Edo - the EDOPEDIA -

7/12/2013

BUSON - kawa - rivers

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. Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 in Edo .

A list of haiku about the famous rivers of Japan.
Buson has also written many poems about river in spring, river in winter and so on . . .

. WKD : kawa　川　river, rivers .

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阿武隈や五十四郡のおとし水
abukuma ya gojuushi gun no otoshi mizu

The Abukuma River;
Water drained off
Flows from fifty-four counties.
Tr. Shoji Kumano

. WKD : Abukumagawa 阿武隈川 in Fukushima .

淺川の西し東す若葉かな
. asakawa no nishi shi higashi su wakaba kana .
shallow river

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source :　katazome.com/buson

易水にねぶか流るる寒さかな
ekisui ni nebuka nagaruru samusa kana

A leek,
Floating down the Ekisui, -
Ah, the cold!
Tr. Blyth

According to Blyth:
Keika, of the kingdom of En, who intended to kill King Shi, of the kingdom of Shin, 222-206 B.C., parted from Prince Tan, of En, at this river in North China. (He failed, and was himself killed).

Buson has taken this long, cold leek and put it in a place a thousand miles away, and at a time of two thousand years ago. What a long way to go to express the apparently simple sensations of whiteness and cold!

The River Ekisui,
A leek is flowing;
How cold it is!
Tr. Shoji Kumano

along river Ekisui
a leek is floating down
in this cold . . .
Tr. Gabi Greve

The cut marker KANA is at the end of line 3.

. WKD : nebuka 葱 leek and Buson .
Buson was very fond of negi leek　葱　 (nebuka) and also of nira 韮 , Chinese garlic chives.

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春雨の中を流るる大河かな　
. harusame no naka o nagaruru taiga kana .
big river in spring rain

みじか夜の闇より出て大井川
mijikayo no yami yori idete ooigawa - (1774)

A short night --
Out of its darkness
Flows the Oi River.
Tr. Nelson / Saito

みじかよや2尺落ち行く大井川
mijikayo ya nishaku ochiyuku ooigawa - (1769)

A short night -
Dropping two inches
The Oi River.
Tr. Nelson / Saito

The short night--
the Oi River has sunk
two feet.
Tr. Hass

さみだれの大井越たるかしこさよ
samidare no Ôi koshitaru kashikosa yo

Early summer rains -
crossing the Oi River,
an accoplishment!
Tr. Sawa / Shiffert

With all the rains of May in the Ôi,
I have crossed it!
Pretty clever-- eh?
Tr. Henderson

. Ooigawa (大井川, Ōi-gawa) Oi River, Ohigawa .
The Ōi River flows from the Akaishi Mountains, the branch of the Japanese Southern Alps which form the border between Shizuoka, Nagano and Yamanashi prefectures.

. mijika yo 短夜 and haiku by Yosa Buson .

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すゞしさや都を竪にながれ川
suzushisa ya miyako o tatsu ni nagaregawa - (1768)

Coolness -
Through the capital from the north
A river flowing.
Tr. Nelson / Saito

A coolness -
lengthwise through the capital,
the flowing river.
Tr. Sawa / Shiffert

. Miyako 都 A river flowing through Kyoto. .

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行年や芥流るゝさくら川
yuku toshi ya akuta nagaruru sakuragawa - (1740)

A passing year -
Garbage drifting down
The Sakura River.
Tr. Nelson / Saito

the year about to end -
dirt and rubbish flowing
in the Sakura River
Tr. Ueda

The river Sakuragawa flows from the west side of Mount Tsukuba.

Buson refers to a famous Noh play, Sakuragawa.

quote
Sakuragawa (The River of Cherry Blossoms)
In the Sakura-no-Baba (Cherry Blossom Riding Grounds) in the province of Hyūga (the present-day Miyazaki Prefecture), a mother and a son lived in poverty. The son, Sakurago (Cherry Blossom Child), distressed at his mother’s hardships, sold himself to a human trafficker. The mother learnt by a letter from the trafficker that her son sold himself. In a frenzy of grief and tears, she dashed out from her house and set out on a journey to find Sakurago.
snip
This is one of the madwoman stories in which a mother, separated from her child, travels in her madness to look for that child. Although this piece has a happy ending, in which finally the child and mother meet, as it unfolds, the emotions of the son who pities his mother and of the mother who whole-heartedly loves her son are finely described and come to settle in the hearts of the audience.
source : www.the-noh.com/en

. WKD : Tsukubasan 筑波山　Mount Tsukuba .
Sakuragawa 桜川, 櫻川

- - - - - Naotaka Uematsu wrote:
. . . . . there is a tributary river of Yodo, Akuta(芥）-gawa near Takatsuki city.
And there is the canal named Sakuragawa in Osaka city.
Once I have been living near Akutagawa. I don't think this Haiku is concerned the Noo "Sakuragawa".
The canal Sakura-gawa was digged in 17c. and it's even now not clean. Akuta-gawa is the first grade river but the basin has been developed and the river becomes very narrow stream.

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春風や堤長うして家遠し
harukaze ya dote nagoo-shite ie tooshi

spring breeze -
the river bank so long and
my home so far

. Buson - harukaze - Discussion of the translation .

Part of the longer poem
. Shunpuu Batei kyoku 春風馬堤曲 Spring Wind on the Riverbank of Kema .

. Yodogawa 淀川　－ Osaka .

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ukawa 鵜川 river for cormorant fishing
The most famous is the Nagaragawa　長良川 in Gifu

朝風の吹きましたる鵜川哉
asakaze no fukisamashitaru ukawa kana

Mornig breeze has blown off
The excitement
Cormorant fishing-river.
Tr. Shoji Kumano

The cut marker KANA is at the end of line 3.

me fusaide soo no sugiyuku ukawa kana - (1769)

Eyes averted
A monk passes along--
Cormorant fishing in the river.
Tr. Nelson / Saito

naki tama mo tobu yo mama aru ukawa kana

Spirits of the dead
often flying over at night,
the cormorant-fishing river.
Tr. Sawa / Shiffert

殿原の名古屋貌なる鵜川かな
Tonobara no Nagoya kao naru ukawa kana

all men of high status
look like born in Nagoya
on a cormorant river
Tr. Gabi Greve

夜やいつの長良の鵜舟嘗て見し
yo ya itsu no Nagara no ubune katsute mishi

at night
we can see cormorant boats
on river Nagara
Tr. Gabi Greve

. WKD : ukai　鵜飼　cormorant fishing .

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nameless river　名もなき川

さみだれや名もなき川のおそろしき
samidare ya na mo naki kawa no osoroshiki - (1771)

Early summer rain -
A river even nameless
Frightening.
Tr. Nelson / Saito

The rainy season,
and the river with no name
a frightening thing.
Tr. Sawa / Shiffert

summer showers
a river with no name
has become fearful
Tr. Gilles Fabre

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. WKD : ABC- List of his works .

. Yosa Buson - Study Group on Facebook .

. WKD : Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 - Introduction .

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7/10/2013

BUSON - numbers

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Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村
(1715-1783)

. Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 in Edo .

. ABC - List of Buson's works in the WKD .

. WKD : Numbers used in Haiku and Kigo .

Buson used a lot of numbers in his poetry. Here is a list of some of them.

under construction

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ichi 一, hitotsu ひとつ　 one
hitori　一人　one person

一わたし遅れた人にしぐれ哉
. hito-watashi okureta hito ni shigure kana .
one ferry boat

一軒の茶見世の柳老にけり
. ikken no chamise no yanagi oi ni keri .
one tea house by the roadside

こがらしや炭売ひとりわたし舟
. kogarashi ya sumiuri hitori watashibune .
one charcoal vendor

みじか夜や浅瀬にのこる月一片
. mijikayo ya asase ni nokoru tsuki hitohira .
one sliver of the moon

白露や茨の刺にひとつづつ
. shiratsuyu ya ibara no toge ni hitotsu-zutsu .
one dewdrop on each thorn

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立去ル事一里眉毛に秋の峰寒し
tachisaru koto ichiri mayuge ni aki no mine samushi

one ri away
and my eyebrows feel
the cold of peaks in autumn

Written at 妙義山 Mount Myogi-San, Buson age 36.

ichiri 一里　one RI, about 4 km

For Yosa Buson, this mountain reminded him of the famous
峨眉山 Gabi San in China.
- note the pun with the Chinese character 眉 .

source : cardiac.exblog.jp

. Mount Myogisan 妙義山 - Gunma .

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ni 二 futatsu　ふたつ　two

二もとの梅に遅速を愛す哉
. futamoto no ume ni chisoku o aisu kana .
two ume trees

二村に質屋一軒冬こだち
. futa-mura ni shichiya ikken fuyu kodachi .
two villages, one pawn shop

蓮の香や水をはなるる茎二寸
. hasu no ka ya mizu o hanaruru kuki ni sun .
one SUN 寸 is about 3.03 cm.

このふた日砧聞えぬ隣かな　
. kono futahi kinuta kikoenu tonari kana .
two days

河骨の二もとさくや雨の中　
. koohone no futatsu mo saku ya ame no naka .
two spatterdocks

みじかよや2尺落ち行く大井川
. mijikayo ya nishaku ochiyuku ooigawa .
two shaku - one shaku is about 30 cm

五月雨や大河を前に家二軒
. samidare ya taiga no mae ni ie niken .
two houses near the swollen river

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ni san 二三 two or three

牡丹散て打かさなりぬ二三片
botan chirite uchikasanarinu nisanpen

peonies scatter . . .
two or three petals fall
on top of each other

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san 三　 mitsu みつ three

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go 五　itsutsu いつつ　five

買うて且うれしさよ炭五俵
. an koote katsu ureshisa yo sumi gohyoo .
five bags of charcoal

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hachi 八 eight

秋ふるや楠八畳の金閣寺　
. aki furu ya kusu hachijoo no Kinkakuji .
camphor wood board of eight tatami-mat size

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juu, to 十 ten　10

あなたうと茶もだぶだぶと十夜哉
. ana tooto cha mo dabu-dabu to juuya kana .
ten nights (of Amida Buddhist Prayers)

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gojuushi 五十四 - 54 　

阿武隈や五十四郡のおとし水
. abukuma ya gojuushi gun no otoshi-mizu .
fifty-four counties

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- - - - - dates and special days - - - - -

卯月八日死んで生まるる子は仏
. uzuki yooka 卯月八日 eighth day of the fourth lunar month - Buddha's Birthday .

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- - - - - ikutsu いくつ how many ? - - - - -

極楽の近道いくつ寒念仏
. gokuraku no chikamichi ikutsu kan nenbutsu .
how many shortcuts to paradise ?

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To join BUSON on Facebook, click the image!

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. WKD : Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 .

. Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 in Edo .

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7/06/2013

ISSA - chiri no mi

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. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .

chiri no mi　塵の身 this body of dust

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塵の身のちりより軽き小てふ哉
chiri no mi no chiri yori karuki kochou kana

small butterfly
lighter than the dust
of your dust body
Tr. Chris Drake

This hokku is from the 4th month (May) of 1824.
In Japanese mi in line 1 means both body and social status, and "dust body" was a standard metaphorical expression meaning 1) to have a social status or position (mi) so low no one pays any attention to you or cares about you, making you socially invisible, and 2) to live in the midst of the dusty, dirty world of ordinary affairs and become dusty and dirty yourself.

Issa seems to be using both the literal meaning of chiri as dust or small trash and the first metaphorical meaning of "dust body": being worthless, insignificant, or tiny. On the one hand, the small butterfly (and others like it) is usually marginalized and overlooked if not looked down on by humans and presumably by larger butterflies as well.

On the other hand, the small butterfly's incredibly light movements through the air show it to be even more mobile and less earthbound than motes of dust. It is so graceful and seemingly unbound by gravity that its small size and light weight are its greatest assets, and it leaves the dust of the world behind as it flies here and there very rapidly and seemingly at will. Issa thus turns the normal meaning of "dust body" on its head and uses it to praise the small butterfly.

And, since "dust body" is an expression used mostly with regard to humans, the lightness and flying ability of the small butterfly here may be suggesting that the people often referred to as the "dust" or "trash" of the society, people without wealth, power, or visibility, have the potential to transcend or leave their dust bodies in the normal, discriminatory sense behind as they fly around socially in unthinkable ways.

Chris Drake

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蝶とんで我身も塵のたぐひ哉
choo tonde waga mi mo chiri no tagui kana

butterfly flitting--
I too am made
of dust
Tr. David Lanoue

塵の身もともにふはふは紙帳哉
chiri no mi mo tomo ni fuwa-fuwa shichoo kana

this body of dust
suits this wispy-soft
paper mosquito net
Tr. David Lanoue

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poems using CHIRI but in the more real sense of DUST:

塵塚にあんな小蝶が生れけり
chirizuka ni anna ko chô ga umare keri

in the trash heap
that little butterfly
is born!
Tr. David Lanoue

老僧が塵拾ひけり苔の花
roosoo ga chiri hiroi keri koke no hana

the old priest
picks off the dust...
moss blossoms
Tr. David Lanoue

塵の身も拾ふ神あり花の春
chiri no mi mo hirou kami ari hana no haru

even for this body of dust
a guardian god!
blossoming spring

Shinji Ogawa explains that the phrase hirou kami ("the god who picks you up") is part of a longer expression:

捨てる神あれば拾う神あり
suteru kami areba hirou kami ari

"If a god discards you,
there must be another god who may pick you up".

Tr. and comment David Lanoue

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春風や柱の穴も花の塵
haru kaze ya hashira no ana mo hana no chiri

spring wind -
even in the pillar's hole
petals of cherry blossoms
Tr. Gabi Greve

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. WKD : Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 - Introduction .

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7/02/2013

BUSON - emotions

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Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村
(1715-1783)

. Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 in Edo .

. ABC- List of Yosa Buson's works in the WKD .

. WKD : Emotions expressed directly in Haiku .

Buson used a lot of word to express his emotions directly. Here is a growing ABC list.

under construction

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kanashii　悲しい　I feel sad
the full meaning is difficult to translate :
1. kawaii, itooshii 　悲しい／哀しい／愛しい　- loved, lovable, adorable, charming, sweet, cute, pretty . . .
2. kanashii, kawaisoo, itawashii - (sad, sorrowful,mournful, depressing, miserable, pathetic . . .

hatake ni mo narade kanashiki kareno kana

even it couldn't become a farm,
it's sad -
withered field
Tr. Stephen Addiss

Not even being farmed
How sad!
The withered field.
Tr. Nelson/Saito

悲しさや釣の糸ふく秋の風
. kanashisa ya tsuri no ito fuku aki no kaze .

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masuzhisa 貧しさ poverty, he is poor

鋸の音貧しさよ夜半の冬
. nokogiri no oto mazushisa yo yowa no fuyu .

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natsukashiki, natsukashii　懐かしい to remember fondly

. natsukashiki ge-gaki no sumi no nioi kana .

蜻蛉や村なつかしき壁の色　
. tonboo ya mura natsukashiki kabe no iro . 　　

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sabishii 　寂しい　I am lonely

さびしさのうれしくも有秋の暮
sabishisa no ureshiku mo ari aki no kure

in loneliness
there is also some joy—
autumn darkens
Tr. Stephen Addiss

In the solitude
There is pleasure, too--
Autumnal sunset.
Tr. Nelson/Saito

Being alone
may also be pleasant--
autumn dusk.
Tr. Sawa/ Shiffert

鮓おしてしばし淋しきこころかな
. sushi oshite shibaraku sabishiki kokoro kana .
my heart feels lonely

kochira muke ware mo sabishiki aki no kure

kyonen yori mata sabishii zo aki no kure

mugi no aki sabishiki kao no kyoujo kana

sabishisa ni hana sakinumeri yamazakura

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ureshi 　嬉　うれし I am happy

近道へ出てうれし野の躑躅かな
chikamichi e idete ureshi no no tsutsuji kana

taking a shortcut
I am so happy (to see)
azaleas in the fields . . .

The cut marker KANA is at the end of line 3.

買うて且うれしさよ炭五俵
. an koote katsu ureshisa yo sumi gohyoo .
an extra joy

enpo ni kuwa wo irete ureshiki

ikedayori sumi kureshi haru no samusa kana

kao shiroki ko no ureshisa yo makura gaya

kayarishite yadori ureshi ya kusa no tsuki

kotori kuru oto ureshisa yo itabisashi

me ni ureshi koigimi no ougi mashiro naru

natsukawa o kosu ureshisa yo te ni zoori

sabishisa no ureshiku mo ari akino kure (see sabishi)

saga e kaeru hito wa izuko no hana ni kureshi

so tomete ureshi to kaya o tako tsuru

tsutsuji saite ishi utsushitaru ureshisa yo

yane hikuki yado ureshisa yo fuyugomori

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7/01/2013

BUSON - onomatopoetic

. WKD : Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 in Edo .

. ABC- List of works by Yosa Buson in the WKD .

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ISSA - ishizue

source :　panoramio.com
ishizue from Hitachi Kokubunji Pagoda

soseki　礎石 Lit. foundation stone.
A base stone which receives the dead load of a pillar. The upper side of the base stone was made roughly level. Natural and processed stones both have a mortise *hozoana ほぞ穴, into which a tenon *hozo ほぞ, is inserted that extends from the bottom of the pillar. A tenon sometimes is cut into the base stone to be inserted into a corresponding mortise on the bottom of the pillar. Some base stones have an extension which serves as a sill or a ground plate, jifukuza 地覆座.

During the 7-8c a porous limestone called tufa *gyoukaigan 凝灰岩, was used and the developed of stone progressed. From the latter part of the 8c after floored buildings became common, stone processing declined. Many natural base stones were cut from andesite, anzangan 安山岩, a type of volcanic rock and granite, kakougan 花崗岩. A firmly packed bed of golfball-sized stones underlay base stones in the ancient period. The use of natural stones for base stones was common until the premodern age when carefully cut stones were used.
source : JAANUS

大寺の礎殘る野菊かな
ootera no ishizue nokoru nogiku kana

the foundation stones
of the big temple remain
amid wild chrysanthemums . . .
Tr. Gabi Greve

Masaoka Shiki　正岡子規 visiting Large Temples：
. Daiji, ootera, oodera 大寺 large temple .

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薄月の礎しめる柳哉
usu-zuki no ishizue shimeru yanagi kana

a willow
makes possible
this cloud-streaked moon
Tr. Chris Drake

This spring hokku was published in a New Year's collection in 1802. A faint moon seen through thin clouds is usually an autumn image, but the hokku is placed among spring hokku, so it seems to be about thin spring clouds, mist, or haze, with willows being the main seasonal image. The moon is dimly visible through thin clouds or mist, and its vague outline appears as a pale circle of light in the sky above a willow tree. If the clouds are moving, the moon may appear to be undulating or floating. The new leaves on the willow below are still small and give the whole tree a diffuse, swelling, cloudlike appearance, so the image does not seem to be about the thin, drooping limbs of the willow literally supporting the moon but about a tender balance and mutual dependence between sky and earth in which the moon on this night seems to find its basic shape in the even more diffuse, looming shape of the dimly moonlit willow below it. Somehow taught or visually supported by the willow, the cloud-streaked moon seems to be trying to realize one of its most basic forms. As for humans, without the support of the willow, we wouldn't be able to make out this very basic form of the moon: the moon couldn't exist this way for us without the willow down below.

Issa uses ishizue, 'foundation, basis, ground, support, foundation stone,' in a similar way in another early spring hokku from 1792:

harukaze ya ishizue shimeru asana-asana

spring wind --
the basic foundation
morning after morning

The days of spring seem to be defined by the early-morning strong wind. It blows hard to begin each day and sets the tone for the whole day, forming the basis for the way people experience and live through the spring.

Chris Drake

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礎や元日しまの巣なし鳥
ishizue ya ganjitsu shima no su nashi tori

cornerstone--
on New Year's morning
a bird without a nest
Tr. Lanoue

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6/24/2013

Buson - Yosa Buson

Read the main introduction here

. WKD : Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 - Introduction .
(1715-1783)

Around the age of 20, Buson moved to Edo and learned poetry under the tutelage of the haikai master Hayano Hajin.

Buson Ki 蕪村忌 Buson Memorial Day
December 25, 1784.

- - - - - Buson used a lot of alternate names:

Taniguchi Nobuaki (谷口信章), Yosa Nobuaki (与謝信章)
Busei (蕪菁), Chōkō (長康) Chookoo, Chōkyo (趙居) Chookyo, Chōsō (朝滄) Choosoo
Gasendō(雅仙堂) Gasendoo, Hajin(巴人), Hakuundō(白雲堂) Hakuundoo, Hekiundō(碧雲洞) Hekiundoo
In(寅), Rakujitsuan(落日庵), Saichō(宰鳥) Saichoo, Sanka(三果), Sansōdō(三草堂) Sansoodoo, Sessai(雪斎), Sha Shunsei(謝春星), Sha'in(謝寅), Shikoan(紫弧庵), Shimei(四明), Shinshō(信章) Shinshoo, Shunsei(春星)
Tōsei Saichō (東成宰鳥) Toosei Saichoo, Undō (雲堂) Undoo, Unsai (雲斎)
Yahan'ō (夜半翁) Yahano-Oo, Yahantei (夜半亭)

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白梅に明くる夜ばかりとなりにけり
shira-ume ni akuru yo bakari to nari ni keri

it is now the moment
when white plum blossoms
lighten into dawn
Tr. Crowley

. jisei 辞世 his death poem .

. His grave at 金福寺 Konpuku-Ji in Kyoto .

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Collected Haiku of Buson
By Richard C. Stclair

quote
Basho was a master of this practice and provided many hokku opening verses. He, with his "genius," as Professor Ueda puts it, infused artistic discipline into linked verse, and established the Basho style in this arena.

At the same time he also wrote many independent 5-7-5 syllable verses. His independent 17-syllable verses represented an innovative poetic form with a new aesthetics, branching away from the playful poetry of "haikai no renga," but it had no specific name.
Poets simply called it "ku."

Basho's disciples continued his more refined approach after his death, but by the time Buson came along decades later "haikai no renga" had slid back to a mere "lighthearted type of linked poetry." Hence the "Back to Basho" movement arose, with Buson as its central force. Buson was an active participant in "haikai no renga" with those who shared his aesthetic values. He contributed many "hokku." He also composed "ku."

The product of all these literary activities during the Edo period was covered as "a genre of literature," again to quote Professor Ueda, by the blanket term "haikai."
- Mrs. Takako Lento
source : www.amazon.com/review

The Permanence of Bashō
Yet, he [Buson] distinctly differed from Bashō in some ways.
The most important difference was that in the person of Buson there was usually a certain distance between the man and the poet. Buson, as a man living his daily life, was often remote from the reality presented in his poem.

- The master haiku Poet Matsuo Basho -
. WKD : Makoto Ueda and Basho .

under construction
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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 -

- BUSON - special pages of this BLOG about

. - - Emotions expressed directly by Yosa Buson - - .
- - - kanashii, sabishii, ureshii and more

. - - Numbers used by Yosa Buson - - .

. - - Onomatopoetic Words used by Yosa Buson - - .

. haru 春 spring .

. harusame 春雨 spring rain .

. jinja　神社 miya - Shinto shrines .

. kakashi 案山子かかし - kagashi　鹿驚 scarecrow . .

. koromogae 更衣　- 衣替え　change the robes for summer . .

. mijika yo, mijikayo 　短夜 short night .

. nishi higashi　西東 "West - East" the four directions .

. sake 酒 ricewine rice wine - Reiswein .

. tera　寺 Buddhist temple, temples .

. tsuki 月　the moon in all seasons .

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. Yosa Buson - Collections - 蕪村句集 Kushu .
Dengaka, Denga-Ka 澱河歌 - Three Songs on Yodo River
Shunpuu Bateikyoku 春風馬堤曲 - collage in which Chinese-style verses
Hokujuu Roosen o itamu 北寿老仙を悼む - for Hayami Shinga 早見晋我

. Yosa Buson - Four Seasons - Collection .

. Reference - Books, Articles, external LINKS - .

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October 2015 - Hundreds of poems by haiku master Buson discovered
at the Tenri Central Library

The anthology contains 212 previously unknown haiku poems.
A total of about 2,900 haiku poems have been attributed to Buson.
Tenri Library (near Nara) announced on 14 Oct. that they had discovered two new books of original haiku by Yosa Buson: one volume of Spring & Summer poems, the other of Autumn & Winter ones.

蜻蛉や眼鏡をかけて飛歩行
kageroo ya megane o kakete tobiaruki

Large-eyed dragonfly
flies from here to there
while wearing glasses.

傘も化けて目のある月夜かな
karakasa mo bakete me no aru tsukiyo kana

Paper umbrella
with holes poking through allows
moonlight to shine down.

The poems are contained in two volumes that are copies of an anthology put together by Buson's disciples while he was alive.
- source : asahi newspaper and hailhaiku -

- Look at the manuscript here:

我焼し野に驚や屮の花
ware yakishi no ni odoroku ya kusa no hana

- source : isao3264.exblog.jp-

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- Discussions of facebook -

. Comparing Basho and Buson - and Makoto Ueda .

. Buson the painter and haijin .

To join BUSON on Facebook, click the image!

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- source : Yosa Buson by Tom McAuley - 99 Hokku -

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#yosabuson #buson
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6/18/2013

ISSA - kasen - pine shade

celebrating peace in the land --

松蔭に寝てくふ六十よ州かな
matsukage ni nete kuu rokujuu yo shuu kana

sleeping and eating
in pine shade -- more than
sixty provinces

Issa

tsuru to asoban kame to asoban

let's be friends with the cranes
let's be friends with the turtles

Kakuroo

tsukikage no dandan hosoki haru nare ya

the moon
grows thinner
along with spring

Issa

yaeyamabuki no kakusu andon

a portable lamp hidden
by wild yellow roses

Issa

These are the first four verses of a 36-verse renku kasen sequence Issa composed with the Tendai-school priest Kakuroo ( 鶴老), or Old Man Crane in the 2nd month (March) of 1812, when Issa visited Kakurou's temple in the area east of Edo. Issa attached a headnote to characterize the mood of the sequence, especially the hokku. It is a phrase that means the hokku celebrates the fact that Japan has been at peace under the rule of the Tokugawa shoguns for more than two centuries. The Tokugawa shoguns came from the Matsudaira (Pine Level) clan, so long-lived, always green pine trees were a widely used symbol for the "eternal" rule of the shogunate. Referring directly to this image of the shogunate, Issa uses an old ritual phrase and writes that all of the more than 60 provinces of Japan were at peace, and people can eat and have a place to sleep thanks to ("in the shadow of") the peace brought by the Matsudaira shogunate. Of course Issa is not praising the shogunate unconditionally, but he does thank the regime for bringing peace to Japan after centuries of civil war. Issa surely knows many farmers and even many people in Edo are homeless or starving or close to starving, but his hokku is a ritualistic semi-prayer more than a pure description or observation.

In Issa's diary the hokku is placed in the 2nd month section among a group of celebratory hokku using pines, bamboo, cranes, and turtles to praise the new year and pray for health, prosperity, and long life. The season of this hokku isn't clear, and strictly speaking the hokku is seasonless, but since it is a celebratory hokku, Issa seems to be using it as a designated or makeshift New Year's hokku in the wider sense, with the Matsudaira ruling clan serving in place of the New Year's pine decorations. It is also therefore implicitly a prayer for continued peace or perhaps even for true peace and prosperity for everyone in Japan in the future. Although the pine shade in the hokku was later interpreted by some as referring to Basho, Issa's headnote indicates that this was not his main intent at the time he composed the hokku with Kakurou. If the pine shade refers to anyone specific beyond the shoguns, then it would be to Issa's host Kakurou.

A hokku, normally written by the guest, contains a greeting to the host of the renku sequence, and by referring to New Year's pines and their association with longevity, Issa is wishing the host Kakurou a long, healthy life. Since Kakurou's name contains the word crane, Issa is also referring to the fact that cranes often nest or rest in pines and are linked with them as symbols of longevity and good health.

In the wakiku, verse 2, the host Kakurou also takes Issa's hokku to be a half-mythic semi-prayer for peace in Japan as well as a greeting to him, so it, too, seems to be a makeshift New Year's verse responding to Issa's makeshift New Year's verse. In this kasen, Kakurou replies to Issa, suggesting that they become friends with with felicitous cranes and turtles and have a good time with them. Most immediately, it means that Kakurou, as a crane, wants to have a pleasant, friendly time with Issa as they write the kasen sequence. Since cranes were said to live a thousand years and turtles ten thousand years, he is also wishing Issa a long, healthy life in return, thus establishing a positive, festive mood for the sequence. Kakurou also seems to be comparing Japan to one of the decorations brought out at New Year's and at weddings: a small table with an island shape on it representing the Daoist island of eternal youth, known as Horai in Japan. On the small bonsai island are one or more pines and bamboos as well as cranes and turtles. The whole of Japan, Kakurou suggests, continuing the celebratory mood, is like Horai Island, where everyone can live a long life in peace and harmony and be friends with cranes and turtles.

However, the third verse, the daisan, swerves away from the hokku's mythical, utopian language and returns to the world of time and change. The spring moon -- since New Year's must be left behind, I take this to be the third-month moon -- is getting thinner and thinner as spring comes to an end. It would be nice to play around with idealized cranes and turtles all the time, but in the real world the cranes are taking to the sky and flying north, leaving Japan behind. At the same time, a crescent moon hangs softly in the warming sky. The late spring nights are becoming dark, with only a sliver of moon remaining, and someone has carried a portable frame lamp outside to do something, perhaps finish some work.

The lamp has been left on the far side a bush of yellow mountain roses (Japanese kerria plena), and the bush is now heavy with the blooming flowers. The color of the roses may be just visible in the mostly hidden light of the lamp, and there is a curious symmetry between heaven and earth: between the narrow, mostly hidden moon and the light of the lamp mostly hidden by the mountain rose bush. Issa has followed a spring moon with another spring verse -- something he couldn't do if the first two verses were spring verses and not designated New Year's verses -- but the next verse, no. 5, is a summer verse directly following only two spring verses, something a bit different from classic Basho-style renku, a placement which, along with the loose definition of semi-New Year's status for the first two verses, shows the interesting flexibility of renku composition in Issa's age. Would Basho have raised his eyebrows?

The above is only a brief sketch of what seems to be going on in the first four verses of this interesting sequence and is intended only to put the hokku in context.

Chris Drake

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6/15/2013

ISSA - robes

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. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .

In the Heian period, seasonal cloths were quite important.
robes for spring, haru goromo 春衣
. yanagi gasane 柳重 willow robes .

. kimono robes and haiku 着物 .

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No Clothes

明ぼのの春早々に借着哉
akebono no haru haya-baya ni karigi kana

they try to lend me
fancy New Year's clothes
to show off at dawn
Tr. Chris Drake

This humorous hokku was written on the first of the 9th month (October) of 1803, four months before New Year's, so Issa is apparently talking about the future and what he'll do or won't do at dawn on the first day of the coming new year. There is no tense in the hokku, so in English it could be either in the present or the future tense. The hokku as a whole is a reply to an ancient Chinese poem, and my translation is of the whole reply.

The headnote of the hokku is the title of poem 133 (see translation below) in the ancient Chinese Book of Poems or Book of Odes (詩経), which Issa began studying five months before he wrote this hokku. If you read the Chinese poem, it's clear that "clothes" means the proper clothes, that is, military or fighting clothes and equipment. The poem is written from the point of view of the king of the aggressive Qin (or Ch'in) kingdom, which later gained control of China for a short time. Putting aside possible allegorical layers of meaning and reading the poem straightforwardly, as Issa probably did, one of the Qin king's officials is trying to persuade former war heroes ("you") to once again put on fighting clothes and equipment and help the king carry out a new military campaign. Many of the former warriors seem to be resisting the idea of going back to war, however, claiming they no longer have any fighting clothes or equipment and therefore can't join in. Not having the proper clothes is of course an indirect expression that allows the warriors to avoid going to war without having to say so.

By placing the title of the ironic Chinese poem next to his hokku, Issa puts himself in the position of the former warriors in the poem who want to avoid going to war again. The Qin king's point of view is represented by people around Issa who want him to get the proper nice robes to wear at New Year's so he can go around saying formal New Year's greetings to all sorts of people. When Issa was the assistant and scribe for the haikai master of the Katsushika school while he was in his twenties, he surely borrowed nice robes from the master to wear at formal meetings and on holidays, especially at New Year's, but after that Issa traveled like a vagabond around western Japan for several years, and even after his return to the Edo area he has barely been able to support himself.

Buying a samurai-style formal thick robe together with a two-part kami-shimo outer vest and trousers to wear at New Year's would have been out of the question at the time Issa wrote this hokku, and his friends may have been kidding him about his informal clothing, asking him how he intends to become an established haikai master. Many merchants imitated samurai fashions and had at least one set of nice robes, and some of Issa's merchant students may also have suggested he "level up" his wardrobe.

Issa's hokku is apparently a humorous reply to his fashion critics. Thanks but no thanks, the hokku suggests. Issa no doubt likes formal duds about as much as he likes samurai armor and war, and, following the strategy of the resisting former warriors addressed in the Chinese poem, the hokku seems to be a roundabout way of saying there's no possible way anyone's going to get him to wear stiff, formal robes at New Year's. And in fact Issa's one hokku written on the next New Year's Day, four months after this hokku, says he's been lying around inside.

No Clothes

How shall it be said that you have no clothes ?
I will share my long robes with you.
The king is raising his forces ;
I will prepare my lance and spear,
And will be your comrade.

How shall it be said that you have no clothes ?
I will share my under clothes with you.
The king is raising his forces ;
I will prepare my spear and lance,
And will take the field with you.

How shall it be said that you have no clothes ?
I will share my lower garments with you.
The king is raising his forces ;
I will prepare my buffcoat and sharp weapons,
And will march along with you.
Tr. James Legge

Chris Drake

Shi Jing - The Book of Odes -

source : www.sacred-texts.com

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6/10/2013

Konchi-In Suden Priest

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. Edo bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government .
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Konchi-In Suuden 金地院崇伝 Priest Konchin Suden - Ishin Suuden 以心崇伝
（1569―1633）

Ishin Sūden (以心崇伝, 1569-1633?) also known as Konchiin Sūden, was a Zen Rinzai monk and advisor to Tokugawa Ieyasu, and later to Tokugawa Hidetada and Iemitsu on religious matters and foreign affairs.
He played a significant role in the initial development of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Sūden oversaw the administration of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in the country alongside Itakura Katsushige, and was involved in a great many diplomatic affairs along with advisors Hayashi Razan and Honda Masazumi. Sūden made his home at the Konchi-in temple 金地院 he founded in Sunpu, and founded another one by the same name in Edo in 1618. He was abbot of Nanzen-ji 南禅寺 in Kyoto.

Sūden played an important role in negotiations with the Chinese Ming court over the reopening of trade and the problem of piracy. Sūden was also involved in communications with the Spanish authorities in Manila and with the Kingdom of Siam. He was instrumental in organizing and receiving Korean embassies to Japan. He drafted a great many communications during this period, some of the more notable ones being rejections of the notion that the shogun should be referred to as a "king" (王, ō), as this would imply subordination to the Emperor of China and tributary status within the Sinocentric world order.

Among his other works was the draft in 1615 of the Buke shohatto, which he then read at an assembly of daimyō at Fushimi, and the draft of the edict banning Christianity in the previous year. In 1616, he oversaw the funeral services for Tokugawa Ieyasu, along with priests Tenkai and Bonshun.

Sūden compiled all the diplomatic records of his period of service into the Ikoku nikki 異国日記(Chronicle of Foreign Countries). He authored the Honkō kokushi nikki 本光国師法語 (Chronicles of Master Honkō), both of which remain valuable primary sources on the nature of diplomacy of the time, and on specific events.
source - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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quote
Konchi-in Temple 金地院

It is said that Konchi-in Temple was constructed in Kitanomaru (the northern precinct) of Edo Castle
by 僧崇伝 the monk Sūden in 1619, and that it was relocated to this area in 1639.
Tokyo Tower now stands in what was once the inner ground of this temple.
Sūden 京都南禅寺金地院 managed the Konchi-in Temple
concurrently with the Konchi-in of the Nanzen-ji Temple in Kyōto,
and it is said that he, along with 天海大僧正 Tenkai Daisōjo, who built 寛永寺 Kanei-ji Temple,
was a behind-the-scenes chancellor of the Edo Shōgunate government.
. Tokyo Metropolitan Database .

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quote
Konchiin Temple　金地院
Konchiin Temple belongs to the Nanzenji school of the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism.
Originally established at Takagamine in 1400 .
It was moved to its present site at the beginning of the Edo Period by Ishin Suden.
The Hojo hall is specified for the important cultural asset. In the room, there is famous partition paintings created by Kano school.
The Hassoseki teahouse was designed by Kobori Enshu. It is specified for the important cultural asset.

Hojo Garden(The dry landscape garden,called The Garden of Crane and tortoise) was completed in 1632 by Kobori Enshu. It is renowend as fine examples of the dry landscape garden from the beginning of the Edo Period.
source : kyotokanko.co.jp

. Konchi-In 金地院 - Shiba .
東京都港区芝公園3-5-4 / Tokyo, Minato ward, ShibaKoen

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. Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康 .

. Buke shohatto 武家諸法度 Laws for the Samurai .
They had been compiled by a number of scholars in service to the shogunate including Ishin Sūden, and were aimed primarily at limiting the power of the daimyō and thus protecting the shogunate's control over the country.

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6/02/2013

ISSA - tetsuki

A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of speech or together and in parallel with words. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or other parts of the body. Gestures differ from physical non-verbal communication that does not communicate specific messages, such as purely expressive displays, proxemics, or displays of joint attention.

Gestures allow individuals to communicate a variety of feelings and thoughts, from contempt and hostility to approval and affection, often together with body language in addition to words when they speak.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

. How to count on your fingers - in Japanese .

. Daruma Mudra and dharma-cakra-pravartana.

. Kuhonbutsu 九品仏 the Nine Mudras of Amida .

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蜻蛉もおがむ手つきや稲の花
tonboo mo ogamu tetsuki ya ine no hana

rice ripening --
dragonfly, too, hands
in prayer position
Tr. Chris Drake

This autumn hokku was written in the 9th month (October) 1819, the year evoked by Issa in Year of My Life, and the rice heads are ripe and bending over just before harvest. Perhaps the dragonfly is now on one head of ripe rice, and two of its six legs are touching at their tips as if they were palms placed together in prayer or thanks for the good harvest. Or perhaps the dragonfly holds its front two legs around a husk of rice in a way that suggests folded hands. Issa was a realistic and knowledgeable person, however, and it's unclear whether he actually believes dragonflies express thanks by imitating the hands of humans. It's impossible to know from the language of this hokku whether Issa thinks the dragonfly is literally praying or not, so each reader must make her or his own interpretation.

The word tetsuki, "shape, appearance of the hands" suggests to me that Issa knows the dragonfly isn't intentionally folding its front two legs together as if they were hands. My guess is Issa is suggesting that it's a miracle simply that the dragonfly has made a shape that humans can interpret as being an expression of prayer, even though he knows that the shape of two of the dragonfly's "hands" in itself isn't a prayer. Surely Issa realizes the dragonfly must be expressing its thanks in its own complex dragonfly-like way to the rice for providing it with a watery paddy home, yet he's glad that the dragonfly's "hand shape" happens to provide humans with a wonderful utopian "what if" moment.

In another hokku Issa clearly uses "hand shape" to contrast the shape with the reality. In 1825 he mentions the Buddha's hand shape in a hokku about Shakyamuni's birthday, traditionally celebrated on lunar 4/8. The ceremonies include pouring sweet tea over a small statue of Shakyamuni Buddha as a baby in order to symbolically bathe it. The statue is of the baby Buddha standing with his right arm raised and his left arm hanging down, since it is believed that soon after being born the Buddha pointed to heaven with one finger on his right hand and pointed at earth with one finger on his left hand. Thus the right hand of the statue of the baby Buddha usually points heavenward with one finger or sometimes two fingers, a shape that reminds Issa of the hand shape of a child making a strict promise by sticking up its little finger and then hooking it around the little finger of the person to whom the promise is made (see the picture of a baby Buddha below).
Here is Issa's hokku:

kanbutsu wa yubi-kiri o suru tetsuki kana

bathing baby Buddha --
his hand shape a finger-promise
to the other kids

Issa does not of course think the statue of the baby Buddha is actually making a finger-promise, but the thought of the baby Buddha making a child's promise is inspirational and mind-opening and is a real contribution to our way of thinking about the Buddha and his compassion toward children. In the same way, the thought that the dragonfly looks as if it were actually praying is inspirational and delightful -- as is Issa's somewhat similar request in another hokku to some melons to become frogs.

Issa likely knows from observation or from farm lore that dragonflies are not passive. Rather, they are active protectors of the rice plants. They are carnivores who eat smaller insects, so the dragonfly in this hokku must be vigilantly waiting as it tries to spot smaller, harmful insects flying by. Traditionally the presence of dragonflies was believed to be a sign of good luck for a rice paddy, and probably the main reason was because dragonflies were known to eat harmful insects and thus significantly reduce crop damage. Surely Issa was aware of this traditional relationship, and he may regard the presence of the protector dragonfly to be part of a wordless mutual expression of thanks exchanged between the rice and the dragonfly, each of which is indebted to the other.

Issa often expresses his personal dislike for working in rice paddies and admits feelings of guilt for usually staying inside while tenant farmers and sometimes his wife did the actual rice farming on the land he received as an inheritance from his father. But he no doubt sometimes looked closely at the rice, especially at harvest time, and he must have been fascinated by the small occurrences going on in the paddies, so I take the mo, "too," in this hokku to include Issa's point of view as well as the view of his wife and the farmers renting his fields.

Here's a photo of people at Sensoji temple in Asakusa in Edo/Tokyo, a temple often visited by Issa. The visitors pray and pour sweet tea over the statue of the baby Buddha on his traditional birthday. The Buddha's right forefinger is in a shape that to Issa resembles the way a child sticks up a finger in order to make a promise:

source :　www.asakusa.gr.jp

Chris Drake

. WKD : Busshoo-e 仏生会 Buddha's Birthday Celebrations .

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法談の手つきもかすむ御堂かな
hoodan no tetsuki mo kasumu midoo kana

the preacher's
hand gestures too ...
lost in temple mist
Tr. David Lanoue

Read the comment of Chris Drake here :
. WKD : Preaching the Sutras お経　o-kyoo　 .

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