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. - Masaoka Shiki 正岡子規 Introduction - .
- quote
SHIKI: The Discovery of Haiku
In 1868 Japan launched into a civilized society from the feudal age. Western culture had a great effect on it and civilization rapidly developed modern culture.
In the previous year 1867, Masaoka Shiki was born in Matsuyama. His father served the Matsuyama domain in the lower rank of samurai. Shiki lived to be 35 years old and died of tuberculosis of spine in 1902. In his last seven years, he had to be confined to his bed; however, during that time he accomplished three of his great works on modern literature: Haiku Reform, Tanka reform, Advocating Sketch-from-Life-Prose.
1. Shiki's Discovery of Literature
When Shiki was in the fifth grade he composed a Chinese poem.
Under the moonlight, cuckoo cried as if it coughed up blood.
The sad voice kept me waking up,
the cry reminded me of my old home town far away.
(It is said that a Japanese cuckoo, hototogisu , Žq‹K (Shiki) will sing until it coughs out blood because of its sad voice.)
In those days Chinese poetry and prose were considered as important learning and culture, so even young children used to compose them. The interesting thing about this young Shiki's Chinese poem is that he composed on a sad voice of cuckoo which would cough up blood. Later he was to cough out blood and he picked out his pen name, Žq‹K (Shiki) a hototogisu. Shiki wrote about 900 Chinese poems in his life.
At the age of 15, Shiki began to composed tanka with 31 Japanese letters of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables. He composed about 2300 tanka in his life.
2. Interest in Haiku
When he was 18, he became interested in short poems with 15 syllable,haiku, written on portraits. And he liked drawing by nature. He found something in common between drawing and literature when he was 11 years old. The sense of observation helped his sense of appreciation for the haiku on portraits.
Besides, drawing flowers and things around him later became one of his indispensable remedies for his bedridden life.
When he was a college student in Tokyo he sometimes enjoyed word games with his friends. He also like baseball very much. He is said to have introduced baseball to Matsuyama. One of his pen names was '-e‹…',baseball. In this pen name he used a complex bilingual pun. The kanji -e‹… literally means field ball and 'field ball' can be translated into 'no boru' in Japanese. Shiki was called Noboru in his infancy. Noboru was the name by which Shiki's friends and family loved him. In his youth Shiki believed word play was the wit of literature. He once composed a haiku on '-Ý,a green herb rice cake.
green in the field
was pounded into
rice cake
'-Ý a green herb rice cake is made of rice pounded in a mortar with steamed leaves of mugworts. The expression ' green in the field is pound into rice cake' was interesting, but overuses the images.
When he was 22, he coughed out blood. He changed his name to Shiki,which is an another name for the bird a Japanese cuckoo 'hototogisu'. Since those days, he was inspired by his uncle, haiku teacher Ohara Kiju. He began to devote himself into haiku. Shiki composed over 25,500 haiku in his short life. After Ohara Kiju passed away, he began to classify old haiku according to season words. At that time there were several ways of using season words and they were different according to writers. For instance, there were many kinds of 'tofu' : cold tofu, yu-dofu (a simmered hot water tofu), etc. So he began to consider what season each word should express.
3. Haiku as a Sketch of Life
When he was 24, he had 3 day walk around Musashino ( fields around present Warabi-shi and Kumagawa-shi in Saitama Prefecture where there used to be lots of rice paddy fields and forests.) at the end of the year 1891, when he realized that word play would not enough to express the truth and that we should write things as they are. He had an open-eye to haiku for the first time. He composed:
cold winter blast
a cord of a sedge hat
cut into my neck
the sun set behind
a traveling monk
tall in the withered field
Next year in 1892 he went to a hill ,Takao-san in the western suburbs of Tokyo and composed the following haiku:
wheat sowing
the mulberry trees
lift bunched branches
pine and cypress
in a desolate filed
a Fudodo shrine
He wrote a simple haiku from a simple common sight. This was a new experiment and discovery of new material and vision. Then he composed another sketch haiku in 1894.
locusts fly low
over rice paddies
in the dim sun ray
red dragon fly
in the sky of Tsukuba
no cloud
The former haiku has a very close eye to the insects and the latter one expresses a very spacy field with a dragon fly focused.
4. Shiki in Matsuyama
At the age of 28 he returned to Matsuyama and spent over 50 days recuperating from tuberculosis with Soseki Natsume, one of his best friends and a very famous author. Soseki was in Matsuyama as a teacher of English at Matsuyama Middle School. Soseki was living at Gudabutsuan
looking up
what a high pagoda
in the autumn sky
This haiku just has a right direct expression of the great three storied pagoda, soaring to the clear autumn sky.
At Hojoji Temple,where Buddhism Ji-sect founder Saint Ippen was born, he composed:
a gay quarter
just ten steps away
autumn breeze
Just near the temple there used to be a gay quarter.
Also he composed another haiku at Dogo Hot Spring from the building of Dogo hot spring spa, which is very near the temple.
by persimmon trees
surrounded
hot spring
From the 3rd floor of the main building of Dogo hot spring spa, we see the castle to the west, rice paddies beyond and hot spring quarters, where each house had persimmon trees in the yard. They were astringent persimmons. We remove the astringency of persimmons with low-class distilled spirits, 'shochu'. We spray 'shochu' over them until they become sweet, Shiki loved this sweetened persimmons very much. As for his haiku appreciation, that haiku describes only visible scene, and to tell the truth, we may say it is not so good a haiku. Shiki could have eaten up 15 or 16 of the sweetened persimmons at one time. So persimmon trees might have attracted Shiki.
5. Haiku Reform
Through his haiku exercise, he studied how to improve haiku and wrote a theoretical text on haiku literature, 'Haiku Taiyo', The Element of Haiku.
At this time haiku was considered to be a low rank literature. It used to be composed in the hangout of the barbers or rikisha-men. But Shiki's 'Haiku Taiyo' inspired people and they began to think better of haiku.
Shiki composed more haiku:
water plant blossoms
still white
autumn wind
I wonder
a cow has eaten up the leaves
a spider lily
Matsuyama Castle
lifted over the mats
of rice fields
In the traditional Japanese literature, people used to attach much importance to 'yugen' and 'wabi'. 'Yugen' is the subtle and profound quiet beauty and 'wabi' is quiet refinement. These concepts are based on imagination. But Shiki made much use of realism as a methodology and also hit upon an idea of sketch, a technique of drawing and then proposed the philosopher Hegel's theory of "Aufheben", Sublimation as a true literature. He thought of how to use the selection of combination with realism. He advocated 'the 3rd literature; Non imaginary and non realistic literature'.
On his way to Tokyo, he dropped in at Nara, and composed the best known haiku.
I bite a persimmon
the bell tolls
Horyu-ji Temple
Shortly after, he suffered much agonized pain and had to be confined to his sick bed for seven years. Although he was a newspaper correspondent at Nihon Shinbun newspaper company, he could not get to work. During that painful period in bed, he initiated his haiku and tanka reform.
6. Some Interesting Haiku
Let's appreciate some of his interesting haiku:
Title: Cat's Love
My cat Choma
waiting for neighbor's cat Tama
at night.
This haiku is humorous and it contains the real cats' names 'Choma' and 'Tama'.
many a time
asking the height of
the snow
Since there was not so much snow in Matsuyama, Shiki might have been interested in the snow and he was curious about snow like a child. He kept such innocent spirit of a child.
an infant
steps on the green grass
barefoot
This green grass haiku evokes us of the touch of the child's barefoot on the green grass.
at this time
morning glories fix the color
deep blue
The summer is advancing and the color of the morning glories has become most blue.
I eat green apples
facing to peonies
I will die
In this peony haiku, both 'green apples' and 'peony' are summer season words. It is usually said we should not use two season words because the haiku will be out of focus with two images. But this haiku is beautiful and it describes Shiki's character very well. Shiki liked fruit very much. When he wrote the haiku, he had eaten apples to his heart content, thinking of the famous traditional haiku master Buson, who composed famous beautiful haiku on peonies. Also Shiki believed Buson was the greatest haiku poet that people should follow his way.
Shiki's characteristic realism is not such realism as observing things merely objectively but a value of realism appreciating the objects profoundly and reaching a mental state of accepting just as they are, a state of simplicity.
7. Shiki's Curiosity and Humor
At the age of 34, his friend bought a new record player and they listened to Western Laughing Songs. In no time Shiki composed a humorous poem.
crows come flying
scatter their dropping
on a man Gonbe, on the head,
a-ha-ha! a-ha-ha! a-ha-ha! . . . . (in 1901)
In spite of his pain, he still seems to have had such sense of humor. Everyday he had high fever. He was thirsty. Then he composed:
(in 1901)
full of spring
rotten oranges
how sweet!
He still devoted himself to eating fruit. Writing and eating were only his pleasure in his sick bed. He submitted his article to the newspaper every day.
He was tortured by pain, but when morphine could mask the main, he enjoyed painting.
While the death is closing to Shiki, he composed a haiku on a cicada.
a late summer cicada
at the top of his voice
chirping, and chirping . . . . . . .
The image of the life of the cicada overlaps his fate close to death.
8. Deathbed Haiku
On the morning of September, with the assistance of Hekigoto, one of his successor who was nursing him and his sister Ritsu, he wrote down three final haiku
sponge gourd has bloomed
choked by phlegm
a departed soul
Sponge gourd vine juice was used to relieve coughing, but it could no longer help Shiki. Death came at one o'clock the following morning. Even sponge gourd, which is not so elegant, became the theme of his haiku. He found the poetic taste in it and took himself for a hotoke buddha (a departed soul).
----------- based on a talk given by Prof. Shigeki Wada, former curator of the Shiki Memorial Museum, for the EPIC 'Hand's On' project.
source : terebess.hu/english
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. Shiki - Cultural Keywords and ABC-List .
Join the Masaoka Shiki - Study Group on facebook!
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Related words
***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets
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10/24/2013
SHIKI - discovery of haiku
10/05/2013
Shiki - Beichman
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. - Masaoka Shiki 正岡子規 Introduction - .
Selected Poems of Masaoka Shiki, Translated by Janine Beichman
quote from the University of Virginia
- quote
Poem numbers are not native to the original source but were derived from the page number and position of each poem in the Beichman edition.
For example, 50.2 refers to the second poem on page 50.
16.1
水無月の虚空に涼し時鳥
minazuki no kokū ni suzushi hototogisu
In the coolness
of the empty sixth-month sky...
the cuckoo's cry.
48.1
木をつみて夜の明やすき小窓かな
ki o tsumite yo no akeyasuki komado kana
the tree cut,
dawn breaks early
at my little window
49.1
一重づゝ一重つゝ散れ八重櫻
hitoezutsu
hitoezutsu chire
yaezakura
scatter layer
by layer, eight-layered
cherry blossoms!
49.2
名月の出るやゆらめく花薄
meigetsu no
deru ya yurameku
hanasusuki
at the full moon's
rising, the silver-plumed
reeds tremble
50.1
ちる花にもつるゝ鳥の翼かな
chiru hana ni
motsururu tori no
tsubasa kana
entangled with
the scattering cherry blossoms—
the wings of birds!
50.2
麥蒔やたばねあげたる桑の枝
mugi maki ya
tabane agetaru
kuwa no eda
wheat sowing—
the mulberry trees
lift bunched branches
50.3
松杉や枯野の中の不動堂
matsu sugi ya
kareno no naka no
Fudōdō
pine and cypress:
in a withered field,
a shrine to Fudō
51.1
すゝしさや神と佛の隣同士
suzushisa ya
kami to hotoke no
tonaridoshi
in the coolness
gods and Buddhas
dwell as neighbors
51.2
御佛に尻むけ居れば月涼し
mihotoke ni
shirimuke oreba
tsuki suzushi
I turn my back
on Buddha and face
the cool moon
51.3
見下せば月にすゞしや四千軒
mioroseba
tsuki ni suzushi ya
yonsenken
looking down I see,
cool in the moonlight,
4000 houses
52.1
月涼し蛙の聲のわきあがる
tsuki suzushi
kawazu no koe no
wakiagaru
the moon is cool—
frogs' croaking
wells up
52.2
すゞしさや瀧ほとばしる家のあひ
suzushisa ya
taki hotobashiru
ie no ai
coolness—
a mountain stream splashes out
between houses
52.3
春風に尾をひろげたる孔雀かな
harukaze ni
o o hirogetaru
kujaku kana
fanning out its tail
in the spring breeze,
see—a peacock!
53.1
柿くへば鐘が鳴るなり法隆寺
kaki kueba
kane ga narunari
Hōryūji
I bite into a persimmon
and a bell resounds—
Hōryūji
57.1
稻の花道灌山の日和かな
ine no hana
Dōkanyama no
hiyori kana
rice flowers—
fair weather on
Dōkanyama
57.2
稻刈るや燒場の烟たゝぬ日に
ine karu ya
yakiba no kemuri
tatanu hi ni
rice reaping—
no smoke rising from
the cremation ground today
63.1
古庭や月に湯婆の湯をこぼす
furuniwa ya
tsuki ni tanpo no
yu o kobosu
old garden—she empties
a hot-water bottle
under the moon
64.1 -
庭前
鷄頭の十四五本もありぬべし
"teizen"
keitō no jūshigohon mo arinubeshi
"Before the Garden"
cockscombs...
must be 14,
or 15
65.1
いくたびも雪の深さを尋ねけり
ikutabi mo
yuki no fukasa o
tazunekeri
again and again
I ask how high
the snow is
65.2
雪ふるよ障子の穴を見てあれば
yuki furu yo
shōji no ana o
mite areba
snow's falling!
I see it through a hole
in the shutter...
66.1
雪の家に寢て居ると思ふばかりにて
yuki no ie ni
nete iru to omou
bakari ni te
all I can think of
is being sick in bed
and snowbound...
66.2
障子明けよ上野の雪を一目見ん
shōji ake yo
Ueno no yuki o
hitome min
open the shutter!
I'll just have a look
at Ueno's snow!
69.1
春雨や傘さして見る繪草紙屋
harusame ya
kasa sashite miru
ezōshiya
spring rain:
browsing under an umbrella
at the picture-book store
69.2
榎の實散る此頃うとし鄰の子
e no mi chiru
konogoro utoshi
tonari no ko
the nettle nuts are falling...
the little girls next door
don't visit me these days
70.1
しぐるゝや蒟蒻冷えて臍の上
shigururu ya
konnyaku hiete
heso no ue
it's drizzling...
devil's tongue, cold on
my belly button
70.2
鬚剃るや上野の鐘の霞む日に
hige soru ya
Ueno no kane no
kasumu hi ni
getting a shave!
on a day when Ueno's bell
is blurred by haze...
71.1
臥病十年
首あげて折々見るや庭の萩
"Gabyō Jūnen"
kubi agete
oriori miru ya
niwa no hagi
"Sick in Bed Ten Years"
lifting my head,
I look now and then—
the garden clover
72.1
餘命いくばくかある夜短し
yomei
ikubaku ka aru
yo mijikashi
how much longer
is my life?
a brief night...
84.2
楊貴妃の寐起顏なる牡丹哉
Yōkihi no
neokigao naru
botan kana
the peony seems
to think itself Yōkihi
as she awakes
97.1
藤の花長うして雨ふらんとす
fuji no hana
nagōshite ame
furan to su
wisteria plumes
sweep the earth, and soon
the rains will fall
97.2
黒きまでに紫深き葡萄かな
kuroki made ni
murasaki fukaki
budō kana
purple unto
blackness:
grapes!
99.1
病牀の我に露ちる思ひあり
byōshō no
ware ni tsuyu chiru
omoi ari
I thought I felt
a dewdrop on me
as I lay in bed
100.1
紅梅の散りぬ淋しき枕元
kōbai no
chirinu sabishiki
makura moto
crimson plum blossoms
scattered over the loneliness
of the bed...
100.2
紅梅の落花をつまむ疊哉
kōbai no
rakka o tsumamu
tatami kana
fallen petals of
the crimson plum I pluck
from the tatami
102.2
絲瓜咲て痰のつまりし佛かな
hechima saite
tan no tsumarishi
hotoke kana
the gourd flowers bloom,
but look—here lies
a phlegm-stuffed Buddha!
103.1
痰一斗絲瓜の水も間に合はず
tan itto
hechima no mizu mo
ma ni awazu
a quart of phlegm—
even gourd water
couldn't mop it up
103.2
をとゝひのへちまの水も取らざりき
ototoi no
hechima no mizu mo
torazariki
they didn't gather
gourd water
day before yesterday either
113.1
ごて／＼と草花植し小庭かな
gotegote to
kusabana ueshi
koniwa kana
a jumble of
flowers planted—
see, the little garden!
134.1
絲瓜さへ佛になるぞ後るゝな
hechima sae
hotoke ni naru zo
okururu na
hey!—even snake gourds
become Buddhas—
don't get caught behind!
134.2
成佛ヤ夕顏ノ顔ヘチマノ屁
jōbutsu ya
yūgao no kao
hechima no he
Buddha-death:
the moonflower's face,
the snake gourd's fart
136.1
病牀の財布も秋の錦かな
byōshō no
saifu mo aki no
nishiki kana
the wallet
by the bed is my
autumn brocade
136.2
栗飯ヤ病人ナガラ大食ヒ
kurimeshi ya
byōnin nagara
ōkurai
chestnut rice—
though a sick man,
still a glutton
136.3
カブリツク熟柿ヤ髯ヲ汚シケリ
kaburitsuku jukushi ya hige o yogoshikeri
I sink my teeth
into a ripe persimmon—
it dribbles down my beard
136.4
驚くや夕顏落ちし夜半の音
odoroku ya yūgao ochishi yowa no oto
surprise!
a moonflower fell—
midnight sound
source : etext.lib.virginia.edu
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- quote
Shiki' Last Writing
http://www.cc.matsuyama-u.ac.jp/~shiki/kim/newlast3haiku.html
Because of a debilitating disease Masaoka Shiki had to be confined to his bed for almost 7 years until he passed away. Despite the pain, he continued writing poems while lying on his back. When Shiki came near to death, one of his disciples, Hekigoto was at Shiki's bedside. Hekigoto wrote about how Shiki wrote his final three haiku as follows.
It was around 10 o'clock on the morning of September 18.
I dipped his old writing brush ,whose stem and brush were both thin, full of ink and had him hold it in his right hand.
Then quite abruptly in the center of the paper Shiki began to write readily "sponge gourd has bloomed " , and a little below that phrase, he again moved his brush in a breath "choked by phlegm"
I was a little curious what he was going to write next and was watching the paper closely, then at last he wrote "a departed soul", which bit into my heart.
Hekigoto was very touched when Shiki began to write the poem. Shiki was so weak, and desperately coughing, but he still had a determination to write these haiku.
sponge gourd has bloomed
choked by phlegm
a departed soul
gallons of phlegm
even the gourd water
couldn't clear it up
the gourd water
of the night before yesterday
they didn't get it either
-------------------------------------------
Spring
Spring frost
dancing in the air
a shimmer of heat
a cock crows
at the foot of the small Mt. Fuji
peach blossoms
my hometown
many cousins-
peach blossoms
at the root
of a pine tree
light lavender violet
moon at twilight,
a cluster of petals falling
from the cherry tree
an iris
whiter at twilight
My hometown
My hometown
wherever I look
mountains laugh with vendure
a fancy-free cat
is about to catch
a quail
perching on a mud wall
in the spring rain
a crow
spring breeze
show off the castle
above the pine tree
Mountains in spring
overlapping each other
all round
cherry blossom petals
blown by the spring breeze
against the undried wall
blooming azaleas
in a hollow on a cliff
a Buddha stands
Summer
aiming at
deutzia blossoms
little cuckoo
Mountains are
yellow green, pale yellow-
a cuckoo cries
castle hill
high above
breezy green
at the front gate
dropping their heads
lilies blooming
through a growth of weeds
runs an open path
baseball diamond
It's a boy
after five daughters
carp streamers
two rainbows
have risen over
the green paddy field
stillness - -
fireflies are glowing over
deep water
summer storm
white paper on the desk
all flies away
In Japan summer storm can be described as a green wind, because all trees in summer are full of green leaves. In this haiku, the color contrast of green and white paper gives a very sharp and clear and refreshing feeling.
leaving me
something on my chest
tears on my mosquito net
my remaining days
are numbered
a brief night
pruning a rose
sound of the scissors
on a bright May day
a yellow green spider
crawling on
a red rose
a snail
luring rain clouds
with feeler tips
my hometown
parents are well
taste of sushi
relieved of a burden
in the everyday life
an afternoon nap
a hollyhock
shot up to meet
the summer solstice
summer mountain
all creatures are green
a red bridge
The singing stopped
a flying cicada
I saw it!
loneliness
after the fireworks
stars' shooting
an evening breeze
white rose petals are
all ruggled
one spoonful
of ice cream brings me
back to life
biting into a bitter weed
alone I bear
my feelings
Ten year's sweat
washed away
back at Dogo Onsen
at nightfall
a sunner moon, white --
on the white sail
hydrangeas
pale blue in the rain
blue in the moonlight
hydrangeas ---
rain splashing upon
the crumbling walls
an old pond-
floating upside down
a cicada's shell
Autumn
Locusts fly low
over the levee
in the fading sunshine
Autumn wind -
met, returning alive
you and me
Matsuyama castle
the keep is higher than
the autumn sky
clouds're running past
running after clouds
the Storm Day
autumn is leaving
tugging each others' branches
two pine trees
on a stormy night
while reading a letter
wavering mind
almost black
deepening purple
ripe grapes
with advancing autumn
I am without gods
without Buddha
I am going
you're staying
two autumns for us
my fate,
a fortune tells
- autumn wind
peeling a pear
sweet drops dripping
along the knife edge
hometown -
festivals are over
flavorful persimmons
lights
far way, through
leaves of dense autumnal tints
the buight moon
something in my breast
I am alone
the bright moon
I wonder where the clouds
are flying off to
following
clouds torn apart
autumn wind
morning coolness
purple clouds are
vanishing
the setting sun
remains on the mountain
castle flowering rice
crimson sunset
even through clouds
vernal equinox
looking through
three thousand haiku eating
two persimmons
sounds of a temple bell
reverberate in a circle
a long night
a dog howling
sound of footsteps
longer nights
Winter
two or three rocks
strewn about
dried up field
winter camellia
I wish I could offer it
to the sooty Buddha
coldness
looking down from above
Matsuyama Castle
splitting wood
my sister alone -
wintering
behind the stand
of winter trees
a red sunset
just outside the gate
the road slopes downward
winter trees
It is cold, but
we have sake
and the hot spring
* * *
New Year's greetings
with a plum branch
in hand
the sky draws near
such a bright sunrise
New Year's Day
New Year's Day
has come -
quiet streets
The year begins
on New Year's day
our life is Now
the stars vanished
and then --
five-colored New Year's mist
-------------------------------------------
Facing away from me
Darning old tabi –
My wife.
When the loofah bloomed
He choked on phlegm
And died.
-------------------------------------------
Devotion to the Great Saint,
the temple of Ishite...
rice plants abloom.
(Alas my) fortune;
drawing divine lots,
the aurumn wind.
-------------------------------------------
2001 Shiki Haiku Calendar
New Year's decoration –
the table with my inkstone
becomes narrow
(1898)
Moon and plum blossoms:
night after night
thea come closer
(1893)
Weary of reading
I go out into a field
a hazy field
(1897)
The Great Buddha
sinking in its whiteness:
cherry blossom cloud
(1897)
Full sail, reefed sail
how far do you go?
fresh summer gale
(1891)
May rain
falls as if falling
into a sleep
(1896)
One by one
letting the cool breeze through:
finger holes of the flute
(1893)
Asleep in a boat
I lie side by side with it:
the River of Heaven
(1894)
Pain from coughing
the long night's lamp flame
small as a pea
(1897)
Oh, autumn
in the boundless world!
its traces
(1893)
A light
newly lit –
first winter srizzle
(1892)
My heart
withering in winter
only the hokku...
(1896)
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- source : terebess.hu/english
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. . SHIKI - Cultural Keywords and ABC-List . .
Join the Masaoka Shiki - Study Group on facebook!
*****************************
Related words
***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]
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SHIKI - Matsuyama
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. - Masaoka Shiki 正岡子規 Introduction - .
- his hometown, Matsuyama 松山 -
A haiku friend asked: WHO was Matsuyama?
Well, here is the answer.
Matsuyama is an old castle town on the Western side of the Island of Shikoku, where Masaoka Shiki used to live and teach haiku.
The famous novel "Botchan" by Natsume Soseki also takes place in Matsuyama. It is a town full of literature inspirations.
And the old hot spring Dogo Onsen is a great place to relax.
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Shiki Memorial Museum in Matsuyama - search for his haiku :
source : sikihaku.lesp.co.jp/community/search
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春や昔十五万石の城下町
haru ya mukashi juugomangoku no jookamachi
"Spring season
reminds me of the capital town of 150,000 goku."
Matsuyama implied in the Shiki's haiku remains as a capital of haiku.
When you walk around in the Matsuyama town, you will find, in many places, haiku monuments and haiku posts at which you can mail a brandnew haiku you have just created. Do you know why? Haiku artists noted in connection with this haiku town are Shiki Masaoka, Kyoshi Takahama, Kusatao Nakamura, Hagyo Ishida, etc. who are very famous.
Soseki Natsume who participated in the haiku parties convened by Shiki, etc. left several haikus such as
"A long day, we pass yawns and depart."
Santoka Taneda, a wandering haiku artist who demonstrated free-style haikus, became a resident of Matsuyama when he got old. In the Isoan house where he lived, you will see a haiku monument showing
"Dirty water becomes clear while flowing."
How about taking a walk in the Matsuyama town along with these haikus. The sky in Matsuyama seen by Shiki and other artists will open before you.
松山や秋より高き天主閣
Matsuyama ya aki yori takaki tenshukaku
- my Matsuyama -
the castle tower looks higher
than the autumn sky
- - - - - Matsuyama castle has some interesting features.
The way up the hill has a part called nana-magari 七曲 seven steep curves.
Usually they all go up, but in Matsuyama two of them go down, which is confusing for the enemy and in the end they often loose their sense of orientation.
Once inside the main gate, the road continues in curves to the right. The human body is made to prefere curves to the left, with the left leg (the standing left) keeping balance and the right leg swinging around. The left curves are also confusing to the enemy.
This is the only castle with a well in the compound, about 40 m deep. How was this well constructed?
It was not dug into the ground, but - the castle is acutally build on two mountains, with a spring at the valley inbetween the mountains. The Lord Yoshiaki ordered the mountains to be lowered and use the earth to fill up around the spring, constructing it into a well.
(The Lord had seen a mountain castle in Korea where the soldiers had mostly died by lack of water during a long siege, and Yoshiaki wanted to prevent this to happen in his castle.)
- quote -
Matsuyama Castle (松山城 Matsuyama-jō)
... built in 1603 on Mount Katsuyama, whose height is 132 meters ...
... built by Kato Yoshiaki in 1603.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !
. jookamachi, 城下町 Jokamachi, castle towns .
. tenshukaku 天守閣 castle tower, donjon, keep .
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Touring Haiku Monuments in Matsuyama
松山の句碑
Matsuyama is blessed with mild natural feature and climate, in addition to that, is well known for the oldest hot spring Dogo-spa.
So many of the gratest names in literature and culture visited Matsuyama from old time and a good many Tanka were composed in Manyohshu and other collection of Tanka from ancient time.
Recently, Matsuyama has produced many Haiku Originator, Kyokudoh Yanagihara ,Kyoshi Takahama,Hekigoto Kawahigashi,Kusatao Nakamura,Hakyoh Ishida and so on, under the leadership of Shiki Masaoka, Matsuyama is named "Town of Haiku".
Consequently, we can catch sight of a number of literature monuments and remains that amount to well over 480 in the city. Ehime University Library plans to make the Touring Haiku monuments to refer to "Haiku Country - Matsuyama ".
Tour of Haiku Monuments (Haiku Country - Matsuyama)
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Dogo Onsen,
in the outskirts of Matsuyama, is one of Japan's oldest spa baths, and is characterized by a heavy wooden, late 19th c. public bath house, which is almost like a castle. Inside, the baths come in several classes, the highest consisting of private rooms. The baths themselves, filled with colorless and odourless water, are rather small - even the economy class bath -, so it can get crowded.
Natsume Soseki, in his novel Botchan, has the hero swim around in it, but that seems quite a feat. Anyway, as the bath is invariably overrun by noisy tourists, it is better to head out for the
Masaoka Shiki Memorial Museum in Dogo Park for a cultural experience...
松山市立子規記念博物館
寒けれど酒もあり温泉もある処
samukeredo sake mo ari yu mo aru tokoro
It is cold, but
we have sake
and the hot spring
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Memorial Hall of Masaoka Shiki,
Shiki-Do 子規堂
In the compounds of the temple Shoju-Ji
(Shoojuu ji 正宗寺(しょうじゅうじ).
haruka ni mo kishi Shikidoo no yoka no ame
I came from so far away
to the Shiki Hall -
rain on the late cherry blossoms
Tr. Gabi Greve
NHK, Haiku Okoku Member, May 2008
.................................................................................
ふるさとや親すこやかに鮓の味
furusato ya oya sukoyaka ni sushi no aji
my dear hometown -
my mother is well and
the taste of sushi
. Matsuyama sushi 松山鮓 and Masaoka Shiki
松山の城を見おろす寒さかな
. Matsuyama no shiro o miorosu samusa kana .
MORE
. Shiki and his furusato hometown haiku .
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External LINKS about Matsuyama and Haiku
The Matsuyama Declaration, 1999
Let's Give Poetry Back to the People...
A World Poetry Revolution in the 21st Century
It has been about 100 years since the death of Shiki, who ignited the haiku reform movement. Precedents for the declaration which we propose here are Shimazaki Toson's preface to his poetry collection of about 100 years ago in which Toson stated that "The age of new poetry has finally come" and the Surrealism Manifesto of Andre Breton that appeared about 75 years ago. But it has been a long time since we have witnessed the birth of this kind of new poetic manifesto. In the world of Japanese haiku also, there has recently been a demand for reform and for an end to a prolonged state of stagnancy.
In this declaration, we have concentrated on the essential universality of haiku that has been present since the days of Shiki's reform. By taking into account the circumstances in which haiku spread to the world in the past, we have made projections about its future possibilities globally. In the context of universalization of haiku we think it should be presented to the poets all over the world to work with the application of fixed-form and season words. We wish to openly welcome those poems from all over the world that possess the haiku spirit. By making use of a traditional fixed form of poetry, the Japanese have succeeded in applying a grammar unique to the Japanese language, such as kireji, and condensing the poem to 17 syllables.
We feel that in all languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Arabic and Spanish, we can find ways to condense diction for the purpose of poetic expression. We also believe that an understanding of the value of silence will greatly contribute to the broadening of poetic space in each language. We hope that the poets of the world will share the achievements of the Japanese haiku masters with us and that they will take part in this poetic movement to resolutely pursue ways to condense their own language.
The Matsuyama Declaration of 12 September, 1999 is a statement made by the following people:
Arima Akito, Minister of Education of Japan Haga Toru, President of Kyoto University of Art and Design, Ueda Makato, Professor Emeritus of Stanford University Soh Sakon, Poet Kaneko Tohta, President of the Modern Haiku Society Jean Jacques Origas, French Oriental Language Research Institute
Read more here:
http://www.ecf.or.jp/shiki/1999/dec7.html
... ... ...
The Matsuyama Message 2000
(Supplement to the Matsuyama Declaration)
- Reference
Kiyose - Collection of season words in Japan
--- https://sites.google.com/site/ ...
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Matsuyama Haiku Ninja 俳句ニンジャ
source : matsuyamahaikublog
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Matsuyama and Daruma Dolls
By Gabi Greve
. Matsuyama Daruma Princess Dolls
A good friend of Shiki in Matsuyama
. Natsume Soseki (Sooseki 夏目漱石) .
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. Shiki - Cultural Keywords and ABC-List .
Join the Masaoka Shiki - Study Group on facebook!
*****************************
Related words
***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]
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10/04/2013
SHIKI - Reference
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. - Masaoka Shiki 正岡子規 Introduction - .
under construction
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- - - - - about his style
Burton Watson
says that Shiki wrote more than 25,000 haiku. Different translators (Beichman, Blyth, Watson) mostly choose to translate different haiku, on the order of 100 each.
- - - Some features of his haiku:
Openness and naturalness in writing.
Advocated for and used the technique of shasei or "sketch from life", with open and natural writing that made minute observations of his surroundings, and created emotion in his work by manipulating the images he found.
Flexibility in allowing him to draw upon scenes in his memory.
A significant portion are tied to various particular occasions (occasional poems) that their meaning eludes today's reader.
Often used alliteration.
Often used assonance.
Evoked emotion by apt juxtaposition of images,
Janine Beichman:
When Shiki began writing haiku, most haiku being written were satire, wordplay, or vulgarity.
- Shiki:
Rejected being bound by conventions to the past.
Rejected the older terms of hokku and haikai used for the 5-7-5 stand-alone poem, as those terms had been used for centuries in the context of linked verse, renku.
Established the term haiku for the 5-7-5 stand-alone poem.
Criticized the low level of literary worth and inspiration in haiku being created, and their misuse for:
satire / vulgarity / wordplay
Rejected the use in haiku of:
puns / allusions to earlier literature / miniature stories
Preferred factual types of haiku; highlighted those of Buson over those of Bashō.
. Masaoka Shiki - selected material.
. WKD : BIG font LINK .
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- - - - - BOOKS
Beichman, Janine Beichman - Masaoka Shiki
Beichman, selected translations - library Virginia
Keene, Donald Keene
The Winter Sun Shines In - review by David Burleigh
Takenosato Uta 竹の里歌
Songs from a bamboo village -
Masaoka Shiki’s Life and Haiku
translations by
The Shiki-Kinen Museum English Volunteers, pp. 73, Matsuyama Municipal Shiki-Kinen Museum,
Printed by Myojo Printing Company, Japan, September 2001
This wonderful book has now been translated into
Hindi by Dr. Angelee Deodhar.
. Hindu Translation and Bilingual Publication .
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- - - - - ONLINE
Gudabutsuan - "Home of the Stupid Buddha"
Shiki lived there with Natsume Soseki in Matsuyama
Kim, Kimiyo Tanaka - Matsuyama
translations according to the four seasons
Masaoka Shiki about Matsuo Basho Discussion
Matsuyama
Negishi - his home in Negishi - Tokyo
"Negishi no sato no wabizumai)
Nobo san, the young Shiki
Masaoka Tsunenori 正岡常規 / Noboru 升 as a school boy and student
. Ritsu 律 his younger sister .
- - - - - Yae 八重 his mother
- - - - - Oohara Kanzan 大原観山 Ohara Kanzan, his grandfather
Saka no ue no kumo 坂の上の雲
"Cloud (or Clouds) over the slope" - novel and movie
Shiki Internet Haiku Salon
Matsuyama - with further links to Kukai, Haibun etc.
Shiki Memorial Day - Kigo
Shiki ki 子規忌 memorial day of Shiki / hechima-ki 糸瓜忌 (へちまき) Sponge-gourd anniversary / Dassai Ki 獺祭忌（だっさいき）Dassai memorial day
Shiki Museum Matsuyama
Shiki Kinen Hakubutsukan - Amano Yukichi
Sterba, Carmen Sterba
Masaoka Shiki: The Misunderstood Reformer, Critic and Poet
Takiguchi, Susumu Takiguchi
The Poet with the Bleeding Throat
Terebess Asia Online - Masaoka Shiki
large collection of translations
- - - - - references quoted by Terebess
Addiss, Stephen, Old Taoist - the life, art, and poetry of Kodojin,
Beichman, Janine, Masaoka Shiki, previously published by Twayne Publishers in 1982, first paperback edition, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1986
Beichman-Yamamoto, Janine, Masaoka Shiki's A Drop of Ink, Monumenta Nipponica XXX, 3, 1965
Blyth, R. H. Haiku, 4 vol., Hokuseido Press, Tokyo 1963-64
Brower, Robert H. , and Miner, Earl, Japanese Court Poetry, Stanford University Press, 1961
Brower, Robert H., Masaoka Shiki and tanka Reform, in Tradition and Modernization in Japanese Culture, ed. Donald H. Shively, Princeton University Press, 1971
Henderson, Harold, An Introduction to Haiku, Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1958
Higginson, William J., with Penny Harter, The Haiku Handbook - How to Write, Share, and Teach Haiku, Kodansha International, 1985
Isaacson, Harold J. trans. & ed., Peonies Kana - Haiku by the Upasaka Shiki, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, First ed., 1973 (It was published by Theatre Arts Books, New York, 1972)
Keene, Donald, Shiki and Takuboku, in Landscapes and Portraits: Appreciations of Japanese Culture, Tokyo and Palo Alto, Kodansha International Ltd 1971
Keene, Donald, Dawn to the West - A History of Japanese Literature, vol. 4, Columbia University Press, New York, First published 1984
Kimata, Osamu, Shiki Masaoka: His Haiku and Tanka, Philosophical Studies of Japan, VIII, 1967, (compiled by Japanese National Commission for UNESCO and published by Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai)
Miner, Earl, The verse record of My Peonies, in Japanese Poetic Diaries, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1969
Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai, Special Haiku Committee of Japanese Classics Translation Committee consisting of Aso Isoji et al., Haikai and Haiku, Tokyo,
Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai, 1958
Rexroth, Kenneth, 100 More Poems from the Japanese
Ueda, Makoto, Modern Japanese Haiku: An Anthology, University of Tokyo Press, 1976
Watson, Burton, Masaoka Shiki - Selected Poems, Columbia University Press, 1997
Yasuda, Kenneth, The Japanese Haiku: Its Essential Nature, History and Possibilities in English
Rimer, J. Thomas and Morrell, Robert E., Guide to Japanese Poetry., Boston , G.K. Hall and co., 1975
Wada, Shigeki Wada
. SHIKI: The Discovery of Haiku .
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- - - - - Japanese resources
Masaoka Shiki - haiku collection
Masaoka Shiki no page - tooshun 7
warau Shiki 笑う子規 Shiki is laughing
Edited by 天野祐吉 Amano Yukichi
Illustrations by 南伸坊 Minami Shinbo
人間を笑うが如し年の暮れ
ningen o warau ga gotoshi toshi no kure
- Reference -
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
. Shiki - Cultural Keywords and ABC-List .
Join the Masaoka Shiki - Study Group on facebook!
*****************************
Related words
***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]
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10/02/2013
Shiki - furu ike ya
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO TOP . ]
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. - Masaoka Shiki 正岡子規 Introduction - .
He wrote quite a few haiku about the "old pond" with an allusion to
Matsuo Basho, sometimes just making fun of the phrase.
古池や蛙飛び込む水の音
furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto
. Matsuo Basho - furu ike ya 古池や .
. honkadori 本歌取り allusion to an original poem .
under construction
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古池やさかさに浮ふ蝉のから
furuike ya sakasa ni ukabu semi no kara
this old pond -
upside down there floats
a cicada shell
Tr. Gabi Greve
from 蝉の殻 - cicada shell
semi no kara, maybe another allusion to Basho and his "semi no koe".
..........................................................................
古池や昼静かなる夏の鴛
furuike ya hiru shizuka naru natsu no en
this old pond -
in summer at noon they become quiet
the mandarin ducks
古池に亡き妻や思ふ鴛一羽
furuike ni naki tsuma omou oshi ichiwa
in the old pond
one mandarin duck
thinks of its dead wife
古池のをしに雪降る夕かな
furuike no oshi ni yuki furu yuube kana
snow falls on the mandarin ducks
in the old pond -
this evening
芙蓉咲いて古池の鴛やもめ也
fuyo saite furuike no oshi yamome nari
cotton roses flowering -
the mandarin duck in the old pond
is a widower
. WKD : oshidori 鴛鴦、(おしどり) mandarin ducks .
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古池やしくるゝ音の夜もすから
時雨
古池や凍りもつかで鴨の足
鴨
古池や柳枯れて鴨石に在り
枯柳
古池や蓮より外に草もなし
蓮
古池や川せみ去つて日暮れたり
古池や翡翠去つて魚浮ぶ
古池や翡翠来べき杭の形
- Kawasemi 翡翠
..........................................................................
古池にちりこむ梅かな椿かな
散椿
古池に水草の花さかりなり
水草の花
古池に河骨さわぐ嵐かな
河骨
古池に落葉つもりぬ水の上
落葉
古池に蛙とびこむ俳画哉
furu ike ni kawazu tobikomu haiga kana
蛙
into the old pond
a frog has jumped
on a haiga painting . . .
The cut marker KANA is at the end of line 3.
..........................................................................
古池のかたへ蓮咲く真菰哉
蓮の花
- and some more about bashoo, the banana plant
芭蕉破れて古池半ば埋もれり
basho karete furuike nakaba uzumoreri
芭蕉破れて露おくべくもあらぬ哉
芭蕉破れて書読む君の声近し
荒寺や芭蕉破れて猫もなし
芭蕉破れて繕ふべくもあらぬ哉
破れ盡す貧乏寺の芭蕉哉
貧村に寺一つあり破れ芭蕉
hinson ni tera hitotsu ari yabure bashoo
in the poor village
there is just one temple -
torn banana leaves
. bashoo 芭蕉 banana plant - Musa paradisiaca .
yarebashoo 破芭蕉 (やればしょう) torn banana leaves
bashoo no yareha 芭蕉の破葉（ばしょうのやれは）banana leaves are torn
bashoo yabururu 芭蕉破るる（ばしょうやぶるる）
This often happens during the autumn typhoon season.
- kigo for late autumn
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- Japanese versions : HAIKUreikuDB
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. WKD : Shiki Reference - Books and Online - .
- online Reference -
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. Matsuo Basho - furu ike ya 古池や .
. . SHIKI - Cultural Keywords and ABC-List . .
Join the Masaoka Shiki - Study Group on facebook!
*****************************
Related words
***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]
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10/01/2013
Shiki - mother and sister
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. - Masaoka Shiki 正岡子規 Introduction - .
His younger sister Ritsu cared for him with great devotion.
律といふ子規の妹木の実降る
Ritsu to iu Shiki no imooto kinomi furu
Ritsu
the younger sister of Shiki -
nuts are falling
Miyasaka Shizuo 宮坂静生
Shiki was in bed most of the time, in pain. . . and his sister had been there to do all the kitchen chores, care for the ill brother and keep the home warm during winter, go shopping, cleaning, preparing firewood . . .
薪をわるいもうと一人冬籠
maki o waru imooto hitori fuyugomori
to split the firewood
there is only my younger sister -
our wintering
Shiki
quote
Ritsu is a literal-minded woman. She is like an unfeeling tree or stone. She will nurse an invalid dutifully but can not comfort him emotionally. She will do anything the invalid orders, but is incapable of taking a hint. . . .
- - - Janine Beichman
source : books.google.co.jp
under construction
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- quote -
A Stray Note, Shiki’s Sister
Debra Woolard Bender
I have been many women (roles) in my fifty years. Once, I was also a Ritsu, as a personal care attendant for my husband’s former employer Lloyd who was quadriplegic.
snip
May I be honest, as Shiki was about his feelings toward his sister, Ritsu?
snip
He was my brother, not by physical family, but by spiritual family. Ritsu’s “life of poetry” would include all those same emotions, but over a longer period of time.
snip
I’ve not even been sure that anyone would really wish to hear about those everyday acts of caring for one in such a manner as Ritsu and her mother did for Shiki, or as I did with Lloyd.
snip
As a Ritsu, my poems must need tell you about the careful daily cleaning out, with latex-gloved fingers, the bowels of a man, dressing chronic bedsores, staying nearby him day and night. . .
snip
When one has been placed in such a position of Shiki or Ritsu, one’s views of life change — some for bitter, and some for the better. It reduces and reveals much negativity and argument over trivial issues to the pettiness it truly is.
snip
Being in such a position as Ritsu or Shiki also reveals the greatness and strength of the human spirit. I hope my life and Ritsu’s changed for the better. I am more aware of the huge weaknesses and dark places of my own soul (and sometimes those of others) because of it.
kuni koete Ritsu wa ware ni mo imoto nari
transcending nationality
Ritsu is also
my sister
*Japanese translaton by Eiko Yachimoto
- - - - -
Ritsu, Shiki’s sister, along with their mother, provided personal care for Masaoka Shiki when he became bedridden with degenerative tuberculosis of the spine. Jane Beichman, in Masaoka Shiki, notes:
“Shiki’s relations with his mother and sister seem to have been difficult even though they nursed him devotedly after he became invalid. The vignette of his mother in the episode from Stray Notes . . . makes her sound a rather ineffectual person. Elsewhere in the diary, he claimed that both she and his sister were completely lacking in the imaginative resources necessary to cheer an invalid like himself (I can not resist adding that they were probably too busy simply accomplishing the basic tasks of life — cleaning, laundry, cooking, and attending to Shiki’s medical needs, as well as waiting on the guests who came to call — to have much time to spare for imagination).
‘Shiki’s particular wrath was reserved for his sister, Ritsu, who became the subject of one of the most extraordinary series of entries in Stray Notes.”
Stray Notes While Lying on My Back (Gyoga manroku 仰臥漫録),
A, VII; K, XI, Shiki Masaoka.
source : World Haiku Review 2001
Masaoka Shiki: His Life and Works
By Janine Beichman
about his sister RITSU
source : books.google.co.jp
about his mother
source : books.google.co.jp
about his grandfather Kanzan:
... The first of his tutors was his grandfather Kanzan, from whom he learned the elements of reading Chinese beginning in 1874.
... Kanzan doted on his grandson and said it was a pleasure to teach him, for he never forgot anything. Shiki in turn aquired from him a reverence for scholarship which he carried with him for the rest of his life and which deeply influenced his approach to literature.
... Kanzan, who was a distinguished Confucian scholar and Shiki's earliest teacher, became Shiki's ideal.
... Kanzan was a samurai's samurai . . .
source : books.google.co.jp
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source : satton/bungaku
明治18年、帰郷の際に撮った写真。母八重40歳 - Yae age 40
Shiki's mother Yae 八重 in 1885, when Shiki visited Matsuyama
She remembers her son:
「小さい時分にはよっぽどへぼでへぼで弱味噌でございました」
When he was young, he was quite a coward.
yowamiso 弱味噌 a weekling, a coward
Oohara Kanzan 大原観山 Ohara Kanzan, his grandfather
(1818年 - 1875年4月11日）
武右衛門
He was of the "traditional spirit" and never cut his chonmage hair of a samurai.
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !
- - - - -
- quote
That Masaoka's mother was a daughter of Ōhara Kanzan, a Confucian scholar, and therefore had more than a passing knowledge of Confucian thought herself, I wonder how much of an influence that had on his own writings.
. Hayato Tokugawa - fb .
Read the discussion.
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***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets
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Shiki - hechima
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. - Masaoka Shiki 正岡子規 Introduction - .
Shiki's (Death) Anniversary / Shiki's Memorial Day, Shiki-ki 子規忌
September 19, in honor of the famous haiku poet
正岡子規 Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902)
Sponge-gourd Anniversary, hechima-ki
糸瓜忌 (へちまき)
This naming stems from the sponge-gourd plant (hechima), used as medicine against phlegm for tuberculosis. He used this word in many of his haiku.
糸瓜咲いて痰のつまりし仏かな
hechima saite tan no tsumarishi hotoke kana
The snake gourds are blooming:
here, choked with phlegm, lies a Buddha.
Tr. Hugh Bygott
Read the discussion about translating HOTOKE and HECHIMA
sponge gourds in bloom
and this dead body
choked with phlegm . . .
(Tr. Gabi Greve)
The cut marker KANA is at the end of line 3.
... ... ...
The loofah blooms and
I, full of phlegm,
become a Buddha.
Tr. Hoffmann : Japanese Death Poems
our loofah is blooming
here's a dead man
totally clogged with phlegm
Tr. Eiko Yachimoto
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- quote
The Moment When Shiki Breathed His Last
Shiki steadied the sketch board by holding the left bottom corner with his left hand. He then started to write a poem in the middle part of the paper (the first 5):
hechima saite (snake gourd has flowered)
When Shiki came to write "saite" (has flowered), the ink started to run out of the brush. Because of this, it seemed to Hekigodo that Shiki was finding it a little bit difficult to go on writing. So, Hekigodo took the brush and gave it some more ink. Taking the brush, Shiki then started to write the middle 7 on the left side of the first 5, and a little bit lower:
tan no tsumari-shi (choked up with phlegm)
Again the brush started to run out of ink towards the end of the middle 7, so Hekigodo gave it some more ink. He had been reading the first 5 and the middle 7 that Shiki had just written intently, and now he became really curious about what comes next in the last 5. Shiki started to write again. The last 5 turned out to be:
hotoke kana (ah, Buddha!)
Hekigodo felt as if he had been stabbed in the chest. Finished with his writing, Shiki put down the brush, almost throwing it away, and, turning his head sideways, coughed two three times rapidly, trying to clear his throat of the phlegm. He did not succeed and looked really in pain. Shiki said nothing. He then started to cough again. This time he seemed to have been successful, as he began to wipe the phlegm with waste paper which he handed over to Ritsu. Until this instance, he had never let anyone touch the dirty and infectious item, but had fetched the spittoon himself and spat the phlegm into it, even if the pain was unbearable. So, he must have been so weak now, that he did not have the strength even to fetch the spittoon.
Read more here:
- Susumu Takiguchi. WHR -
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- quotes from Haiku Translation Group -
A snake-gourd is blooming;
Clogged with phlegm,
A dying man.
Tr. Blyth
While sponge-gourd was in flower,
through too much phlegm
a Buddha kana
Tr. Harold J. Isaacson
the gourd flowers bloom,
but look--here lies
a phlegm-stuffed Buddha!
Tr. Beichman
The loofah blooms and
I, stuffed with phlegm,
become a Buddha.
Tr. Yoel Hoffman
snake gourd has flowered
choked up with phlegm
ah, Buddha!
Tr. Takiguchi
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- Comments about this haiku:
Blyth:
"Just at this time, the 19th of September, 1902, a snake-gourd was in bloom. The juice of this plant is used for stopping the formation of phlegm, and this is the painful relation between him and the flowers. The last line is literally 'a Buddha,' which means 'soon to become a Buddha,' that is, a dead man."
Beichman:
"Here, the poet is no longer characterized as a sick man but as a dead man, and the separation between himself and the world has become complete and final. ...
"The juice of the gourd, gathered from the plant before it bloomed, was used to relieve coughing such as Shiki's. However, as his condition became past remedy, the juice had become useless and the flowers allowed to come into bloom. The blooming of the flowers, lovely in itself, has a sinister meaning, for it signifies the hopelessness of Shiki's condition, implies his death. Living flowers mean a dying Shiki -- again two opposites, held at one in the mind."
Issacson:
"As the Japanese politely speak of one newly departed as a Buddha (implying that his attainments must have enabled him to get free of the six realms of existence and enter the Buddha realm), the last line-- 'a Buddha kana'-- is a droll way of saying: 'I died.' The larger joke is in the way the haiku burlesques statements found in Buddhist biographies, that while lotuses were in flower some person dying
obtained birth in the Amida Paradise, Sukhavati."
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- quote by Paul Conneally
i too find humour of course mixed with sadness in shiki's death poem -
remember his best friend and 'disciple' was waiting to make sure that he could get the the master's death poem down... the situation him in the act of dying and someone anxiously waiting for his last poem hanging on to his last spittle filled words and trying to write them down... and we're told that shiki then asked for a brush to correct what his loyal friend wrote... to get it just right... and that the topic was the sponge gourd and phlegm and he treated almost godlike as he prepared to die - people wanting perhaps so called 'higher' or 'better' words for a death poem..
yes i think he had a wry phlegmatic laugh with this last formal poem... i'm sure he'd find his veneration, particularly in the west, a real belly laugh especially the fact that only his 'sketch from life' approach seems to be remembered... he'd probably much rather be watching baseball than giving up time to some of our 'just sketches' we like to call haiku...
an early morning
of back pain and vomit
white climbing roses
paul conneally, loughborough uk - NOBO mailing list, June 2006
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- quote
From a translation project of the World Haiku Review
ototoi no hechima no mizu mo torazariki
Masaoka Shiki, 18/09/1902
since the day
before yesterday, not even gourd water
has been collected
(Version by Sususmu Takiguchi)
snip
Shiki’s three death poems, as found in Hoffmann’s translation, were posted for examination as a set:
糸瓜咲て痰のつまりし仏かな
“(1) Hechima saite tan no tsumarishi hotoke kana
The loofah blooms and
I, full of phlegm,
become a Buddha.
痰一斗糸瓜の水も間にあはず
(2) Tan itto hechima no mizu mo ma ni awazu
A barrelful of phlegm–
even loofah water
will not avail me now.
をとゝひのへちまの水も取らざりき
(3) ototoi no hechima no mizu mo torazariki
Loofah water
from two days ago
left still untouched.
(translations by Hoffmann, Japanese Death Poems)
snip
(1)
our loofah is blooming
here’s a dead man
totally clogged with phlegm
(2)
a barrel of phlegm
way beyond
what loofah water can do”
And, for the final poem:
(3)
the loofah water
from even two days before
was not collected
(versions by Eiko Yachimoto)
snip
the snake gourd sap…from two days back
…….is still left here…ungathered
(version by John Carley)
From the day
before yesterday
the water from
the loofah gourd too;
neither has been taken.
(version by James Karkoski )
two days on.and the loofah water also remains ungathered
(version by Carmen Sterba)
Read more translations and comments here:
- archives of the WHR
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へちまとは 糸瓜のやうな物ならん
hechima to wa hechima no yoo na mono naran
the sponge gourd is
nothing more than a sponge gourd
I guess
source : Tr. Shiki Museum Volunteers
. WKD : hechima, ito-uri 糸瓜, 蛮瓜,布瓜 sponge gourd .
under construction
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- quote
Because of a debilitating disease, spinal tuberculosis, Masaoka Shiki had to be confined to his bed for almost 7 years until he passed away. Despite the pain, he continued writing poems while lying on his back. One of the symptoms of his affliction was coughing up phlegm. They said that gourd water taken during the full moon would get rid of the phlegm. On the porch of Shiki's house in Tokyo, sponge gourds were grown and probably he compared himself and his suffering to a healthy gourd, when he saw a grown gourd which had a flower and suffered no pain.
When Shiki came near to death, one of his disciples, Hekigoto was at Shiki's bedside. Hekigoto wrote about how Shiki wrote his final three haiku.
“It was around 10 o'clock on the morning of September 18. I dipped his old writing brush ,whose stem and brush were both thin, full of ink and had him hold it in his right hand. Then quite abruptly, in the center of the paper, Shiki began to write readily ‘sponge gourd has bloomed.’ and a little below that phrase, he again moved his brush in a breath ‘choked by phlegm.’ I was a little curious what he was going to write next and was watching the paper closely. Then at last he wrote, ‘a departed soul,’ which bit into my heart.”
Hekigoto was very touched when Shiki began to write the poem. Shiki was so weak, and desperately coughing, but he still had a determination to write these haiku.
tan itto hechima no mizu mo maniawazu
gallons of phlegm
even the gourd water
couldn't clear it up
ototoi no hechima no mizu mo torazariki
the gourd water
of the night before yesterday
they didn't get it either
hechima saite tan no tsumarishi hotoke kana
sponge gourd has bloomed
choked by phlegm
a departed soul
source : Hayato Tokugawa, fb 2013
Hekigodo was born in Matsuyama, like Shiki, and was the son of a Confucian scholar.
. Kawahigashi Hekigotoo 河東碧梧桐 Kawahigashi Hekigoto / Hekigodo .
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- quote
Shiki's last three haiku
sponge gourd has bloomed
choked by phlegm
a departed soul
gallons of phlegm
even the gourd water
couldn't clear it up
the gourd water
of the night before yesterday
they didn't get it either
It is said that fluid taken from a sponge gourd stem is effective in relieving coughing. The night before there was a full-moon The fluid collected on a full moon night was believed to be the best to clear phlegm up. Since Shiki was really dying, Shiki's family may have been too discouraged to collect fluid on the full-moon night.
One of his friends described that Shiki looked like a living mummy. On the next day of his 35th birthday he fell into a coma and then on the 19th his life came to end, while sponge gourd blossoms were in bloom in his garden.
We call the anniversary of Shiki's death "anniversary of sponge gourd.
source : Kimiyo Tanaka - Matsuyama
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***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets
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