈
yuki o yobu katami no shiroki iki-garei


I think she is talking about the ikizukuri, the preparing of sashimi with a live fish, its white meat mounted on one side. The outside skin of a flatfish or flounder is usually brown.




foreboding snow . . .
the white flesh
of a live flounder



. WASHOKU
Ikizukuri, live sashimi いきづくり (生き作り／活き作り) 　


. WASHOKU
Dishes with flounder, sole, flatfish 　




賛美歌や足長くらげ掌にとろけ
sambika ya ashinaga kurage te ni toroke

this hymn -
a jelly fish with long legs
melts in my palm


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Avant Garde poetry of Mitsuhashi Takajo:

up on a hydro pole
the electrician turns
into a cicada

Haiku by Japanese Women
Translated by: MAKOTO UEDA

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The hair ornament of the sun
has sunk
into the legendary sea.

... www.tapsns.com


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天道虫天の密書を翅裏に
tentomushi ten no missho o hane ura ni

this ladybird
(it carries) a secret letter from the sky
under its wings


. Ladybird (tentoomushi 天道虫).

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曼珠沙華　Manjushage - kigo for autumn
a symbol for death, the "red flower" 赤い花 / 死人花 / 天蓋花

曼珠沙華うしろ向いても曼珠沙華
manjushage ushiro muite mo manjushage

manjushage flowers
if I turn back
manjushage flowers

曼珠沙華咲けりいくさの場を思ふ
manjushage sakeri ikusa no ba o omou

曼珠沙華咲いてまつくれなゐの秋

tsuwamono no inochi wa kenuru manjushage


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When I break off the manjushage,
look — fire burns in my hands.
- tr. ? -

Haiku by Hashimoto Takako, 1899-1963

- source : www.mythicmaps.net


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Here Haiku in Japanese

夏痩せて嫌ひなものは嫌ひなり　（『向日葵』昭和15） ・

ひるがほに電流かよひゐはせぬか　（『向日葵』昭和15） ・

みんな夢雪割草が咲いたのね　（『向日葵』昭和15）※1 ・

この樹登らば鬼女となるべし夕紅葉　（『魚の鰭』昭和16） ・

白露や死んでゆく日も帯締めて　（『白骨』昭和27） ・

鞦韆(しうせん)は漕ぐべし愛は奪ふべし　（『白骨』昭和27）

老いながら椿となつて踊りけり　（『白骨』昭和27） ・

秋の蝶です　いつぽんの留針です　（『羊歯地獄』昭和36） ・

薄氷へわが影ゆきて溺死せり　（『羊歯地獄』昭和36） ・

千の虫鳴く一匹の狂ひ鳴き　（『三橋鷹女全句集』昭和51）

collected by: 　uraaozora.jpn.org

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Woman Poets of Japan
Two of her haiku

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The Haiku World was at one time almost solely a man's province. Thank God that's over. Though I don't know about America, according to Makoto Ueda, 70% of modern day Japan's haiku writing population are women.
To say the land of the rising sun was not supportive of women's participation back in the early days would be an understatement to say the least.

Read more here

Women Who Kill (and the men who love them)


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Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　


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Shushiki

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Shushiki (Shuushiki 秋色)
"Autumn colors"

(1668-1725)
寛文九酉年－享保十年四月十九日（一説に四月十九日）
（一六六九－一七二五）


She was the daughter of a rice cake and sweets maker.
Her husband was Kangyoku 寒玉（かんぎょく）, a pupil of haiku poet Enomoto Kikaku 榎本其角. After her marriage, she tried several jobs, even cooking cheap rice meals for passers by (kendonya 倹飩屋（けんどんや). Kikaku, who loved rice wine, came by her shop often.


Her Work

お秋の酒句: Ricewine Haiku by O-Aki
秋色桜おまえもか

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The following was compiled by Larry Bole


Blyth about Shuushiki :

Shuushiki, ... was the wife of Kangyoku, ... a haiku poet.
From an early age she became a pupil of Kikaku, and was famous for her verses, but most are ridiculously sentimental like the following:


雉の尾のやさしくさはる菫かな
kiji no o no yasashiku sawaru sumire kana

The pheasant's tail
Touches the violets
Softly.

[Blyth says] The next is all right:


しみじみと子は肌へつくみぞれ哉
shimi-jimi to ko wa hada ni tsuku mizore kana

Pressing the child
Closely to my body,
Sleet falling.

The Japanese is much better than the translation 'shimi-jimi' means intensely.


親も子も同じふとんや別れ霜
oya mo ko mo onaji futon ya wakare-jimo

Parent and child
Under the same quilt;
The frost of parting.

This was written upon the death of Kikaku's younger daughter, a year before his own death. Kikaku himself had written:

shimo no tsuru tsuchi ni futon mo kakerarezu

A crane in the frost;
Even on the earth
I cannot lay a quilt.
[end of Blyth excerpt]


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Ume Shuushiki (or Oaki or Ogawa Shushiki) has been mentioned before regarding haiku stones.

Here is some information about a haiku stone which has a haiku by Shuushiki on it:

井戸ばたの桜あぶなし酒の酔
idobata no sakura abunashi sake no yoi

jeopardized
by drunkards
the cherry tree at the well
trans. Ad G. Blankestijn

Other translations of this haiku:

be careful be careful!
of the cherry tree by the well
you're drunk with sake
translator's name not available


The cherry by the well is dangerous for one drunken on wine
trans. Hiroaki Sato,
in The Classic Tradition of Haiku: An Anthology,
edited by Faubion Bowers

Bowers' Comment:
Is the drunk man in danger of crashing into the fragile flowering tree, or might he fall down the well?

Blankestijn's comment:
Ueno was and still is famous for its cherry blossoms. The inhabitants of the city turn out in large numbers at blossom-viewing time, so that a visit to the park has more the character of 'people-viewing.' Groups sit under the trees, showered upon by the falling blossoms. People eat and, especially, drink, and the sake is responsible for quite a hilarious atmosphere. This despite the fact that in the Edo- period Ueno was the site of solemn Kaneiji, the funerary temple of the Tokugawa.

Interestingly, there is a connection between temple and cherry trees:
the trees were planted by the third shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604-1651), in commemoration of Tenkai, the priest who had established Kaneiji. The trees were brought from the famous cherry blossom viewing area of Yoshino, in present-day Nara Prefecture.

Jolliness is not always good for tender blossoms and slender trees.
This was already noted by Oaki, the 13 year-old daughter of a sweet shop in Nihonbashi, who wrote haiku under the literary name of 'Shushiki.' The poem, written in the Genroku area (1688-1704), became famous in the whole city. Oaki was a pupil of Kikaku, who in his turn had studied under Basho.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~daikoku/haiku/meguri/kuhi-4.htm


Because of the haiku that Shuushiki wrote about the cherry tree by the well, a story began to be told about her that made her famous as an example of filial piety.


Here is a version of the story, from a site where it explains an ukiyo-e print by Yoshitoshi Tsukioka (the print is shown on the site):

Ome Shushiki (1668-1725) was a student of Kikaku, a disciple of Basho, who made her name as a haiku poet at age thirteen, when she wrote a poem about the cherry blossoms at a temple and fastened it to the branch of a tree. Apparently, the abbot read the poem and was impressed enough to provide her with a litter in which to ride home. The story began its life when word got around that she allowed her father to use the litter while she walked. Eventually, the tale became that her father was an aged litter bearer with whom his daughter lived her life, taking the best care of him and studying poetry as she could make time.
It is that version that is illustrated here.

© http://www.sinister-designs.com/


More about this print:

"Honcho chuko kagami"
"A mirror of filial Piety in Japan"

Jinbei, aged 60 was a palanguin bearer, living with his daughter at Toshima-gun in Edo. His daughter was always dutiful to him and learned poems by herself. She became a master of making poems and was called Shushiki. The cherry blossoms at the Toeizan Temple are called
Shushiki.
http://www.kotobuki.de/Obj2.aspx?Size=1&ObjID=1775

And here is a site featuring another ukiyo-e print about Shuushiki, done by Utagawa, Kuniyoshi ("Shushiki the poetress wearing her father's overcoat in a shower of rain. From the series Stories of Remarkable Persons of Loyalty and High Reputation."):

© http://www.robynbuntin.com/

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A kodan story 講談 - Shuushiki Sakura 秋色桜, tells about Shushiki, who observed a drunkard near Kiyomizu temple in Ueno, almost falling down the deep cliff, wrote her haiku and tied it to the tree, as it was custom a that time. A monk took off all the poems and brought them to the head priest, who in turn was taken by this observation of Shushiki. Thus she became even more famous.

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


Shuushiki is described as either the "wife of a cookie-shop owner" (according to Faubion Bowers) or else as being "born into a family with a cake-baking business" (according to Yoel Hoffmann, who goes on to say, "She married into a family which dealt in antiques and second-hand goods.")

Either way, apparently the bakery business still exists. Here is some information about it and its relationship to Shuushiki:

"Our business was established toward the end of the 17th century and ownership has passed from father to son for 17 generations. Our founder was originally from Osaka, but moved to Edo (present day Tokyo) in the service of a noble and opened a shop in Nihonbashi.
Eventually we moved to our present location in Mita in front of Keio University.
Several ancient texts note that the famous woman haiku poet, Shushiki, was born in our family, and so we have named our most famous confectionery after her--our "Shushiki monaka 秋色もなか".
A monaka consists of a sweet-flavored paste enclosed in a thin wafer shell, and Shushiki monaka was the first in Japan to come in three different flavors--chestnut, brown sugar and bean. "

©http://www.norenkai.net/



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Here is another translation of a poem for which I gave an earlier translation by Blyth:

kiji no o no yasashiku sawaru sumire kana

A pheasant's tail
very gently brushes
the violets
trans. Stephen Addiss

Addiss says of Shuushiki:
Shuushiki's poems became famous for their gentle and humane observations of everyday life.

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

Robin Gill, who calls her Shuushoku in the index to his book, "Cherry Blossom Epiphany," translates several of her haiku:

idobata no sakura abunashi sake no yoi

the cherry tree
by the well is dangerous
drunken men

beware the cherry
by the well, you people
drunk on sake

An excerpt from Gill's comment:
This 'ku', holding its punch for the last 5 syllabets, may be a bit too cleverly crafted to have been made up by the poetess at age thirteen, as legend has it. A less interesting but equally true
poem: "To the tipsy / danger lurks in the low / cherry branch" ...'namayoi ni abunashi hana no sagari-eda' (karai 1782).
[end of excerpt]


Here are the rest of Shushiki's haiku related to cherry blossoms that Gill translates:

somo ware wa kane ni younaki sakura kana

yes, for me
bells are of no use
in cherry-time

if you ask me
bells have no place here
with the blossoms

no, not for us!
we cherries have no need
for tembple bells

Gill's comment:
The bold tone of the 'ku' is superb. But, does the poet mean regular time-keeping is not needed in magical cherry-time? Or, does she find sensation enough without the addition of bells, or desire silence?
Shuushoku may be glossing Kikaku's 'ku'*, for she was his student (and became the head of his school upon his death). Or, is there a moral angle? The bells sound from temples and, as we will see, bells in Buddhism (as well as Catholicism) could carry catechism.
Cherry blossoms, ready to pass away as soon as they bloom hardly needed it, and people partying in the evernow of the bloomshade needed it even less. And, finally, could she have intended a 'woman blossom identity' posited in my last reading?
[end of comment]

* Kikaku's haiku made reference to:

kane kakete shikamo sakari no sakura kana

[Kikaku's headnote] 'at ueno's shimizu pavillion'

the bell hung
and the cherries, too
in full bloom!

the huge bell
and cherries to boot
in full bloom

Gill's comment:
Kikaku's most famous bell 'ku' is: "Edo spring / not a day a bell / is not sold" (...'kane hitotsu urenu hi wa nashi edo no haru').
In that 'ku', spring means the New Year season, the time to note the portentious and celebrate prosperity. With one huge bell per temple, it suggests a new temple built every day. 'Think of the peeling of those bells as the urban equivalent to the squealing of mice multiplied by a bountiful harvest'.

It also reflects the fact that Edo, unlike the other cities, allowed more than one temple to use large bells... . Japanese 'kane' were shaped somewhat like ours but, lacking clappers, were pounded from without. I first forced an unlikely reading of 'kakete' to come up with 'Booming bells / as if cherries in full bloom / need priming!' But, hung from the roof of a platform only ten feet or so above the ground, as will be explained later, the bell would be visible against the blossoms, unlike the case with those high up in belfries. In that 'enough'? Be that as it may, some poets did address the noise
[here the comment leads into Shushiki's above-quoted haiku]

hana no iro wa uba ni hanareyo sakuramachi

blossom color?
forget about wet-nurses &
see cherry-town!

real blossoms?
leave your nurse and go
to cherry-town

Gill's comment:
I first thought a young man was being advised by his dad that it was time to gain his first experience in the red-light district. Cherry-town ('sakura-machi') was a pleasure quarter less expensive than the more famous Yoshiwara. But the 'ku' would seem to be by a well-known female poet. Is she suggesting that women go to that part of town to see what is what?
[end of comment]

WKD : The Bells of Edo

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According to Carole MacRury, in an essay in Simply Haiku, Shuushiki is "one of the few female haiku poets to write a death poem" (although how she knows that fact she doesn't say).
http://www.simplyhaiku.com/SHv2n4/documents/MacRury_deathpoems.doc


Here is Shuushiki's death poem, with several translations:



見し夢のさめても色の燕子花
mishi yume no samete mo iro no kakitsubata

Waking from my dream,
What a colour
Were the iris flowers!
trans. Blyth

Blyth's comment:
Perhaps 'iro' here also means the pleasures of the senses, the colour of our dream of a life.

Even after waking
From the dream
I'll see the colors of irises.
trans. Alex Kerr,
in The Classic Tradition of Haiku, edited by Faubion Bowers

Bowers' comment:
This was Shuushiki's death poem, meaning that when she awakens from "life's dream" she will see radiant irises. 'Kakitsubata' or rabbit-eared iris, is another five-syllable word favored in haiku. The intensely purple petals were used as dye-stuff, their color being associated with young girls. ...

I wake and find
the colored iris
I saw in my dream.
trans. Yoel Hoffmann

An excerpt from Hoffmann's comment:
Shushiki's poem reflects a viewpoint of the Mahayana branch of Buddhism, of which Sino-Japanese Buddhism is a part, as opposed to that of the older Theravada branch. ...the world of phenomenon [is] called "color" in Buddhist literature... In Shushiki's poem, she awakens from the dream world of colored irises into the world of truth, and there, too, irises are found.

The iris ('kakitsubata') grows beside lakes and marshes to a height of fifty to seventy centimeters. The wild iris blooms in May and June with deep purple flowers; the flowers of the domesticated variety may be white as well.
[end of comment]



According to Hoffmann, Shuushiki "died on the fifteenth day of the fourth month, 1725, at the age of fifty-seven."



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Japanese Reference

秋色　寒玉


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Related words


mishi yume no samete mo iro no kakitsubata
Is this a
one line sentence in Japanese ?
Discussion of the translation.


***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　

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Kuroda Momoko

[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO TOP . ]
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Kuroda Momoko 黒田杏子

born 1938 　in Tochigi perfecture.
Became a haiku student of Yamaguchi Seishi in 1970.
Received various prizes as a haiku poet.
Leader of the group "Aoi Haiku Kai" 　藍生（あおい）俳句会　in Tokyo.
黒田桃子　くろだももこ

藍生俳句会 in Japanese only

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Quotes from Larry Bole :

I have just started reading a book,
"The Haiku Apprentice: Memoirs of Writing Poetry in Japan," by Abigail Friedman (Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley, CA, USA, 2006).

I am copying out exerpts by hand for "educational purposes."
I encourage people to support the author by purchasing her book, or getting their local library to purchase it.


Ms. Friedman first came to Japan with her husband, an English teacher, because he had dreamed from childhood of experiencing Japan. She gave up a fledgling law practice to go with him. While there, she decided to apply to the U.S. Foreign Service, having already passed the exam. After becoming a diplomat with postings in different parts of the world, including Japan, she ended up back in Japan, with the North Korea portfolio.

Ms. Friedman explains how she got involved with writing haiku. Giving a speech, she was introduced as someone who wrote haiku. She didn't at that time, but she had memorized (!) several haiku from reading Blyth's books, and so she recited them extemporaneously.

She was then invited to join a haiku group, for which the sensei is Momoko Kuroda. I have just read the part of the book where she attends her first meeting, held at Goyootei, a summer retreat donated to the public by the Imperial Family after WWII.

Momoko Kuroda is one of the women haijin featured in Makoto Ueda's book, "Far Beyond the Field: Haiku by Japanese Women." In fact, it is a haiku by Ms. Kuroda which provides the title of Ueda's book:

inazuma no ryokushuu o abu no no hate ni

a lightning flash
soaked in green glaze
far beyond the field

Kuroda, trans. Ueda

Ms. Friedman quotes much good advice from Ms. Kuroda about writing haiku, which I will relay here, if no one minds, as future time permits.

For now, here is some advice from Ms. Kuroda which Ueda relays in his introduction to her in his book:

"Compose many haiku and throw away many" is Kuroda Momoko's advice to beginners. "In the process, you will discover the true state of your mind. If you start writing haiku, compose a lot of them"--as many as five a day. Make your first haiku the starting point for the others. Then you can be the first to choose which one comes closest to what you want to express. The rest can be thrown away without reluctance.
[end of exerpt]


[The quotes are from Kuroda's book, "Kyoo kara hajimeru haiku," 132.]

In the text of the book, the remarks attributed to Momoko Kuroda are in italics. I'm not sure if this represents an actual record of what she said, or if it is a paraphrase based on notes and memory. But I assume they were approved by Ms. Kuroda as they appear in the book.

When Abigail Friedman first meets Mokoto Kuroda in a large room at Gyootei, she is struck by Ms. Kuroda's appearance. She describes Ms. Kuroda as "an exotic woman in her sixties... Her salt-and-pepper hair was cropped like a schoolgirl's--bangs straight across her forehead and then falling in an even cut about an inch above her shoulders, framing a deeply wrinkled, peaceful face. She smiled at us as she entered, and more deep creases broke forth around her eyes.

She wore an unusual outfit, which appeared to be a modern variation on the traditional Japanese 'samue 作務衣（さむえ） '-- a cotton wraparound blouse with loose, matching, calf-length pants. Our haiku master's version of the 'samue' was deep indigo, with white stitching in traditional Japanese geometric patterns. I have never seen anyone in Japan dress like her, before or since."
CLICK to look at Samu-E !


Then Momoko gives some advice to the first-timers in the group.

"If this is your first time, do not worry, I am sure you will do just fine. The most important thing for you today is not to think about whether your haiku is 'good enough.'

"Don't try to write a haiku that is 'like Basho's' or 'like Issa's.'

"Work on developing a haiku that truly reflects you. If you can write a haiku that expresses you, then you are writing a good haiku.

"My job is not to judge whether you have written well or poorly, but to help you write a haiku that is true to yourself.


"We can each write haiku because we each have a soul. Every soul is equal in a haiku group, and there is room in a haiku group for every soul.


"By listening to the haiku of others, you will learn about yourself and your haiku. And others in turn will learn about themselves through your haiku."


At the close of the meeting, Ms. Kuroda made a final comment.

"It is wonderful to write haiku alone, to contemplate it, to read and reread it, and to polish it in private. We can learn a lot about our writing doing this. Yet joining with others and sharing haiku is an essential part of the haiku experience. Think about what a haiku represents.
This small chalice of only seventeen sounds is, in truth, an expression of the nature of your heart and soul. There is something magical about sharing this piece of yourself with friends who have gathered together to read haiku aloud."

However, it's worth pointing out that of the approximately 150 haiku the group produced at the meeting (most participants actually brought haiku they had prepared in advance), "Momoko read [aloud], commented on, and praised about 40 of them." So it seems some haiku are, after all, more equal than others.

ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo


About KIGO

Here is one exchange from the book about kigo. Ms. Friedman starts out by writing:

In flipping through her (Kuroda's) pocket seasonal dictionary [saijiki], I noticed that some animals were listed and others were not. Frog was listed as a spring seasonal word, and rabbit was listed as a winter seasonal word. But rat was not listed. I asked Momoko what I should do if a word is not in the 'saijiki'.

"Well of course you can still write a haiku about an animal that is not listed-- just use another word in the haiku as the season word," she answered. ...

"And what if you are in Hokkaido in the middle of a snowstorm but the season is actually fall?" I asked. Momoko seemed not bothered in the least by all my questions.

"Your question makes sense. There are regional variations. For example, cherry blossom is a spring season word but in Okinawa to the south, cherry trees bloom before spring. In Hokkaido to the north, cherry trees might not bloom until June or July!"

Momoko explained that during the Edo period, from the mid-seventeenth through the mid-nineteenth centuries, 'saijiki' were based on the seasons, foods, and customs of Kyoto. Later 'saijiki' began to reflect the seasons as they appear in Tokyo. Momoko told me there was a movement underway to decentralize and create regional and local 'saijiki', precisely because of the problem I had pointed out.

"There are other challenges in deciding what season a word might fall under," she continued. "A tomato is a summer kigo, but nowadays tomatoes are grown in greenhouses or flown in from other parts of the world year round. Should tomato remain a summer seasonal word? Should it be dropped from the 'saijiki'?" Momoko said the consensus among haiku poets was that the summer tomato tastes best and is the archetype, so it has been retained as a summer kigo.

[snip]

"Do you know the true power of a seasonal word? [Momoko continued]
These words do not belong to the author of the poem, they do not belong to Basho or Issa or Kyorai. They belong to us.
Seasonal words are our (Japanese) national treasures.
They are like jewels, polished and made more precious by time.
Some seasonal words have been in use since the Edo period.
When we pick up one of these jewels and use it in a haiku, it is rich with history.
They are the shared consciousness of our (Japanese) people.
They capture the essence of Japanese life."


Momoko was bringing it back to national identity and history. She took the pad of paper and wrote:

kirishigure fuji o minu hi zo omoshiroki

a misty shower
I can't see Mount Fuji
delightful days!

Basho [trans. Friedman]


"Basho uses the term 'kirishigure' [autumn: mist (kiri*)], or 'misty shower', as five sounds of his seventeen-sound haiku. Even so, this term is not considered his alone. We are all welcome to use this phrase. When you write a poem using the seasonal word 'misty shower', you are connecting yourself back hundreds of years to the era of Basho. His spirit comes alive again in your haiku. Seasonal words unify people, not only in the present but also with the past."
[end of exerpt]


* I am using the seasonal word reference for the Basho haiku which is found in David Landis Barnhill's book, "Basho's Haiku." In a glossary note for 'kiri', Barnhill writes:

kiri: mist. Traditionally mist ('kiri') is associated with autumn,
while haze ('kasumi', 'usugasumi'...) is a spring phenomenon.
IT IS UNCERTAIN WHETHER 'KASUMI' AND 'KIRI' ARE REALLY DIFFERENT PHENOMENA OTHER THAN THEIR SEASONAL ASSOCIATIONS.
[emphasis added]


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Momoko Sensei about TENSAKU, polishing and correcting haiku


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鑑真忌　青葉に沁みる　朝の鐘
Ganjin ki aoba ni shimiru asa no kane

Ganjin Memorial Day -
the morning bells reverberate
in the green leaves
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

Ganjin Memorial Day, Ganjin Ki 鑑真忌 and Haiku

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能面のくだけて月の港かな
noomen no / kudakete tsuki no / minato kana

Shattered Noh mask
the moon-filled harbor



　 白葱のひかりの棒をいま刻む
Shironegi no / hikari no boh wo / ima kizamu

Now cutting
its brightness
a white leek



　 那珂川のことしは寒き鮎のかほ
Nakagawa no / kotoshi wa samuki / ayu no kao

This summer,
cold the Naka River
cold the faces of ayu fish



　 寒牡丹大往生のあしたかな
Kanbotan / dai-ohjoh no /ashita kana

This morning
the winter peonies
die a peaceful death


　 -Anthology of Contemporary Japanese Haiku-
Published by the Modern HAIKU Association


Momoko Kuroda :
Haiku in English, German and Italian



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この暗き海鳴の町日記買ふ　
kono kuraki uminari no machi nikki kau

this dark town
where the sea roars so loud -
I buy a diary　

. Diary (nikki) and Haiku 　　


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English Reference

Japanese Reference


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Related words


SENSEI, Japanese Haiku Teachers


***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　


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Sakurai Baishitsu

[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO TOP . ]

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Sakurai Baishitsu 桜井梅室


桜井 梅室 （ さくらい ばいしつ ）
（1769-1852）

He was born in Kaga, Kanazawa, now Ishikawa prefecture.
His real name was Yoshimichi 能充.
He was a student of Takakuwa Rankoo 高桑闌更(たかくわらんこう).
He also took the haiku name of 雪雄 and later Soshin 素芯（そしん）.
In 1800 he moved to the hermitage Kaian 槐庵 in Kanazawa and in the next spring, he published a Haikai Book, called "Saru no men" さるのめん.

His father Shinkuroo was the sword sharpener of the lord, 刀研師桜井新九郎.
In 1804 he passed the family trade to his brother and moved on to Kyoto in 1807, then to Osaka and in 1823 he moved to Edo. He died in Kyoto on October first at the age of 84.

He has published other books, for example

梅室附合集
梅室家集
方円俳諧集
梅林茶談

. . . CLICK here for Photos !

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Blyth about the time between Issa and Shiki :

"We come now to the lowest point in the history of haiku, the period between Issa and Shiki. Shiki was born in 1856, and Issa died in 1827, so that this time is about the fifty years between 1827 and 1877.

The poets of this period, Baishitsu, Sookyuu, Hooroo, Rangai and the rest of them, are known as 'tsukinami' poets, because they usually met each month and composed verses irrespective of inspiration, mechanically and mitatively.

source : Blyth

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つばき落ち鶏鳴き椿また落ちる
tsubaki ochi tori naki tsubaki mata ochiru

a camellia falls
the cock crows and again
a camellia falls




ふゆの夜や針うしなうておそろしき
fuyu no yo ya hari ushinoote osoroshiki

winter night -
I lost the needle,
how dangerous



元日や人の妻子の美しき


門ありて国分寺はなし草の花

Tr. Gabi Greve

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BACK TO

Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets

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Ichihara Tayo-Jo

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Ichihara Tayo-Jo 市原多代女 / 市原たよ女

1776 - 1865, born in the year Anei 5 安永5年



She was born as a daughter of a traditional ricewine-brewing family, with seven siblings in the happy home. Her parents instructed her in the good behaviour of her times.
Her father was Yoshitsuna 寿綱, her mother was Taka たか.

When she was 31 years, her busband, Arioka 有綱 died suddenly. She had to take care of the family business and three children. Because of all this hardship, she finally fell ill.

A haiku poet who lived close by, Ishii Ukoo 石井雨孝, introduced her to the pleasures of writing haiku. She gained her health back soon and wrote haiku to her old age of 90 years. She even travelled alone to Edo at age 48 to study about haiku and was quite emancipated for a woman of the feudal ages. Her travel record is "Edo Nobori 江戸上り" .

Her most important collection is 浅香市集.

Some of her poems are even printed in school books.



© PHOTO city.sukagawa.fukushima.jp


She was an ardid admirer of Matsuo Basho.
When she was 80 years old, she had a haiku stone memorial erected at temple Juunen-Ji 十念寺 with this famous haiku by Basho, when he passed Sukagawa on his travels to the Far North:

風流の初めや奥の田植えうた
fuuryuu no hajime ya Oku no taue uta



The first poetic venture
I came across --
The rice planting-songs
Of the far north.
Tr. Nobuyuki Yuasa


The beginning of all art:
a song when planting a rice field
in the country's inmost part.
Tr. Henderson


jetzt wirds langsam poetisch ...
das Lied der Reispflanzer
von den Nordprovinzen

. WKD : Gabi Greve : Haiku from Tohoku .


(This hokku has the cut marker YA in the middle of line 2.)
Rice planting hokku by
. Matsuo Basho - Archives of the WKD .


. fuuryuu, fûryû 風流 and fuuga, fûga 風雅 elegance .


. WKD : planting rice in the paddies, taue 田植 .


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Blyth about Tayo-Jo

"Tayo-jo, 1772-1865, was the wife of a certain Muranaga and learned haikai at first from Michihiko, then from Otsuni. She went to Edo in 1823."


yuku mo kuru mo mina harukaze no tsutsumi kana

People coming, people going,
It is all the spring wind
Along the embankment.



sorezore ni na mo arige nari moyuru kusa

Each must have its name,
The green-burning
Grasses.



chinchooge yoru mo kakurenu nioi kana

The 'chinchooge'
Cannot be hid, even at night,--
The fragrance!

"The 'chinchooge' is a flowering bush, ith an extremely strong, sweet smell."
WKD : Daphne (jinchooge)



kakururumo subayaki kiji ya kusa no kaze

A pheasant
Has rushed into cover?
Wind in the grasses.



ikisugite ware mo samui zo fuyu no hae

Living too long,
I too am cold,
O winter fly!

"A verse which sounds like her death-poem; she died at the age of ninety three."


....................... After the entry on Tayo-jo Blyth writes:

"We come now to the lowest point in the history of haiku, the period between Issa and Shiki. Shiki was born in 1856, and Issa died in 1827, so this time is about the fifty years between 1827 and 1877."


.....

zen-doki o oboete kuru ya suzume no ko

Here come the young sparrows!
They seem to have learned
When meal-time is.

Tr. Blyth


They have learned
to visit at mealtimes--
baby sparrows

Tr. Stephen Addiss


....................... Addiss writes of Tayo-jo:

"Tayo (1776-1865)
A haiku pupil of doctor and poet Michihiko (1757-1819), Tayo moved to Edo in 1823, where she lived as a haiku master until the age of ninety. Her two sons also became good haiku poets."


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shira-sagi no nakazuba yuki no hito maroge

The white heron -
if it were not for its cry,
it would be rounded-snow.
Tr. Hugh Bygott


if the white heron
didn't cry　...　just a large
snowball

tr. William J. Higginson
http://handh-fromherepress.home.att.net/scrapbook_bd/contents.html



Here is a similar hokku by Chiyo-ni　千代尼　:

声なくば鷺うしなはむ今朝の雪　
koe nakuba sagi ushinawan kesa no yuki

but for their voices
the herons would disappear--
this morning's snow

trans. Patricia Donegan and Yoshie Ishibashi



"Herons in the snow"
Koson Ohara (1877-1945)

Click for more Heron kigo.


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日のさすや杉間に見ゆるからす瓜
hi no sasu ya sugima ni miyuru karasu uri

sunrays -
between the pines we see
snake gourds

Tr. Gabi Greve
QUOTE from saijikoyomi


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Tayo-Jo wrote this haiku shortly before her death


終に行く　道はいづくぞ　花の雲
tsui ni yuku michi wa izuku zo hana no kumo

where is it,
this final road ?
clouds of cherry blossoms

Tr. Gabi Greve


Temple Juunen-Ji 十念寺
©　PHOTO kaido BLOG 遊戯人


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Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　



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Buson Yosa Buson

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Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村
(1715-1783)

享保元年（1716年） - 天明3年12月25日（1784年1月17日）
Dates for his death year differ.



Yosa Buson, or Yosa no Buson (与謝蕪村, 1716 – December 25, 1784), was a Japanese poet and painter from the Edo period. Along with Matsuo Bashō and Kobayashi Issa, Buson is considered among the greatest poets of the Edo Period. Buson was born in the village of Kema in Settsu Province (now Kema Ward in the city Osaka). His real last name was Taniguchi.

Around the age of 20, Buson moved to Edo (now Tokyo) and learned poetry under the tutelage of the haikai master Hayano Hajin. After Hajin died, Buson moved to Shimo-Usa Province (modern day Ibaraki Prefecture). Following in the footsteps of his idol, Matsuo Bashō, Buson traveled through the wilds of northern Honshū that had been the inspiration for Bashō's famous Oku no Hosomichi (奥の細道 The Narrow Road to the Deep North). Buson published his notes from the trip in 1744, marking the first time he published under the name Buson.

After traveling through other various lands, including Tango (the northern part of modern Kyoto Prefecture) and Sanuki (Kagawa Prefecture in Shikoku), Buson settled down in the city of Kyoto at the age of 42. It is around this time that Buson began to write under the name of Yosa. There is speculation that Buson took this name from his mother's birthplace (Yosa in the province of Tango) but this has not been confirmed.

Buson married at the age of 45 and had one daughter, Kuno. From this point on, Buson stayed in Kyoto, writing and teaching poetry at the Sumiya. In 1770, he assumed the title of Yahantei (夜半亭), which had been the pen name of his teacher Hayano Hajin.

Buson died at the age of 68 and was buried at Konpukuji in Kyoto.

黄昏や萩にいたちの高台寺
tasogare ya hagi ni itachi no Koodaiji

Koudaiji temple;
A weasel in the bush clover
at dusk.
Tr. Blyth


隅々に残る寒さや梅の花
sumizumi ni nokoru samusa ya ume no hana

In nooks and corners
Cold remains:
Flowers of the plum
Tr. Blyth

©　Wikipedia

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. . . BUSON - Cultural Keywords and ABC-List . . .

- AAA - / - BBB - / - CCC - / - DDD - / - EEE -

- FFF - / - GGG - / - HHH - / - I I I - / - JJJ -

- KK KK - / - LLL - / - MMM - / - NNN - / - OOO -

- PPP - / - QQQ - / - RRR - / - SSS - / - TTT -

- UUU - / - VVV - / - WWW - / - XYZ -

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Stamp with painting of Buson

Buson was a famous painter and poet and there is a lot about him on the internet if you google.
Here I will only present discussions that have come up about translations of his haiku.




. Koodaiji 高台寺 Temple Kodai-Ji . Kyoto


. Reference - Books, Articles, external LINKS - .


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Buson (1716-1784) died on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth month according to the old lunar calendar, i.e.,
the sixteenth day of the first month by the solar calendar.
In the solar calendar, year-end is in midwinter. The New Year by the lunar calendar, however, comes at the start of spring, which is one month later than in the solar calendar.
The twenty-fourth day of the twelfth month of Tenmei 3 was actually close to the coming of spring.

Read more about the lunar and solar calendar and the problem of kigo:
source : Time in Saijiki
by Hasegawa Kai


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busonki buson-ki
kigo for late winter

Buson Memorial Day, Buson Ki 蕪村忌 (ぶそんき)
December 25, 1784.
Buson Death Anniversary

Shunsei Ki 春星忌（しゅんせいき）

Buson used the name of "Shunsei" (Spring Star) as a painter during his early years in Kyoto.

蕪村忌や語る人なき苫（とま）のあり
蕪村忌に我が身の末を重ねつつ
蕪村忌に即席麺を食べてみん
蕪村忌や膝に落ちるは露の玉
蕪村忌やクリスマスには影薄し


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Später Frühling –
ich berühre den Stein
auf Busons Grab

©　Angelika Wienert, 2007 / www.Haiku-heute.de




Buson's grave

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Buson teaches his disciples:

Here is what I try to teach my students. I tell them not to follow Master Soa's liberal attitude towards style but to seek out Basho's ideals of sabi and shiori and return to the haikai of olden days.
--- That is the Zen of haikai transmitted from heart to heart. Only those who do not understand this would say I am a wretched sinner who has spurned his master's teachings.

The Path of Flowering Thorn: The Life and Poetry of Yosa Buson
Makoto Ueda
source : books.google.co.jp


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quote
In 18th-century Edo Japan, the study of the Chinese classics was advocated by the Tokugawa shogunate and led to renewed interest in late Ming literary culture. One result was the development of the bunjin, gentleman-scholar, after the Chinese wenren. While the bunjin had to be well versed in the Chinese classics, calligraphy and poetry, painting was considered one of his accomplishments.
The literati school of painting, bunjin-ga, also known as nan-ga, ‘southern school' of Chinese extraction, had a significant following. Its spontaneous brushwork and freedom of expression approached with high poetic content, found favour in the then kamigata area (present-day Kyoto-Osaka region), one of the first receptive to new artistic trends. Half a century earlier, the transition in the 1640s from Ming to Qing China had witnessed a considerable number of disaffected Chinese artisans leaving for Japan. Their entry was facilitated by the opening at the same time - during the Kan'ei era (1624-43) - of the port of Nagasaki to the outside world. Although their influence was limited, some minor Chinese artists managed to slip into the country, including one Shen Nanpin around whom a school in Nagasaki formed.



The opening decades of the 18th century saw some highly individualistic painters call the former capital, Kyoto, home. They included Ito Jakuchu (1713-1800), an avid naturalist, Ike no Taiga (1723-76), noted for unconventional brushwork and Maruyama Okyo (1733-95), known for realism. One bunjin drawn to the poetic tradition was Yosa Buson (1716-1784). He began life as a poet, was a monk and a master of haiku poems in the seventeen-syllable style long before he embarked on a career as a painter. Leading a peripatetic existence before settling in Kyoto, he was identified with the haiga, a genre incorporating the haiku poem and painting, which he perfected into an art form. Conversant too with the haikai, comic verses, he injected a sense of humour from his brush. He then studied the classical styles of the Chinese masters, and inscribed his literati painting with poetry as was fashionable. Experimenting with manifold styles, his work had eclecticism, yet it remained quintessentially Japanese.

MORE
source : www.asianartnewspaper.com

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Compiled by Larry Bole :

おちこちに滝の音聞く若ばかな
ochi kochi no taki no oto kiku wakaba kana
here-and-there waterfall's sound hear young leaves 'kana'

Here and there--listen
to the sound of waterfalls--
young leaves everywhere.
Tr. based on one by Harold Henderson


Here...there...
the sound of waterfalls is heard--
young leaves, everywhere.
Tr. Henderson's original


far and near
the sound of waterfalls
through the young leaves
Tr. Makoto Ueda


Ueda explains that this haiku is an entry in Buson's book, "A New Florilegium" (Shin hanatsumi). This was the result of a project started by Buson in 1777. According to Ueda,
"That summer he [Buson] planned an ambitious project: he would force himself to write ten hokku each day over a span of one hundred days.

The project was modeled on 'gegyoo', a program of intense training undergone by Buddhist monks for one hundred days in summer. Poetic gegyoo had been undertaken before by writers of haikai, notably by Kikaku, one of Sooa's [Buson's teacher; studied under Kikaku and Ransetsu] mentors.

In 1690, in order to commemorate the fourth anniversary of his mother's death, Kikaku wrote one hokku each day for one hundred days and recorded the poems in a volume entitled "A Florilegium" (Hanatsumi). ... Buson planned doing a similar project at a more intense pace. There is no hard evidence to explain why he wanted to do the project at this particular time, but in view of the fact that a gegyoo is usually done in a special anniversary year, it has been speculated that 1777 was the fiftieth anniversary of his mother's death."

According to Ueda, Buson's quoted hokku "suggests an invisible but vigorous force of nature that is carried by water to the roots of the trees. The vastness of the woods is conveyed aurally through the sounds of the waterfalls located at various distances from the poet."

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Ochi-kochi ni Taki no oto kiku Wakaba kana.

Young leaves --
The sound of a waterfall
Heard from far and near.
Tr. ?


Suzushisa ya Kane o hanaruru Kane no koe.

Coolness!
The sound of the bell
Leaving the bell.
Tr. ?


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与謝蕪村画「田楽茶屋 風俗図」
Dengaku Chaya Teahouse
by Painter Buson
（河東碧梧桐『画人蕪村』より）


一軒の茶見世の柳老にけり
いっけんの ちゃみせのやなぎ おいにけり
ikken no chamise no yanagi oi ni keri
in modern Japanese
（訳）一軒の茶店があり、かっての柳も老木になっています。



the willow tree
by the lone teahouse -
it has grown old
Tr. Makoto Ueda


The willow
by the lone teahouse
older now
Tr. Chris Drake

Discussing the translations on PMJS


茶店の老婆子（らうばす）儂（われ）を見て慇懃に無恙（ぶやう）を賀し且（かつ）儂（わ）が春衣を美（ほ）ム
（注）「老婆子」おばあさん、「無恙」つつがないこと。

An old woman looked at the scene and mumbled this to herself, im memory of her own spring.


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五月雨や大河を前に家二軒
samidare ya taiga no mae ni ie niken

monsoon rain: facing the swollen river, houses, two
samidare ya taika o mae ni ie ni ken

Monsoon rain!
Facing the swollen river,
two houses.

Robin D. Gill

Which side of the river? (2006)
A Japanese website that suggests foreigners who cannot pronounce Japanese (which is to say, people who have not mastered the vowels of romance languages, for Japanese is more or less the same) might read this ku as "Some darling yeah, tiger on my knee, year nickel," and explains, with the help of Nifty (a company) on-line translation: "The river which early summer rain fell and continued and rose is flowing. Two houses build in front of the big river. It is the spectacle pushed at any moment." A glimpse at the original Japanese shows the last sentence means that there is a danger lest the houses be carried off at any moment.

Early summer rain --
facing toward the big river,
houses, two of them"
Tr. Sawa and Shiffert

Early summer rain --
houses facing the river,
two of them
Tr. Hess


http://www.simplyhaiku.com/SHv4n2/inContext/inContext.html
and
Look at some visual interpretations here
http://www.paraverse.org/buson_ie_ni_ken.htm


An illustration of colored cloth



芭蕉の「さみだれをあつめて早し最上川」がすぐに連想される。実に立派な芭蕉の絶唱である。
が、蕪村の目の異なるのは心細く岸にたつ家に思いを寄せている点だ、家は一軒でなく寄り添った
二軒という点も思いが深まる。大河は故郷の淀川だろうか。
Maybe the BIG RIVER is the Yodogawa?
source :　www.katazome.com/buson


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- Reference -


haru no kure ieji ni toki hito bakari

In the spring dusk,
distant from the homeward road,
people wandering.
Tr. Sawa, Shiffert


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ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF BASHO

Winter rain on moss
soundlessly recalls those
happy bygone days


In a bitter wind
a solitary monk bends
to words cut in stone.

More Haiku Translations of BUSON - the Green Leaf


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Three Haiku inspired by Buson

in a bitter wind
parched, I brave the storm’s might
to drink rain water

to remember you
quenched on autumn’s solemn truth
I carve words in stone

in fervent prayer
a solitary monk sits
speaking the rain’s truth

[2007.15.4.]
(K.E. inspiration nr 1)
http://www.writing.com/main/books/entry_id/501870


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- September 2014

Buson’s ‘sumi-e’ painting lost for 92 years found in Singapore



- quote
KOKA, Shiga Prefecture
A silk screen “sumi-e” painting by a renowned 18th century Japanese artisan was found more than 5,000 kilometers from home after disappearing 92 years ago.

The Miho Museum here on Sept. 24 announced the rediscovery of “Shoku Sando Zu” (Images of the Shu roads), painted by Edo Period (1603-1867) haiku poet and artist Yosa Buson (1716-1784) in 1778.
The work features massive mountains in the ancient Chinese state of Shu (current Sichuan province) in India ink and paint on a silk screen measuring 167.5 centimeters tall and 98.9 cm wide.
The painting was dubbed “the legendary masterpiece” when it disappeared from public eyes after being included in the art book “Buson Gashu” (Collection of Buson’s works) published in 1922.
In 2011, it was learned that a company in Singapore owned the missing artwork. Upon examination, museum director Nobuo Tsuji and other curators declared the painting an authentic work by Buson.

The museum plans to exhibit “Shoku Sando Zu” in summer 2015.
- source : Asahi Shinbun


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. Buson haiku about LEEK (negi)


. the sickle to cut water rice


. the lady behind the hot spring curtain 　


. Buson at the Aoi Festival 葵祭, Kyoto


. kusa kasumi mizu ni koe naki higure kana .
mist water evening . . .


. shira ume ni akuru yo bakari to nari ni keri .
white plum blossoms at dawn


. kiri hioke mugen no koto no nadegokoro .
paulownia brazier and koto
with a painting of his pupil,
Matsumura Goshun Gekkei
松村呉春 - 松村月渓

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- quote -
212 haikus from Edo period poet Buson found
TENRI, Nara -- Amongst a collection of haikus held by the Tenri Central Library here are 212 previously unknown haikus by the Edo period poet Yosa Buson (1716-1783), announced the library on Oct. 14.

The new discoveries join some 2,900 haikus by Buson that were known. The library says the new collection is called the "Yahantei Buson" haiku collection, and is thought to have previously been kept in the home of the Kyoto disciple of Buson, Teramura Hyakuchi. The collection was described in a 1934 edition of the magazine "Haiku Kenkyu," after which the collection went missing until it was acquired by the library around four years ago from a bookstore.

The collection, divided by season, is organized into two books, one for spring and summer, and one for fall and winter. The collection is thought to have been put together between around 1770 and 1790. After a careful examination of the contents, the new Buson haikus were discovered among the 1,903 haikus contained in the collection. There were 57 new spring haikus by Buson, 35 for summer, 59 for fall and 61 for winter. They also had corrections and writings in black and red thought to have been added by Buson.

One haiku, with "Bakemonodai" (monster topic) written before it, reads, "The umbrella changes form, a moon-lit night with eyes," and may have been created at a haiku gathering themed on monsters. Another haiku reads, "I am surprised by a burned field, flowering grass."

Shinichi Fujita, professor of modern literature at Kansai University and a scholar of Buson, says, "Buson's haikus have been thoroughly studied, and it is amazing that a new collection of his works would appear. If the new works are compared against the many remaining letters of Buson, we may be able to learn when and against what background the haikus were made."
- source : mainichi.jp/english/articles -

蜻吟や眼鏡をかけて飛歩行
kagerō ya menage o kakete tobiaruki

flying around
with his glasses on
a dragonfly


我焼し野に驚くや艸の花
ware yakishi no ni odoroku ya kusa no hana

in my burnt field
the surprise
of grass flowers


傘も化けて目のある月夜哉
kasa mo bakete me no aru tsukiyo kana

my umbrella, too
becomes a one-eyed monster
this moonlit night

(translated by Emiko Miyashita and Michael Dylan Welch)

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My Reference

. Yoshiwake Tairo 吉分大魯 .
A haikai student of Buson


Memorial Days of Famous People
....... A WORLDWIDE SAIJIKI


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Continued here - reference about Buson in the WKD
. Welcome to Buson in Edo 与謝蕪村 ! .


. Edo Haikai and Yosa Buson .



Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　

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