Haiku Topics (02) ..... (WKD - - TOPICS are not kigo )

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2009-12-29T22:58:00.000-08:00

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Sarashinayama, Kamurikiyama

2009-07-05T21:27:00.000-07:00

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Sarashinayama, Kamurikiyama

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

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Explanation

Sarashinayama さらしなやま【更科山】 is the old name of a mountain in Nagano prefecture, now called Kamurikiyama 冠着山. It is 547 meters high.

Ubasuteyama (姨捨山) is the common name of Kamurikiyama (冠着山), a mountain in Chikuma, Nagano, Japan.

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Ubasute (姥捨, abandoning an old woman) (also called "obasute" and sometimes "oyasute") refers to the custom allegedly performed in Japan in the distant past, whereby an infirm or elderly relative was carried to a mountain, or some other remote, desolate place, and left there to die, either by dehydration, starvation, or exposure. It "is the subject of legend, but [...] does not seem ever to have been a common custom".The practice was most common during times of drought and famine, and was sometimes mandated by feudal officials.

Ubasute has left its mark on Japanese folklore, where it forms the basis of many legends, poems, and koans. In one Buddhist allegory, a son carries his mother up a mountain on his back. During the journey, she stretches out her arms, catching the twigs and scattering them in their wake, so that her son will be able to find the way home.

A poem commemorates the story:

In the depths of the mountains,
Who was it for the aged mother snapped
One twig after another?
Heedless of herself
She did so
For the sake of her son

©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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External LINK with photos
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/walking-in-the/mountains-in-japan/kamurikiyama.htm

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Worldwide use

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Things found on the way

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HAIKU

一度見度さらしな山や帰る雁
ichido mitaki Sarashina yama ya kaeru kari

all eager to see
Mount Sarashina...
departing geese

我恋はさらしな山ぞかへる雁
waga koi wa sarashina yama zo kaeru kari

"My lover
is at Mount Sarashina!"
the goose flies north

Kobayashi Issa
3 haiku about Mount Sarashina / Tr. by David Lanoue

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Related words

***** WKD : Japanese place names and Haiku

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Hoshino Tsubaki

2009-07-01T21:57:00.000-07:00

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Hoshino Tsubaki 星野椿
ほしのつばき
1930 -

Born in Tokyo. Daughter of Hoshino Tatsuko 星野立子 (1903 -1984).
Her Grandfather was Takahama Kyoshi 高浜虚子.
Her Son is Hoshino Takashi 星野高士.

With her son Takashi, she runs the Memorial Hall of Kyoshi in Kamakura.
鎌倉虚子立子記念館　
http://www.geocities.jp/kamakurakyositatsuko/index.htm

I saw Tsubaki Sensei on TV in June 2009, energetic as I remember her from my time in Kamakura.
She proclaimed :
"Back to the heart of a beginner"

Tsubaki, the Camellia

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Modern masterpieces by Japanese haiku poets
by Susumu Takiguchi

hototogisu/naku kata no mado/akete oku

I leave the window open
where a cuckoo is singing

One of the most influential haiku poets living in Japan today, Tsubaki is a quintessential neoclassical haijin. Hototogisu, a cuckoo, is also the name of the school and the celebrated haiku magazine her grandfather, Kyoshi, founded, as well as one of the most frequently used kigo seasonal words. The bird is almost a symbol of the haiku life.

yuu-Fuji ni/eda sashi-nobete/kaeri-bana

a branch stretching
toward the evening Mt. Fuji,
a bloom out of season

Reverence for the most sacred mountain in Japan is also a form of reverence for Japan itself, its past, its culture and values. Cherry blossom are also revered. Put the unseasonable bloom in winter against the view of the mountain in the evening sun, the sense of reverence is so much more heightened. The branch is a metaphor of the author herself and of the sentiment of all Japanese people. This haiku epitomizes the essence of neoclassical haiku, or even haiku itself, of the self-contained people of a self-contained nation.

Kamakura wa/ nami no oto yori/ake yasushi

in Kamakura
dawn breaks from the sound of waves,
getting earlier and earlier

Kamakura is where Kyoshi lived and worked most of his life after leaving his hometown, Matsuyama. Tsubaki and her son, Takashi, have founded a haiku museum there in honor of Kyoshi and of Tsubaki's mother, Tatsuko. The museum has become a center of haiku studies and composition. As the haiku indicates, residents of this coastal town are always conscious of the sea.
Kyoshi founded a new haiku magazine, Tamamo, and gave it to Tatsuko to run.
Now it is run by Tsubaki Hoshino and Takashi.
by Susumu Takiguchi, January 2006, Daily Yomiuri

WKD : Kamakura, Kyoshi and the Hoshino Family

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蛍火のもつれつつ闇深まりし　　　　
hotarubi no moretsutsu yami fukamarishi

darkness
grows darker and darker
with the sparkles of fireflies　　　　　

NHK BS「俳句王国」H.21.6.20
http://www.nhk.or.jp/haiku/html/haiku21-6-20.htm

While the poet was looking for fireflies, the darkness slowly became even darker. In Japanese, the TSUTSU gives this haiku its special life.

(free translation, Gabi Greve)

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Related words

***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets

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Tosa Nikki

2009-04-23T18:14:00.000-07:00

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Tosa Diary (Tosa Nikki)

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

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Explanation

Tosa Nikki 土佐日記 Tosa Diary

by
Ki no Tsurayuki 紀貫之
872-945)

Nikki bungaku (日記文学) is a genre of Japanese diary literature including prominent works such as the Tosa Nikki, Kagerō Nikki, and Murasaki Shikibu Nikki. While diaries began as records imitating daily logs kept by Chinese government officials, private and literary diaries emerged and flourished during the Heian period (794-1192 AD).

Although scholars have found diaries dating back to the eighth century, most of those were mere records kept on daily matters of state. At that time, Japan looked to China as a model of culture and civilization and sought to copy Chinese official government diaries. Thus, early Japanese diaries were factual, written in Chinese characters, and influenced by official, male perspectives.
Ki no Tsurayuki (872?-945), a famed poet and author, is credited with writing the first literary diary.

His Tosa Nikki, written in 935, records his journey from Tosa in Shikoku to Kyoto through the alleged perspective of a female companion. Departing from the tradition of diaries written in Chinese, Tsurayuki used vernacular Japanese characters, waka poetry, and a female narrator to convey the emotional aspects of the journey.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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Ki no Tsurayuki
was a Japanese author, poet and courtier of the Heian period.

Tsurayuki was a son of Ki no Mochiyuki. He became a waka poet in the 890s. In 905, under the order of Emperor Daigo, he was one of four poets selected to compile the Kokin Wakashū, an anthology of poetry.

After holding a few offices in Kyoto, he was appointed the provincial governor of Tosa province and stayed there from 930 until 935. Later he was presumably appointed the provincial governor of Suo province, since it was recorded that he held a waka party (Utaai) at his home in Suo.

He is well-known for his waka and is counted as one of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals selected by Fujiwara no Kinto. He was also known as one of the editors of the Kokin Wakashū. Tsurayuki wrote one of two prefaces to Kokin Wakashū; the other is in Chinese. His preface was the first critical essay on waka. He wrote of its history from its mythological origin to his contemporary waka, which he grouped into genres, referred to some major poets and gave a bit of harsh criticism to his predecessors like Ariwara no Narihira.

His waka is included in one of the important Japanese poetry anthologies, the Hyakunin Isshu, which was compiled in the 13th century by Fujiwara no Teika, long after Tsurayuki's death.

Besides the Kokin Wakashū and its preface, Tsurayuki's major literary work was the Tosa nikki (土佐日記) (Tosa Diary), which was written using kana.
The text details a trip in 935 returning to Kyoto from Tosa province, where Tsurayuki had been the provincial governor.
Most researchers have long believed that Tsurayuki impersonated a woman, because they assume that kana was usually by women in the Heian Period.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

collecting
Haiku about Titles of Literature

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Worldwide use

Die alte Provinz Tosa
Tosa ist der alte Name der heutigen Präfektur Koochi. Tosa war in früheren Zeiten über die steilen Berge von Zentral-Shikoku kaum zu erreichen und der einfachste Zugang war mit dem Schiff. In dem bekannten „Tagebuch von Tosa“ beschreibt Ki no Tsurayuki (872-945) den fünfjährigen Aufenthalt des Statthalters von Tosa in diesem Hinterland und seine Reise zur Hauptstadt Kyoto, allerdings aus der Sicht einer Hofdame gesehen. Dieses Tagebuch ist eines der ersten seiner Art in der japanischen Tagebuch-Literaturgeschichte.
Dank seiner Abgelegenheit war Tosa auch die Endstation einiger Adeliger, die ins Exil geschickt wurden und so ihre höfische Kultur mit in diese Gegend brachten.
Gabi Greve

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Things found on the way

Sweets from Tosa

銘菓「土佐日記」饅頭 Manju

WASHOKU : Dishes from Kochi (Koochi　高知)

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HAIKU

土佐日記懐にあり散る桜
Tosa Nikki futokoro ni ari chiru sakura

in my breast pocket
I carry the "Tosa Diary" -
cherry blossoms fall

Takahama Kyoshi 虚子

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Related words

***** Food from Tosa

***** Museum Haiku about famous Paintings

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Tundra

2009-04-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

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Tundra

***** Location: Northern Hemisphere
***** Season: Non-seasonal Topic
***** Category: Earth

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Explanation

quote
In physical geography, tundra is a biome
where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons.
The term tundra comes from Kildin Sami tūndâr, which means "uplands, treeless mountain tract." There are two types of tundra: Arctic tundra (which also occurs in Antarctica) and alpine tundra. In tundra, the vegetation is composed of dwarf shrubs, sedges and grasses, mosses, and lichens. Scattered trees grow in some tundra. The ecotone (or ecological boundary region) between the tundra and the forest is known as the tree line or timberline.

Climatic classification
Tundra climates ordinarily fit the Köppen climate classification ET, signifying a local climate in which at least one month has an average temperature high enough to melt snow (0°C or 32°F), but no month with an average temperature in excess of (10°C/50°F). The cold limit generally meets the EF climates of permanent ice and snows; the warm-summer limit generally corresponds with the poleward or altitudinal limit of trees, where they grade into the subarctic climates designated Dfd and Dwd (extreme winters as in parts of Siberia), Dfc typical in Alaska, Canada, European Russia, and Western Siberia (cold winters with months of freezing), or even Cfc (no month colder than -3°C as in parts of Iceland and southernmost South America). Tundra climates as a rule are hostile to woody vegetation even where the winters are comparatively mild by polar standards, as in Iceland.

Scarcity or lushness (by polar standards) of native vegetation of tundra regions depends more upon the severity of the temperatures than upon the scarcity or copiousness of precipitation. The alpine tundra also lacks in precipitation compared to the Arctic tundra.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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PLACE NAMES used in HAIKU

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Worldwide use

Japan

tsundora ツンドラ tundra
toodo tai 凍土帯 region with frozen soil

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Things found on the way

Tundra
is a journal for short poetry rooted in the crystal image,
edited by Michael Dylan Welch.
For Tundra, I have a strong preference for poems of 13 or fewer lines, particularly haiku, senryu, tanka, and related Japanese forms.
source : www.haikuworld.org, January 1999

Tundra: The Journal of the Short Poem

"I myself define a short poem as any poem that will fit comfortably on a single normal-sized page--so should not be more than twenty normal lines in length."
source : Michael Dylan Welch, June 2002

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HAIKU

best known minimalist haiku of all-time

tundra

Cor van den Heuvel

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summer sun ~
the honking of snow geese
on the tundra

Martin Cohen
http://tinywords.com/haiku/2001/08/03/

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Polar night --
sparkle of precious stones
in a tundra sky

Olga Hooper
WKD . Polar night : Kigo for Winter

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***** Siberia, Hokkaido, Okinawa
topic for Haiku
Although Siberia and Hokkaido seem cold places,they are not consequently kigo for winter.
Although Okinawa seems a warm place, it is not consequently a kigo for summer.
And so on for other larger areas of the world.

***** Tundra swan (kohakuchoo)
kigo for winter

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One Day Saijiki

2009-04-03T23:10:00.000-07:00

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One Day Saijiki

ichinichi saijiki 一日歳時記

イチニチサイジキ /　ワンデイサイジキ

一日（ワンデイ）歳時記

金田一　秀穂 Kindaichi Hideho
ISBN： 9784093878036

Kigo and haiku collection from morning to evening and then the night ...
with beautifull photos ...

Have you ever considered
how many kigo there are
in the course of one day ?

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Things found on the way

bird catching in the morning 朝鳥狩（あさとがり）asatogari

Dawn moon in autumn (ariakezuki)Japan.
mist in the morning, ariake gasumi.

Dawn in spring, Spring morning light (shungyoo, haru no akebono)
Spring morning (haru no asa) and others

Morning-Glory (asagao) Japan
..... Bindweed (hirugao). Evening Face (yorugao)

Morning east wind (asagochi)
northwind in the morning, asagita 朝北風（あさぎた）

Morning Market (asa ichi, asa-ichi, asaichi) Morgenmarkt Japan

Morning star (myoojoo), evening star, venus Japan, worldwide

New Year's Morning 元朝 (がんちょう) ganchoo
and related kigo

sleeping in the morning 朝寝 (あさね) asane

Spring morning (haru no asa, haru no akebono)
and more SPRING MORNING KIGO

..... Today (kyoo), tomorrow (asu)Japan. This morning (kesa)

Trumpet Flower (datura) Korean Morning Glory, Mandala Flower

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Long days (hinaga), long nights (nagaki yo)

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Autumn dusk (aki no kure)
and related kigo

Evening at home, nightwork (yonabe) Japan, worldwide

evening East wind (yuugochi　夕東風)

Evening Shower (yuudachi) Japan
evening shower in spring, haru yuudachi 春夕立（はるゆうだち）
and more RAIN kigo
Clouds for an evening shower, yuudachi gumo 夕立雲（ゆうだちぐも）
and more CLOUD kigo

Evening star, venus Japan, worldwide

Evening, night in spring, haru no yo 春の夜
and related kigo

Moon in the evening, Evening moon, yuuzuki 夕月
Night moon, yoizuki 宵月... and more kigo

Twilight (kure) and related seasons

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..... Candle Night Japan

Dussera, Dasara, Dussehra: Day Of Victory　India
..... Navarati : Nine Nights Of Festivities

Night of Power, Lailatul Qadr / Lailat-Ul-Qadr Yemen

Night work (yonabe) Japan

picking mulberries at night 夜桑摘む（よぐわつむ）
yokuwa tsumu
for the silk worms

Polar Night Polar Circle

Shiva Ratri Night, Festival India, Nepal, Hindu Communities

Sleet, night sleet 　

Walpurgis Night (walpurgisnight) Walpurgisnacht (Germany).

... White Night Polar Circle

TBA

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TOPICS for haiku

Breakfast (asagohan, asameshi)

Sunset (yuuhi) Japan

Noh-Performance at night (Takagi Noo)
Japan. yugen (yuugen).

Yugiri Memorial Day (Yuugiri Ki) and the Tale of Genji Japan
"Evening mist"

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***** WKD Reference

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Implied kigo

2009-03-23T23:46:00.000-07:00

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Implied kigo

Can a season be implied?
Can the use of the word "star" for example,
imply the Tanabata star festival?
Does "birth" automatically make you feel spring?
Doese "sunset" autumatically make you feel autumn?
Does "death" autumatically make you feel winter?

I do not think so, as far as haiku is concerned.
Birth and death happen at any time and true to shasei it would be better to find an appropriate kigo for that season to express it.

If you want to write about Tanabata, do so directly, using the many kigo related to it.
If you want to write about stars, do so ! And add a kigo, if you want to keep the Japanese haiku tradition.

In English, if no kigo is used, there can still be a seasonal feeling to a poem, different people associating differnt things with it. But more often than not it is more a general feeling of NATURE than of just one season.
And that makes a big difference, as far as the formal aspect of a Japanese haiku is concerned.

But I guess using STAR would not always make everybody feel "Tanabata" right away.

AND
If no proper kigo is used, the poem can not be placed in a seasonal saijiki.

In Japanese we use the kigo exactly as they are given in the saijiki.

I remember some Japanese sensei discuss the problem of mountain climbing the noun, as a kigo "yamanobori 山登り" , maybe widely meaning "the summer season of mountain climbing".
But the verb form, which might be translated as
I climb a mountain, "yama o noborishi, yama o noborite" would not be a seasonal reference, since you can climb a mountain at any time.
When translating kidai and kigo into English, even more possibilities of the wording arise for one Japanese word.

We also have Japanese kidai and kigo to consider.
An example of a kidai for the season of spring is risshun (beginning of spring). Kigo under this headword are haru tatsu (spring begins) and haru kuru (spring comes).
Again, to find an appropriate English version is difficult.
WKD : Kidai and Kigo

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quote
An Interview With Toshiro Takeshita
by Robert Wilson

Q. How important is the use of a kigo word when composing a haiku?

A. Kigo has its place, but it is not the most important thing. The truth and vividness of an image, and the story behind it is. If needed, I could place some type of kigo in every haiku I write.
You can find haiku without at least an implied kigo by every classical haijin. But why? If it is not pertinent to the image, leave it out.
source : simply haiku 2004

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Things found on the way

KIGO – Its use in haiku

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HAIKU

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***** Death, Dead body, deceased person, corpse (hotoke) Japan Death Poems, Death Haiku

***** Star Festival (Tanabata, Japan) Milky Way (ama no gawa)

***** Sunset (yuuhi) Japan Worldwide

***** Basic Haiku Theories

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Negative Verbs

2009-03-17T00:33:00.000-07:00

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Negative Verb Forms

Negative verbs are seldom used in traditional Japanese haiku, since the purpose of the haiku is usually to turn the reader to a positive side of life.
So even if a positive meaning does not exactly correspond to your
"experience", for the sake of the haiku form, it is better to change a verb into the positive form.

Here is an example

wetland shells -
they do know nothing
of the moon

better turned positive to

wetland shells -
they really know all
about the moon

Paraphrasing a lesson from Masaki Sensei 正木ゆう子
Yuko Masaki

of NHK Haiku, March 2009.

.... NHK HAIKU ... NHK 俳句

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Worldwide use

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Things found on the way

むづがゆき翼のつけ根涅槃西風
muzugayuki tsubasa no tsukene nehan-nishi

the roots of my wings
begin to itch -
Nirvana West Wind

Yuko Masaki

Nehan Nishi 涅槃西風
west wind during the Nehan-Festival on March 15

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HAIKU

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Related words

***** Basic Haiku Theories

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Sakurai Baishitsu

2009-03-13T00:46:00.000-07:00

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Sakurai Baishitsu 桜井梅室

桜井梅室（さくらいばいしつ）
（1769-1852）

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

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

He has published other books, for example

梅室附合集
梅室家集
方円俳諧集
梅林茶談

. . . CLICK here for Photos !

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Blyth about the time between Issa and Shiki :

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

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

source : Blyth

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

a camellia falls
the cock crows and again
a camellia falls

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

winter night -
I lost the needle,
how dangerous

元日や人の妻子の美しき

門ありて国分寺はなし草の花

Tr. Gabi Greve

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BACK TO

Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets

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Stimulation

2009-02-06T23:18:00.000-08:00

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Stimulation through poetry

stimulation ...
If you write about COFFEE,
the reader should smell it !

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Readers Build Vivid Mental Simulations Of Narrative Situations

readers mentally simulate each new situation encountered in a narrative.
Details about actions and sensation are captured from the text and integrated with personal knowledge from past experiences. These data are then run through mental simulations using brain regions that closely mirror those involved when people perform, imagine, or observe similar real-world activities.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128214820.htm

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Human Brain Breaks Down Events Into Smaller Units

As expected, activity in certain areas of the brain increased at the points that subjects had identified as the beginning or end of a segment, otherwise known as an "event boundary." Consistent with previous research, such boundaries tended to occur during transitions in the narrative such as changes of location or a shift in the character's goals. Researchers have hypothesized that readers break down narrated activities into smaller chunks when they are reading stories. However, this is the first study to demonstrate that this process occurs naturally during reading, and to identify some of the brain regions that are involved in this process.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070501115119.htm

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Things found on the way

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Related words

***** Haiku Theory Archives

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Kasai Bridge

2009-02-05T17:25:00.000-08:00

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Kasai Bridge (Kasai bashi)

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

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Explanation

Kasaibashi 葛西橋 Kasai Bridge

A bridge over river Arakawa and Nakagawa, in the Koto district of Tokyo.
The new bridge is 280 meters long and was finished in 1963.
In summer, there is a firework over this bridge, less crowded than the Sumidagawa fireworks.

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Things found on the way

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HAIKU

立春の米こぼれをり葛西橋
risshun no kome kobore ori Kasaibashi

beginnig of spring
rice spilled
over Kasai bridge

Ishida Hakyo

This Haiku was also written after WWII, in 1946, after few months of the Japanese capitulation. In this sense, hope for the arrival of light that warms our hearts, hope for the end of food scarcity was probably in the thoughts of Hakyo.

Ishida Hakyo (1913-1969)

At that time, soon after World War II, the food was very scarce, so people must to go suburbs to buy rice. On the bridge police man guard to prevent to bring the food into Tokyo City.
The rice on the Kasai bridge tells us something trouble happened between poor hungry people and policeman.
Sakuo Nakamura
Translating Haiku Forum

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鶯やかさい訛りもけさの空
uguisu ya kasai namari mo kesa no sora

nightingales --
country accents, too
in the morning sky

Or: "a nightingale--/ a country accent, too・ Issa leaves to the reader's imagination whether there are one or many nightingales in the morning sky. The bird or birds have "Kasai accent" (kasai namari).
A subway stop in Greater Tokyo today, in Issa's time Kasai was a farming village east of Edo.

Tr. David Lanoue

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Placenames in Japanese Haiku

***** WKD Reference

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Inkstone (suzuri)

2008-10-02T15:09:00.000-07:00

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Inkstone (suzuri)

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

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Explanation

inkstone, 翡翠硯（すずり） suzuri

. . . CLICK here for Photos !

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An inkstone
is literally a stone mortar for the grinding and containment of ink. Traditional Chinese ink was usually solidified into sticks for easier transport and preservation. Even a small amount of water could be applied to the end of a stick of ink, and that end would be ground with the flat surface of the ink stone. A larger quantity of ink could be ground from a small pool of water placed on the inkstone. Water could be stored in a water-holding cavity on the inkstone itself, as was the case for many Song Dynasty (960-1279) inkstones. The water-holding cavity or water reservoir in time became an ink reservoir for later inkstones. Water was usually kept in a ceramic container and sprinkled on the inkstone.

The inkstone, together with the ink brush, ink (stick) and paper, are the four writing implements traditionally known as the Four Treasures of the Study.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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Worldwide use

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Things found on the way

Inkstone with Daruma Face

Photos from my friend Ishino

About 17 cm long and 12 cm wide.

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HAIKU

suzuri ka to hirou ya kuboki ishi no tsuyu

Saigyo's inkstone?
I pick it up -- dew
on the concave rock

Matsuo Basho, trans. Barnhill

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Compiled by Larry Bole
Translating Haiku Forum

David Coomler discusses Reichhold's translation of this haiku to
point out what he sees as shortcomings in her translations of Basho's
haiku.
http://hokku.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/raking-reichhold-over-the-coals/

Here is Reichhold's translation:

"inkstone"
picking up a hollow stone
with dew

Coomler says of Reichhold's translation:

Again we have the awkwardness due to missing punctuation. Is someone
using dew to pick up a hollow stone? One would be justified in
wondering how that is accomplished. Of course one will puzzle it out
and eventually decide the dew must be in the stone, but the
momentary confusion caused by absent punctuation is endemic in
Reichhold's translations.
[end of excerpt]

I have no trouble with Coomler's point about how easy it is to read
the translation as meaning that someone is "using dew to pick up a
hollow stone." However, I'm not so sure that the problem lies with
lack of punctuation.

What if one were to modify Reichhold's translation to read like this:

"inkstone"
picking up a hollow stone
with dew on it

or even like this;

"inkstone"
I pick up a hollow stone
with dew on it

I think both of these alternatives make it clear what the action is
even without punctuation.

Now, for another point I would like to discuss, I was going to re-
visit Mr. Coomler's essay on Reichhold, for which I have posted the
url above, which Gabi posted in a previous post here. However, it
appears that Mr. Coomler has removed his essay about Ms. Reichhold's
translations of Basho from his website.

I do remember however, that Mr. Coomler did not address the fact that
Ms. Reichhold puts the word 'inkstone' inside of quotations marks in
her translation: "inkstone." This seems such a striking choice by Ms.
Reichhold that one wonders why she made this translation choice, and
what it means.

I am now relying on the quotes from Mr. Coomler's essay that Gabi
used in her previous post on this topic:

In order to get at what Bashô really meant by this verse, we first of
all have to know that Reichhold left out something very important —
the significance of the particle ka in the original, which makes the
verse a "question" hokku. Bashô is not making a statement, but is
really asking,

"Is this the inkstone I have picked up?"
[end of excerpt]

I suspect that Ms. Reichhold didn't ignore 'ka', but decided to
translate it differently, in conjunction with the following 'to', to
become the quotation marks (" ") around the word 'inkstone'. Perhaps
she was using the aspect of 'to' that Henderson mentions in his
definition:

It's most common use in haiku is to indicate "that" one said or did,
or "thus" one spoke or acted.
[end of excerpt]

Could one make a case for Ms. Reichhold using the "said" or "spoke"
aspect of 'to' to make her choice of using quotation marks? Here is
Ms. Reichhold's literal translation:

suzuri ka to / hirou ya kuboki / ishi no tsuyu
inkstone <> (quotation) / pick up <> hollow / stone's dew

Although most English books about haiku flat-out define 'ka' as "a
verbal question mark" (to quote Henderson), I have found a Japanese
critic who implies that it is not so clear-cut.

Kooji Kawamoto, in his book "The Poetics of Japanese Verse," gives
two of Basho's haiku which use the particle 'ka':

mugimeshi ni yatsururu koi ka neko no tsuma

Has it been from love as well as barley rice
that it has grown so scrawny?
cat's mate.

Chooshoo no haka mo meguru ka hachitakaki

Have his rounds taken him
as far as Chooshoo's tomb?--
priest seeking alms.

Of the use of 'ka' in these haiku, Kawamoto says:

As illustrated by these examples, it is not easy to tell right away
whether the final particle 'ka', so favored by Basho, was used as an
interrogative or emotive particle, and this indeterminacy adds
tension to the poems.
[end of excerpt]

I would ask Ms. Reichhold if she was interpreting 'ka' as an "emotive
particle" in her translation.

I want to end by addressing one more of Mr. Coomler's points about
Basho's 'inkstone' haiku.

Mr. Coomler says:

"It is not a very good verse and it requires knowing the background,
but nonetheless it has meaning that Reichhold fails to transmit."

I contend that, although it is not a great verse, it is better than
Mr. Coomler's opinion of it.

It contains what to me is a healthy nostalgia. Who among us doesn't
treasure some keepsake of a loved one or, lacking a keepsake, wish we
had one? Basho attempts to imaginatively bond with his most
significant cultural hero, Saigyo, by imagining that a hollowed-out
stone with dew in the hollow might be the actual hollowed-out stone
that Saigyo is said to have used for an inkstone when he was living
for a while in seclusion at Futami, near Ise. I find this haiku to be
a very moving expression of Basho's sentiment.

Another haiku by Basho with a similar sentiment:

saigyoo no waraji mo kakare matsu no tsuyu

Saigyoo's sandals:
hang them as well
with the pine's dew

Basho, trans. Barnhill

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***** Calligraphy

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London

2008-09-23T17:30:00.000-07:00

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London

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

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Explanation

. . . CLICK here for Photos !

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Worldwide use

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Things found on the way

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HAIKU

Tower bridge opening –
two welcome hands saying :
please come in

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London street –
the dawn is opening the precious city
from the baggage of night

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Treeless houses
flaunting pot gardens -
nature minimized

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Thames evening –
waves complaining
of my early depart

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Faces in the London tube
face to face
with the morning paper news

Raju Samal, India, September 2008

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England and Ireland / Placenames

***** WKD Place Names of the World

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Praise (homekotoba)

2008-09-22T18:37:00.000-07:00

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Praize (homekotoba)

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

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Explanation

There are many ways of praize in Japanese.

Inspired to pick it up by the following article:

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quote

Insults come as second nature to humans

By ROGER PULVERS

There are two common ways to say "compliment": ohome no kotoba (おほめの言葉) and oseiji (お世辞). The ohome in the former comes from the verb homeru (ほめる), which means "to praise." The latter means flattery and can be ironical. Osejijzu na hito (お世辞上手な人), or someone good at oseiji, is an unctuous flatterer.

But let us assume that your compliments are not of the latter variety and you have a friend whose child is as smart as a whip. Nothing will put you into your friend’s good books more quickly than Orikōsan desu ne (お利口さんですね, What a clever child!).

If you call your friend a yarite (やり手), you are praising her for being a mover and a shaker, although my old dictionary defines yarite as "a man of ability, a capable man." A woman can be a yarite, too, dictionaries to the contrary notwithstanding.

The word bijin (美人, beautiful woman) is still in common usage, and a sugoi bijin (すごい美人) is a knockout, or what my dad used to call a "lollapalooza." A man can also be a lollapalooza if he’s otokomae (男前, handsome) or kakkoii (カッコいい, good-looking, cool). If you say about someone that they are migi ni deru mono wa nai (右に出るものはない), it means that they are unsurpassed, the tops. This is because Japanese lists go from right to left, so naturally there is no one to the right of, that is, "above," them.

That person may well be an ōmono (大物), or a big shot, a big cheese. Generally people who are big shots harbor a secret to their success. You might say they are sumi ni okenai (隅におけない), which means that there’s more to them than meets the eye. Sumi ni okenai literally means they "cannot be cornered." This is the kind of coincidence of meaning that occurs rarely in two languages.

Two very common phrases used as compliments are erai! (偉い) and taishita mon da (大したもんだ). These have a multitude of English equivalents, depending on context, such as "You’re really something!" "That’s amazing!" or "Awesome!"

The character sai (才) denotes talent. A person with a good head for business is shōsai no aru hito (商才のある人). A person who is brilliant at something is a tensai (天才), or genius. And a woman — it must be a woman in this case — who has wit to match her beauty may be described as saishoku kenbi (才色兼備). The sai is the character seen above, and the shoku is 色, the character for color that also suggests charm, beauty and eroticism. That’s a mouthful for anybody’s tongue.

Suteki (素敵) is a catchall for all kinds of expressions, from fantastic and amazing to brilliant and stunning. If someone looks you in the eyes and says this one word, it means love.

Rippa (立派) is another word used as a compliment. It also means brilliant and superb. It is often used to describe something that a person has achieved or attained. If you add the honorific prefix go to rippa, you get gorippa (ご立派), a bon mot expressing admiration for something or someone. Gorippa da! (ご立派だ) can mean "I really admire you!" and "Bravo!"

But you must be a bit careful when the level of compliments is raised to downright flattery. Japanese people can be quite ironical when they ki no nai homekata de kenasu (気のないほめ方でけなす), or damn with faint praise. If someone looks at the miserable sushi you have made as it falls apart on the plate and says Ojōzu desu ne! (お上手ですね, Oh, how very skillful of you!), get a grip on yourself and don’t fall for it.

This business of damning with faint praise brings me to next week’s topic, that of the art of the bujoku (侮辱), or insult, which for us humans may be akin to "doin’ what comes naturally." If I urge you to read this column in next week’s Japan Times, I do not mean to insult your intelligence . . . not until next week, at least.

source : 　Japan Times, September 2008

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Ojozu desu neeee (o-joozu desu ne) ... how many time have I heared this as a flattery to my simple Japanese in the beginning years (nowadays, nobody says it any more). The longer the eeeee, the worse my Japanese, I figured.

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HAIKU

そうめんの流れに箸の上手下手
soomen no nagare ni hashi no joozu heta

somen noodles flow by
and some use chopsticks
skillfully, unskillfully

Yamada Yoshiyuki 山田良行

Soomen, somen noodles 索麺 WASHOKU

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poor westerner,
he grows thin eating
with chopsticks!

robert d. wilson, September 2008

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***** WASHOKU ... Japanese Food SAIJIKI

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Omoshiro ya

2008-09-15T18:28:00.000-07:00

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How interesting ! (omoshiro ya)

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

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Explanation

omoshiro ya ... a first line used by Shiki for some haiku.

omoshiroi, おもしろい (面白い) can have many nuances in Japanese, according to the situation.
interesting, amusing, wondrous, entertaining, funny, enjoyable, strange, weird, exciting ...

Kyoomibukai きょうみぶかい(興味深い)is more often used for something interesting in an educational context.

Once I said to the priest, the spring festival was omoshiroi. He thought I should have used kyoomibukai, since it was not funny but a culturally rich old festival.

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Thanks to Larry Bole for bringing this topic to discussion !
Happy Haiku Forum / Spetember 16, 2008

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Worldwide use

schön. interessant. amüsant; lustig; spaßig; ulkig; drollig.
angenehm; unterhaltend; unterhaltsam.

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Things found on the way

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HAIKU

Two haiku by Masaoka Shiki 正岡子規

面白や月に山椒の皮剥げば　　
omoshiro ya tsuki ni sanshoo no kawa hageba　　

how interesting !
peeling the bark off the mountain pepper　　　
in moonshine 　　　

Tr. Gabi Greve : "Mountain pepper"(sanshoo)

面白や馬刀の居る穴居らぬ穴　　
omoshiro ya mate no iru ana iranu ana

how interesting !
a hole with a razor shell
a hole without one
　　　　　　　
Tr. Gabi Greve : razor shell (mate)

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omoshiro ya shigure suru yo no yabure-an

How entertaining
to be in a dilapidated hut
on the night of 'shigure'!

Kyuukousai, found in Sasaki Sanmi
Chado the Way of Tea: A Japanese Tea Master's Almanac

Discussion about "omoshiroya" : 　Translating Haiku Forum
Larry Bole

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source : 　天象堂画廊

おもしろやことしの春も旅のそら
omoshiro ya kotoshi no haru mo tabi no sora

how amusing
this year in spring
the skies of a journey

Matsuo Basho
source : tr. and following note by Jane Reichhold

how strange is life ! ..... or ... how exciting !
this year in spring
I will be travelling again

Free translation by Gabi Greve

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***** Emotions expressed in Haiku

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Arisoumi coast

2008-08-09T21:43:00.000-07:00

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Arisoumi coast, Ariso-Umi, Ariso no Umi

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

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Explanation

Ariso Umi 有磯海, ありそうみ

"the rough sea on the beach"

This is a general name for the rough coastline of the Etchu Hokuriku coast of Northern Japan. It has been used by waka poets since olden times as "utamakura", a place word. The poem by Otomo Iemochi about the death of his younger brother is especially famous.

The protruding island-cliffs reminded people of the Gods of the Nether World, where the dead would recide.

Where Basho walked there, it is now the area around Toyama Bay and the harbour of Fukishi .

More about UTAMAKURA

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Things found on the way

Haiku Publication by Roka (Rooka) 浪化,
a disciple Matsuo Basho
『Ariso umi 有磯海』 and Saint Roka
Roka Memorial Day, a KIGO

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HAIKU

わせの香や分入右は有磯海
wase no ka ya wakeiru migi wa Arisoumi

Fragrance of early rice–
pushing through the fields, on the right
Roky Coast Sea
Tr. Haruo Shirane

fragrance of rice
wading into it
on my right the Rough Sea
Tr. Ad Blankestijn

Sweet-smelling rice fields!
To our right as we push through,
The Ariso Sea
source : 　the zen frog

Through fragrant fields
Of early rice we went, beside
The wild Ariso Sea.
Tr. Dorothy Britton

early rice fragrance
pushing thru to right
the "Rough Sea"
Tr. Cid Corman

Scent of ripening ears:
to the right as I push through,
surf crashing onto rocks.
Tr. Helen Craig McCullough

The ripening grain,
Walking in the fragrance while on the right
The rocky shore of the sea.
Tr. Earl Miner

Ariso umi was originally written with the words ara iso meaning rough coast, a coast where the waves are rough. We see this reference in a poem by Otomo Iemochi in the Manyoshu and it has often been used as a pillow word for the Etchu coast. There are many large rocks off the coast here which make the waves turbulent. Because Basho wanted to see places of poetic inspiration, he wanted to visit this place. Iemochi's poem is a lament on the death of his younger brother. Perhaps Basho is preparing us here for the death of his disciple Issho as he recounts it in the next passage on Kanazawa.
source : 　Station 34 - Ichiburi / www.uoregon.edu

Memorial Stone of this haiku

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Related words

***** WKD ... Place Names used in Haiku

***** Oku no Hosomichi, Basho 2007

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Pivot

2008-08-02T20:36:00.000-07:00

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The Pivot

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There seem to be two Japanese ideas beeing called PIVOT in English.

(1)

kakekotoba, pivot words 掛詞, 掛け詞, 懸詞, 懸け詞

"Kake kotoba", rhetorical devices used in Japanese Waka poetry of 31-syllables
Lit. "hanging words" building a bridge between two images.
Better translated as:
Pun, word play, words with a double meaning.

Utamakura, makura kotoba and kaketotoba in Japanese Poetry

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(2)

the second segment (line) of a haiku, pivot line

morning sunshine
on withered branches
the white moss sparkles

Gabi Greve, October 2007

Read the full disucssion here:
Cause and Effect, C&E

This haiku has no visible cut marker.
Line 2 can be seen as an axis to revolve around in two directions.
The English reader might read a pause after line one or two, or maybe think: pivot line.

The use of PIVOT as a kakekotoba "pun word, pivot word" as used in waka and tanka
and
as a "pivot line" in line 2 of a haiku to adhere to both other lines for additional "meaning" seems to be something different, at least in Japanese haiku.

This is a kind of "use" of the line 2 that I often find in English haiku.
It is supposed to bring more "depth, yuugen" to haiku ... but ...

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Today I want to talk about this kind of use in the second line,
which Hasegawa Kai sensei does not approve of and calls
"aimai" 曖昧,
translated as ambiguous, unclear or vague.

NHK HAIKU August 2008

He quotes an example which he made up for the purpose of teaching.
I will use my own example.

morning sunshine
on withered branches
the white moss sparkles

Since the second line can be read to adhere to "morning sunshine" or "moss sparkles", this haiku is not clear in its image, it is vague and does not lead the reader straight to the image, but keeps him pondering which image the author wanted to show in the first place.

This does not really give more aspects of interpretation, depth (or yuugen) to the haiku, but is a confusing ambiguous AIMAI,
because this haiku does not have a clear CUT marker.

It is like the house where the pillars are not straight and the structure is swayaing back and forth.

He then gives examples of how to re-write this kind of haiku to make sure it is either
LINE 1 plus 2 .. or .. LINE 2 plus 3 which is connected and how to use the cut marker correctly.
(His following explanation is rather specific to the Japanese haiku language, if you can read Japanese, get the magazine !)

....................................... Here I quote my haiku again

枯れ枝や　朝日に光る白い苔
kareeda ya asahi ni hikaru shiroi koke

withered branches -
white moss sparkles
in the morning sun

朝の日や枯れ枝に光る白い苔
asa no hi ya kareeda ni hikaru shiroi koke

morning sunshine -
white moss sparkles
on withered branches

or even

morning sunshine
on withered branches -
sparkling white moss

The reader can now start with two separate images, without solving a riddle first, get a clear impression of what the author saw and emphasized and can start adding his interpretation and depth to this.

Thank you, Hasegawa Sensei !

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The use of a PUN WORD, a word with more than one meaning, is effective in haiku.
Puns were a big part of the Edo culture.
Read my remarks about
Edo Culture and Puns, dajare 駄洒落

The use of utamakura and makurakotoba is also effective in haiku.
Utamakura, place names used in Japanese Poetry

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More quotes about the PIVOT :

Robert Wilson / Sam Hamill
source : 　Simply Haiku, 2005

RW:
How important is kake kotoba (pivot word) and its attendant ambiguity to the composition of haiku?

SH:
It's central to the poetry, both in terms of the rhythm of speech and comprehension and in terms of structure. "Form is never more than an extension of content," Robert Creeley famously observed; to which Denise Levertov replied, "And content is an articulation of form." I don't call my 17-syllable poems haiku because I throw out too many rules. Kake kotoba is difficult, sometime almost impossible, to achieve in translating a poem from Japanese. In my own poetry, I use the basic structure to achieve something LIKE haiku, but technically —chigaimasu— a little different.

The pivot word is a powerful tool. Ambiguity and contradiction abound in Zen and Taoist teaching, and great poets make use of common tools.

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pivotal word, pivotal line
MORE ABOUT
. . . Haiku Riddles . . .

. . . . . BACK TO

My Haiku Theory Archives 　

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Ochanomizu

2008-07-30T19:27:00.000-07:00

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Ochanomizu

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

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Explanation

Google Maps

Ochanomizu (Japanese: 御茶ノ水. 御茶の水)
is a neighborhood in Tokyo, Japan.
It extends from the Yushima section of Bunkyo-ku to the Kanda section of Chiyoda-ku. Meiji University, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, and Juntendō University all have main campuses in the area. Ochanomizu Station on the Chūō Line is the transport hub of the district. Prior to the Great Kantō earthquake, Ochanomizu University was also there; after the earthquake, it moved to its present location in the Ōtsuka neighborhood of Bunkyo-ku. Ochanomizu is also the location of the Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Nicholai-dō).

Ochanomizu is famous for its many musical instrument stores, as well as ski and snowboard shops located a short walk from the station; it is known as the "go-to" district for bargain-conscious musicians and sportsmen.

O-cha-no-mizu literally means "tea water", after the nearby Kanda River from which water was extracted to make the shogun's tea during the Edo period.

Ochanomizu Station is convenient to access Yushima Seidō, Yushima Tenjin, and Kanda Myōjin.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

Kanda River

Reference : Ochanomizu

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Hiroshige 広重
source : 　morikawa

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Woodblockprint. Around 1932

Shotei Hokuju 昇亭北寿
source : 　hatsuzawa

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Kuniyoshi, Utagawa 歌川国芳
source : 　commons.wikimedia.org

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Yushima Seido 湯島聖堂

Bakufu school at Yushima Seido (Ochanomizu, Tokyo).
Confucianism was taught to the sons of bakufu samurais.

Edo Period:
source : www.grips.ac.jp/ 　Pre-conditions for Industrialization

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Kanda Myoojin 神田明神　Shrine

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Worldwide use

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Things found on the way

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HAIKU

切凧のくるくる舞やお茶の水
kire tako no kuru-kuru mau ya ocha no mizu

broken kite dancing
'round and 'round...
Ocha-no-Mizu

Kobayashi Issa
Tr. David Lanoue

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Related words

***** PLACE NAMES used in Haiku Japan and Worldwide

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Metaphor

2008-07-17T23:18:00.000-07:00

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Metaphor used in Haiku

inyu 隠喩(いんゆ), metafaa メタファー, hiyu 比喩

Metaphor (from the Greek: μεταφορά - metaphora, meaning "transfer")
is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. In the simplest case, this takes the form: "The [first subject] is a [second subject]." More generally, a metaphor is a rhetorical trope that describes a first subject as being or equal to a second subject in some way. Thus, the first subject can be economically described because implicit and explicit attributes from the second subject are used to enhance the description of the first.

This device is known for usage in literature, especially in poetry, where with few words, emotions and associations from one context are associated with objects and entities in a different context.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

simile シミリ
chokuyu 直喩 / meiyu 明喩

A simile is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things, often introduced with the word "like" or "as". Even though similes and metaphors are both forms of comparison, similes allow the two ideas to remain distinct in spite of their similarities, whereas metaphors compare two things without using "like" or "as".

For instance, a simile that compares a person with a bullet would go as follows: "John was a record-setting runner and as fast as a speeding bullet." A metaphor might read something like, "John was a record-setting runner. That speeding bullet could zip past you without you even knowing he was there."
Unlike a metaphor, a simile can be as precise as the user needs it to be, to explicitly predicate a single feature of a target or to vaguely predicate an under-determined and open-ended body of features.
. . . . . many similes are stereotypes
as quiet as a mouse
as sour as vinegar
as strong as an ox
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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In Japanese haiku, by using the cut marker carefully,
we can imply a comparison
without mentioning it directly.
That is one of the great tricks that gives Japanese haiku its special flavor and indirect touch. Juxtaposition (toriawase) should be studied carefully.

Therefore the advise for a beginner of haiku NOT to use direct metaphors like "LIKE" , especially in English language, seems to be an argument amongst haiku poets who do not write in Japanese.

But in the Japanese language, we do use the direct comparison
... no gotoku ... のごとく,の如く　/ no gotoshi のごとし、の如し
in haiku, if the situation absolutely calls for it.

Juxtaposition, combination and the CUT

More online
Reference : metaphor haiku

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quoting
Susumu Takiguchi on toriawase ...

It may sound as if toriawase is a golden rule, or a "be all and end all".
However, like many (or all) other haiku tenets, it is not. On the contrary, it is wrong for anyone to be a slave to any rule including toriawase. The haiku poet writes the poem from the heart, first, and looks to see if it has followed any principle, second, if necessary. To put up any haiku principle first, and then force the work to follow it, is an enticing trap which many fall into. This is putting the cart before the horse. (The same thing can be said with many other well-accepted values, such as "surprise", "moment" and "metaphor", to name but a few.)

Basho himself admonished the bad habit of sticking too rigidly to toriawase. He is said to have mentioned to Shudo:

...you should compose haiku as if you are beating out the gold...

It was Kyorai, another important disciple of Basho, who was opposed to Kyoriku's gospel about toriawase. Kyorai cited examples of Basho's haiku which did not follow toriawase principle (Tabineron).

Other opponents to toriawase, such as Yaba, maintained that it was little more than a device to help out the novice, and should not be regarded as a true principle to be applied universally.

My own and only principle in writing haiku is not to have any principles. It is useful to have toriawase in your tool box, but resolve to use it well -- as, and when, necessary. You should not be used by your tool. It is distressing to see many haiku poems, one after another, religiously following the toriawase rule.
source : www.worldhaikureview.org/2-1

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Part 3 - Metaphor, simile and stylistic ornament

It is a rule with a number of notable exceptions:
Haiku do not use metaphors and similes.
One could quote a handful of haiku that have a metaphor or simile, to challenge the rule. Nevertheless it is true that, compared to the poetic tradition that we in the British Isles have inherited, replete with brilliant comparisons, as if the whole value of poetry lay in metaphorical ingenuity, the haiku tradition eschews the way of stunning similarities unusually combined.

Read more here:
source : 　George Marsh

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HAIKU

keichitsu ya yooji no gotoku ashi narashi

awakening spring;
like a toddler, the insect
learns about legs

abe midorijo (1886-1980)
Tr. Michael Haldane

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鉄槌のごとく落つるや不動滝
tessui no gotoku ochiru ya Fudoo taki

like an iron hammer
it falls down -
Fudo Waterfall

　チビタンク chibi tanku
Tr. Gabi Greve

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葡萄食う一語一語の如くにて
budoo kuu hitokoto hitokoto no gotoku nite

munching grapes -
like saying one word
and one more word

中村草田男 Nakamura Kusadao
Tr. Gabi Greve

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露の夜は山が隣家のごとくあり
tsuyu no yo wa yama ga tonari no gotoku ari

on a night with dew
the mountains seem like
next-door neighbours

Iida Ryuta (Iida Ryouta) 飯田龍太
Tr. Gabi Greve

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山越えの阿弥陀のごとく初日の出　　
yamagoe no amida no gotoku hatsu hi no de

like Buddha Amida
coming over the mountains -
First Sunrise !

Gabi Greve, January 1, 2005

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Related words

***** WKD . . . Haiku Theory Archives

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Murasaki the Color

2008-06-19T00:05:00.000-07:00

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Murasaki, the Color

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

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Explanation

Genji Monogatari and Murasaki Shikibu ... 紫式部

"月百姿石山月" Lady Murasaki at Ishiyama
Tsuki Hyakushi
by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 月岡芳年 (1839-1892)

One Hundred Aspects of the Moon ... and more kigo

The Beginning of our MURASAKI discussion !

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It started with this woodblock print and the question:

Lady Violett or Lady Purple?

A quick google seach found it all ...

Lady Murasaki was nicknamed "Murasaki" ("purple wisteria blossom")
The name Lady Murasaki, literally "Violet" ...
.... "Murasaki" (Purple, although "Violet" may fall more comfortably on the English ear)

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quote
Violet is a spectral color (approximately 420 - 380 nm), of a shorter wavelength than blue, while purple is a combination of red and blue or violet light. The purples are colors that are not spectral colors - purples are extra-spectral colors.
In fact, purple was not present on Newton's color wheel (which went directly from violet to red), though it is present on modern ones, between red and violet. There is no such thing as the "wavelength of purple light"; it only exists as a combination.

The actual color of Tyrian purple, the original color purple from which the name purple is derived, is the color of a dye made from a mollusk that, because of its incredible expense (many times more expensive than gold), in classical antiquity became a symbol of royalty because only the very wealthy could afford it. Therefore, Tyrian purple is also called imperial purple.
More in the Wikipedia

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The origin of the word MURASAKI　紫

This was used for the plant of this name, which grew in large groups (mure ... mura) mure ga saku, mura saku, mura saki ...
or
one flower grew in many shades of murasaki (this refers to a type of hydrangea), so the color has shades (mura) (mura ni natte saku ... ... mura saki)

The pigment MURASAKI is taken from the root of the plant.
http://gogen-allguide.com/mu/murasaki.html

paapuru　パープル
What was the Japanese for PURPLE
before the advent of using katakana ?

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Flowers of the murasaki family
ムラサキ科 murasaki ka
Boraginaceae

The Color Code for Japanese Traditional MURASAKI shades
I hope your monitor shows the fine gradations !

main murasaki 本紫ほんむらさき #65318e

murasaki 紫むらさき #884898

Edo murasaki 江戸紫えどむらさき #745399

murasaki dark kon 紫紺しこん #460e44

blue murasaki ao 青紫あおむらさき #674598

deep murasaki 深紫ふかむらさき #493759

wisteria murasaki fuji 藤紫ふじむらさき #a59aca

murasaki shion color 紫苑色しおんいろ #867ba9

Kyoto murasaki 京紫きょうむらさき #9d5b8b

"young murasaki" wakamurasaki
若紫わかむらさき #bc64a4

beni murasaki 紅紫べにむらさき #b44c97

plum murasaki 梅紫うめむらさき #aa4c8f

light murasaki 浅紫あさむらさき #c4a3bf

murasaki chrystal 紫水晶むらさきすいしょう #e7e7eb

Japanese Color Codes Click here for color boxes.

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Compiled by Larry Bole :

Murasaki (紫) is the Japanese word for the colour purple.

Other translations include Lavender, as used by Edward Seidensticker in his English version of the Genji Monogatari; Violet; and Violet Root, which in Japanese poetry denotes Constancy. Genji, in [a poem], names the murasaki or purple gromwell, because its color resembles
the wisteria (in Japanese, fuji) thereby referring to Fujitsubo, "the Lady of the Wisteria Court", a woman he is violently in love with for the first part of the novel. It happens that Fujitsubo is Murasaki's aunt.
Thus, in a word association game very characteristic of Japanese poetry, the similarity between the two colors led to the name Murasaki, perhaps the most illustrious name in Japanese literature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murasaki

Lithospermum purpurocaeruleum
or Purple Gromwell is a plant species of the genus Lithospermum. It has been cultivated in Japan since the Nara period for its root, which can be used for herbal medicine and to make dyes.

One Japanese word for the plant, murasaki (紫), inspired the pen name "Lady Murasaki" for the author of The Tale of Genji and is also the source of the general Japanese term for the color purple, murasaki iro (紫色).

The dyes made from its root also had other names, such as shikon (紫根), but all of them were difficult to work with because of their requirement for an alum-rich mordant and the resulting colors' extreme vulnerability to photobleaching. During the Heian Period, sumptuary laws restricted murasaki-dyed clothing to the Empress and her ladies in waiting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithospermum_purpurocaeruleum

In Jane Reichhold's book of translation of poetry from The Tale of Genji, "A String of Flowers Untied...: Love Poems from The Tale of Genji," she tends to use the same color translation as Seidensticker does: lavender, although she also uses purple as well.

Reichhold's Chapter 5 is titled,
"Waka Murasaki: Young Lavender."

Here are two translations of poems from the book:

te ni tsumi te
itsushikamo mi n
murasaki no
ne ni kayoi keru
nobe no wakakusa

taking it in hand
may I soon take care of
Murasaki
the root of royal purple
still in the field of young grasses

...Genji begins lessons for Murasaki in poetry and calligraphy. He writes out for her the old poems from the anthologies for her to copy. One day, choosing lavender paper, he wrote the following 'waka' from an unknown author in the 'Kokin Rokujoo'.

shira ne domo
musashino to ieba
kakota re nu
yoshiya sakoso wa
murasaki no yue

though I cannot see it
when one speaks of Musashino
I sigh so deeply
the reason fo this are thoughts
of those grasses of lavender

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In a German dictionary, we find

Purpurfarbe; Violett; Lila.
violett; purpur.

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Worldwide use

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Things found on the way

Purple / Violett Daruma Dolls
murasaki daruma

紫　（だるま　。　ダルマ　。達磨）

This is a color of the Feng-Shui system.
Its symbolic meaning is : your wish will be fulfilled, of high rank, supremacy and more.

紫色の福だるまの意味⇒祈願成就・上階級・至高など
© gp-pro

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Purple Papermachee Doll

Little Netsuke

Click on the photos for more.

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HAIKU

Two haiku by ISSA

紫の袖にちりけり春の雪
murasaki no sode ni chiri keri haru no yuki

scattering onto
my purple sleeves...
spring snow

紫の雲にいつ乗るにしの海
murasaki no kumo ni itsu noru nishi no umi

on purple clouds
when will I set sail?
western sea

This haiku without season alludes to rebirth in the Pure Land, located somewhere in the mythic west.
。。。Tr. David Lanoue

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Related words

***** Colors in Haiku, Traditional Japanese Colors

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Kawasaki Tenko

2008-06-15T18:16:00.000-07:00

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Kawasaki Tenko

川崎展宏かわさきてんこう Kawasaki Tenkoo
Born 1927 in Hiroshima
His name was Nobuhiro 展宏（のぶひろ).
Tenko Kawasaki

He studied haiku with Kato Shuson 加藤楸邨 and published many haiku collections.
In 1982, Kannon 観音

＜万屋に秋は来にけり棒束子＞
＜梅雨の雀つゆのすずめと鳴きにけり＞
＜八月の吐息の残る西の空＞
＜八月を送る水葬のやうに＞
＜「大和」よりヨモツヒラサカスミレサク＞

＜天の川水車は水をあげてこぼす＞
＜一葉忌とはこんなにも暖かな＞
＜胸の幅いつぱいに出て春の月＞
＜あらぬ方へ手毬のそれし地球かな＞

source : yanma.in

. . . CLICK here for Photos !

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花はみな菩薩鬼百合小鬼百合　
hana wa mina bosatsu oniyuri ko-oniyuri

the flowers are all
Bodhisattvas -
tiger lilies, small tiger lilies

The Japanese word for "tiger lily" is ONI yuri, lily of a demon/devil, which gives a strong contrast to the Bodhisattva.
Here we can feel that all things are basically the same in the Buddha world, the flowers, the demons, men ... all things.

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Pushing and shoving
voices of the cherry blossoms
cross the ocean

source:
http://www.worldhaiku.net/criticism/natsuishi1.html
Tr. Ban'ya Natsuishi

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Hot sake
Shared by men
Who sat out the vendetta.

The men referred to here are obviously ronin from Ako, but the poem also reminds me of the sort of pathos felt by Japanese company workers today.

source : Shinobu Hashimoto, Asahi Shimbun
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200812220046.html

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***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets

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Official (yakunin)

2008-06-01T17:27:00.000-07:00

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Official (yakunin)

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

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Explanation

Here we are concerned with the officials (yakunin) of the Edo period only.

official, yakunin 役人
minor official, petty official, koyakunin ko yakunin　小役人
a humble official position

living quarters of an official, yakutaku　役宅

Not to mix with

kooyakunin 公役人, people who were compelled to do official duties for the government, like foot soldiers or manual labour for official buildings during the Edo period.
公約人 seems a mis spelling .

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Organization of Officials in the Edo period

In our times, they would be the state officials, Beamte in German.

© PHOTO Mizutani Mitsuhiro

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Worldwide use

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Things found on the way

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HAIKU

夕立や樹下石上の小役人
yuudachi ya juka sekijoo no ko yakunin

in a cloudburst
under a tree, looking miserable
a minor official

Kobayashi Issa

Translator's note:
Shinji Ogawa explains that the phrase, juka sekijoo, which literally means to sleep or dwell under a tree and on a rock, figuratively denotes "being a monk practicing austerities." Here, he says, Issa uses the phrase to mean "poor," or "petty." It seems to me, however, that the minor official is literally standing under a tree to avoid the rain, a visual image that provides Issa with this opportunity for word-play.
My dilemma as a translator, then, is to decide whether I should:
(1) mention the literal level of being under a tree and on a rock but lose the figurative meaning of practicing austerities; or
(2) translate the figurative meaning (Shinji suggests the middle phrase, "how miserable") but lose the literal image of the official crouching under a tree.
My compromise: I keep the tree but lose the rock, adding Shinji's "miserable."
Tr. David Lanoue

濡れずに済みて　仏の顔に
nurezu ni sumite hotoke no kao ni

without getting wet
becomes Buddha face

©　Haiga and renku by Nakamura Sakuo

cloudburst ...
the harsh life
of a petty official
Tr. Gabi Greve, free translation

sudden cloudburst --
a city clerk stonefaced
under a tree

sudden cloudburst --
a stonefaced town clerk
huddles under a tree
Tr. Chibi

meditating on a stone

The head is the sky.
The eyes are sun and moon.
The breath is the wind.
Mountains, rivers,plants and trees
are your very own body.
You are Buddha.

©　PHOTO : Kanshin-Ji
Ascetic practise at temple Kanshin-Ji

樹下石上 : juge sekijoo
taking one's lodging at the roadside in the wilderness
Buddhist Ascetic practise, sometimes also expressed as

sekijoo juge 石上樹下
(juge, under a tree ... is the reading of Buddhist texts)
on a stone, under a tree

ishi no ue san nen 石の上三年
sitting on a stone for 3 years
is a proverb in Japanese.

Compiled by Larry Bole:

Who is this "minor" or "petty" official?
I found a definition of the word 'juka 儒家' by itself, which gave as its meaning: "Confucianist."
The 'juka' I found may be a homonym for the word Issa used, but maybe　Issa meant the word he used to suggest a Confucianist meaning as well　as a Buddhist meaning. And I found as a meaning for the　word 'koyakunin': "Low ranking samurai with various light duties such　as guarding the gate or patrolling the grounds."

And looking up "Japanese Confucianism," I find this: "Neo-Confucianism (especially Chu Hsi Confucianism) was the most important　philosophy of Tokugawa Japan in government and education."

So, during the 'sengoku jidai' period of Japanese history, "the age　of the country at war," even a samurai of the lowest rank would　ideally be imbued with the martial spirit, would at his best be　influenced by Zen Buddhism, and would be expected to stoically endure　austere conditions, even unto death.

Who had this 'koyakunin' become by Issa's time? Although still　allowed to carry a sword (or maybe not?), he was a minor or petty official, imbued more with neo-Confucian values than with Zen Buddhist values.

I think Issa might be mocking the 'koyakunin's' samurai heritage or　pretensions. Gone is the samurai stoicness. Instead of enduring the　cloudburst as if it were part of a Buddhist austerity ritual, the　minor official, a samurai in name only by Issa's time, looks　miserable under the tree.

cloudburst
sleeping under a tree, on a rock
a petty official
Literal translation by Larry Bole

More is here :
Discussing the translation
Translating Haiku Forum

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Related words

***** Edo, The City That Became Tokyo

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Storehouse (kura)

2008-05-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

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Storehouse (kura)

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

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Explanation

Fire was a gread hazard in olden times and the strongly build "kura" were one way to protect one's property.

storehouse, tiled storehous, kura　蔵
dozoo 土蔵

storehouse for ricewine, sakegura 酒蔵

living room in a storehouse, for emergency situations, kura zashiki 蔵座敷

storehouse for rice, komegura 米蔵

Most farm estates in my area in Okayama have a kura, a special storehouse for the family treasures.
It is used to protect things from earthquakes, fires and hurricanes.
The strong walls are fireproof and the windows are very small with fireproof shutters. The strong doors are fireproof too. The timber used for a kura was covered with clay and then with a plaster finish.

Typical walls with tiles of a Tosa storehouse, Shikoku

The roof consists of heavy tiles to withstand storm and fire. Sometimes even the walls have a row or two of tiles to make a way for strong rain blown on the walls during a typhoon. This kind of wall is especially common along the seaside towns of Japan.

The doors had special locks to prevent thieves and burglers from their work.
Locks of the Edo Period / joomae 錠前

The walls were often strengthened with plaster, in various geometrical patterns. These "namako kabe なまこ壁" are especially beautiful in their contrast of white and black.

The black parts of this wall are made from flat black tiles, hira gawara ( 平瓦（ひらがわら）. The roofs of a storehouse were rather small in their overhang, to prevent a fire from being pressed down on the walls, and the tiles on the bottom of a wall were fireproof and also protected from the rain.
The beautiful black finish of these walls is very typical of some regions, where they get many extra layers of a special laquer 黒漆喰.

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Strong Doors of a Storehouse

Samurai Residence, buke yashiki 武家屋敷
Katsuyama, Japan

The door was built in some steps, each covered with mortar made of mud, so the fire sparks would not come in. This is called "kakego painting, kakegonuri 掛子（かけご）塗り.

Look at my collection of window shutters at a storehouse in Katsuyama !

More "plaster paintings" as decorations for storehouses, kote-e 鏝絵（こてえ）. Click on the photo.

These relief works of art are made by the plasterers, usually with a pattern of good luck for the family. One of the famous masters of this kind of artwork was Irie Chohachi 入江長八
(Iri-e Choohachi) of the town of Matsuzaka (Shizuoka prefecture), where you can see a whole museum full of his artwork.

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Kurashiki, a town with many storehouses
倉敷 Okayama Prefecture Japan

Kurashiki and Daruma san

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Kawagoe and its storehouses

Kawagoe's fortunes owe everything to its strategic position on the Shingashi River and Kawagoe-kaido, the ancient highway to the capital. If you wanted to get goods to Tokyo, then called Edo, they more than likely had to go via Kawagoe, thus the town's merchants prospered as a result. They accumulated the cash to build fireproof kurazukuri, the black, two-storey shophouses the town is now famous for.
At one time there were over 200 of these houses, but their earthenware walls didn't prove quite so effective against fire as hoped (nor were they much use in the face of Japan's headlong rush to modernization). Even so, some thirty still remain, with sixteen prime examples clustered together along Chuo-dori, around 1 km north of the JR and Tobu stations, protected as Important Cultural Properties.
©　travel.yahoo.com

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Kuramae 倉前 in Edo
The Government Rice Granaries

The rice storage houses (kura) in Kuramae are a well-known landmark in central Edo. The Kuramae district, on the west bank of the Sumida river, is a very busy part of the city, and a very important one as far as the government is concerned, because this is the site of the government rice granaries, where much of the grain reserves for the city are kept.

Kuramae is located on the west bank of the Sumida river, just a few kilometers upriver from the Nihonbashi area. It is also located close to the trunk road that leads from Nihonbashi to the ferry boat crossing at Senju, the junction point for all of the main roads leading north and east from Edo. The Kuramae rice trading and storage operations are an important concern of the bakufu. Government officials, and even the Shogun himself, have to keep a close eye on the operations of the official granaries, since rice is the basis of Japan's economy, and the size of the grain reserves can have an important effect on the entire country.

The Shoguns have tried to restrict rice speculation many times in the past. However, since the rice merchants play an important role in ensuring that the rice market is efficient, and products are distributed to all parts of the country, it is almost impossible to completely eliminate speculative rice trading. The easiest way for the bakufu to keep rice prices steady is to maintain a large supply in kura (warehouse) districts around the country, buying and selling the rice as necessary in order to keep prices in balance. In this sense, the granaries at Kuramae could be considered as a sort of "Federal Reserve Bank of Edo."

Kuramae is a very impressive-looking place, especially when seen from the river. The long rows of kura along the river bank -- with their whitewashed walls and high, narrow windows -- are an impressive sight indeed. The basic structure of the kura in Kuramae is not that much different from the granaries that farmers maintain in their rural villages. They have thick walls of packed earth, plastered over a wooden frame and whitewashed to fill in any cracks. The doors and windows are small, and kept closed at all times except when rice is being loaded and unloaded. This keeps the inside fairly cool and dry, to prevent the grain from rotting. However, the buildings in Kuramae are many times larger than those found in local villages, and there are hundreds of them arranged in long rows along a series of narrow canals which lead inland from the river.

The rows of granaries are all concentrated in an area between the river and the main road. Facing the road, at the entrance to the district, are several large buildings where the traders and granary managers conduct rice transactions. All of the shipments into and out of the kura are recorded carefully in account books, and the summary figures telling the volume of rice in storage and the going price per koku are sent to bakufu officials once or twice a week. At harvest time the kashi (wharves), where rice is unloaded, are bustling with activity as boats from all over the country dock and unload their cargoes of rice. Usually, the jito (a low-ranking samurai who supervises production in a certain village or region) will travel to Edo with their rice shipments in order to ensure that the delivery is made safely, to get a receipt for their delivery, and to haggle with the officials at the kura in order to get the best price possible.

The dock workers carry the heavy bundles of rice off the barges and up the steps into the granary buildings. After rice is harvested and dried, the farmers who produced it bring their tax rice to the home of the jito (the word "jito" literally means "head of the land"). There, the rice is wrapped in large bundles made of straw. Since each bundle is supposed to contain exactly one-fourth of a koku of rice, it is easy for the warehouse managers to quickly tally the amount of each shipment. Each bundle bears the stamp of the region and farm that produced and bundled it, so if the managers find out later that the bundles don't contain the right amount of rice, they can easily tell who is guilty of trying to cheat the Government.

More is here
©　edomatsu: Welcome to Edo!

More in the Daruma Museum:
Kuramae Baka Monogatari 蔵前馬鹿物語

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External LINK
NHK: 蔵。美の壺

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HAIKU

蔵焼けて障るものなき月見哉
kura yakete sawaru mono naki tsukimi kana

My storehouse burnt down,
There is nothing to obstruct
The moon-view.
trans. Blyth

Now that my storehouse
has burned down, nothing
conceals the moon.
trans. Yoel Hoffmann

Mizuta Masahide 水田正秀 (1657-1723)
Read the discussion of the translation here.

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Kobayashi Issa

よその蔵からすじかひに初日哉
yoso no kura kara sujikai ni hatsu hi kana

from a neighbor's storehouse
shining slantwise...
year's first sun

おち葉してけろりと立し土蔵哉
ochiba shite kerori to tateshi dozô kana

among fallen leaves
the storehouse
unconcerned

More KURA haiku by Issa
Tr. David Lanoue

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my neighbour's kura ...
he closed the door
with a loud BANG

Gabi Greve, April 2006

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Related words

***** Fire (kaji) The Town of Edo is burning down ...

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Hi no Oka Pass

2008-05-16T01:20:00.000-07:00

[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO TOP . ]

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Hi no Oka Pass (Hi no Oka Tooge)

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

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Explanation

Hi-no-oka, Hinooka 日ノ岡 , 日の岡

Hi no Oka is an old town on the Tokaido Road, leading to a pass road in the outskirts of Kyoto toward Yamashina.
From the pass there is a long waterway toward the city of Kyoto with some sluices near Hi no Oka.

The grave of tenno Tenchi 天智天皇御陵 is close by.

The Jizo Statue at Hi no Oka
山科区日ノ岡一切経谷町

There are many small Buddha statues at the feet of this Jizo.

花崗岩製で２ｍ近く丸彫り地蔵。江戸時代末の作風。宝珠と錫杖（鉄製）を持つポピュラーなお姿。国道１号線沿いの地蔵堂に大切に安置されています。このお地蔵さんの足下にたくさんの小石仏が置かれています。街道筋の石仏を集められたのでしょうか。
©　shigeru.kommy.com

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HAIKU

日の岡やこがれて暑き牛の舌
hinooka ya kogarete atsuki ushi no shita
(summer stanzas, #176)

Breezeless Hinooka
and hot to the point of burning
hangs the cart ox's tongue
trans. EM & HO

EM & HO comment:
"Hi no oka 日ノ岡," "Hill of the Sun" had a steep slope enclosed by hills that made it hot even by the standards of nearby Kyoto, as the poor straining beast shows.

Details are here : Introducing Haiku Poets:
Mizuta Masahide 水田正秀

This pass road is situated on the east side of the mountain, so the morning sun hits the traveller and thus gave the name to this area, "Hill of the Sun".

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***** WKD Reference

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Haiku Sweets (haika)

2008-05-14T18:01:00.000-07:00

[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO TOP . ]

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Haiku Sweets (haika)

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

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Explanation

Sweets, cakes and snacks, prepared in allusion to a famous haiku
haika 俳菓

Read the basics of Japanese sweets (wagashi) here
Sweets from Japan (wagashi)

one more speciality
Snack served with tea (cha no ko, o-cha no ko) Japan

Many tea sweets (chagashi 茶菓子) are named after famous short poems (tanka 短歌), but there are also some named after a famous haiku.

I will try and list them here as I find them.

Gabi Greve, May 2008

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芭蕉俳菓　 Basho Haika
Basho's haiku and the Japanese confection

©　桔梗屋伊左衛門 Kikyoo-Ya Iemon

伊賀市上野東町2949番地
TEL0595-21-0123

a partly bi-lingual BLOG by Kikyo San, a sweet maker in the 18th generation in Iga Ueno, the home of Basho.
Take your time to browse here !

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化けそうな傘借す寺の時雨かな
bakesoo na kasa kasu tera no shigure kana

winter drizzle -
at the temple I borrow an old umbrella
looking almost like a ghost

Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村
Tr. Gabi Greve

More about
Ghosts and Haiku

Winter drizzle (shigure) KIGO

Haiga by Buson
"Umbrella looking like a ghost"

Haiku Sweet: Shiguregasa : sleet and umbrella
「俳菓しぐれがさ」銘菓「時雨傘」

In the North of Kyoto there is the temple Ichijoo-Ji Konbuku-Ji 一乗寺金福寺 where Buson wrote this haiku. He was on this way to Central Kyoto, when the rain became stronger and he borrowed this old tattered umbrella. The umbrella looked as if it would grow legs and arms, strecht out the toungue and start dancing in a moment.

The owner of a sweet store in Kyoto made a small cake looking like an umbrella and had his HIT right away. This was in 1903. The present owner of "Kyokado 京華堂" is in the fouth generation. The owner also seems to have created the word "Haiku Sweet", which is written on the explanation sheet of this cake.

京華堂利保
京都市左京区二条通川端東入ル難波町
©　www.digistyle-kyoto.com / 京華堂利保

ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo

Here is Blyth's translation of the Buson haiku:

It may transform itself,
This umbrella lent by a temple,
In the winter rain.

Blyth's comment:

Rain begins to fall, and Buson goes to a temple nearby and asks for the loan of an umbrella. The monk gives him one, so old that it is hardly worth while returning. As he leaves the temple in the gathering darkness, the rain falling steadily and monotonously, Buson feels that this aged umbrella may suddenly transform itself into a fox or a witch or goblin. The old monk, the old temple, the rain, the tattered umbrella, the evening, the thoughts of ghosts and apparitions are all blended together with a power and compactness in the original which even a literal translation cannot emulate.
"Rain of a temple lending a bewitched umbrella" is nearer the Japanese, but omits the "may be" element of "looks as though it may be going to transform itself" expressed by "bakesoo."
Compiled by Larry Bole
Translating Haiku Forum

ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo

an old umbrella
turned into sweet cake ...
more haiku wonders

Gabi Greve

I shall look into it from another angle that perhaps is sweeter than any sweets:

an old umbrella
turned into a protective cover
of Lord Buddha

Kumarendra Mallick, Hyderabad, India

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柿食えば鐘が鳴るなり法隆寺
kaki kueba kane ga naru nari Hooryuu-Ji

eating a persimmon
the bell reveberates
at temple Horyu-ji
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

Masaoka Shiki
Read a discussion of this haiku translation.

The shop Rokujiya 六時屋 in Matsuyama makes sweets in memory of haiku by Masaoka Shiki since 1953.
©　Rokujiya 六時屋
〒790-0878
愛媛県松山市
勝山町２丁目１８-８
TEL： 089-941-6666（代）

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石山の石に　たばしる　あられかな
Ishiyama no ishi ni tabashiru arare kana
霰 arare
scattering on the stones
of Mount Ishiyama -
these hailstones
Tr. Gabi Greve

More about this sweet TABASHIRU
Matsuo Basho at Mount Ishiyamadera

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渋かろか　知らねど柿の初ちぎり
shibukaro ka shiranu do kaki no hatsu chigiri

are they bitter?
I do not know, but - well,
the first bite of a persimmon

Kaga no Chiyo-Jo 加賀千代女

hatsu chigiri ...
can imply taking the first persimmon fruit from a branch of the tree and take a bite.
It can also imply the first encounter of a newly-wed couple.

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a haiku about the garden of Tsubone-ya 局屋, a famous tea shop in Kyoto

庭の栗ふくめば京の旅路かな
niwa no kuri fukumeba Kyoo no tabiji kana

even the chestnuts
in the tea garden -
travelling in Kyoto
Tr. Gabi Greve

Konishi Chizuru 小西千鶴

©　tsuboneya Kyoto
〒605-0846
東山区五条橋東六丁目583
松村敏男

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Buson-An and Sakura-Ebisen
蕪村菴さくらえびせんべい

In a pack with two crackers
From Kyoto

手まくらの夢はかざしの桜哉
temakura no yume wa kazashi no sakura kana

Yosa Buson

yume kazashi 夢かざし

. . . CLICK here for Photos !

Here is another Buson Haiku about TEMAKURA

手枕に身を愛すなり朧月
手枕に身を愛す也おほろ月
temakura ni mi o aisu nari oborozuki

My arm for a pillow,
I really like myself
under the hazy moon
(Tr. Robert Hass)

. . . CLICK here for temakura Photos !

makura, 枕 pillow
temakura, tamakura, my hand(s) for a pillow
you can sit on a table and use your hands
den Kopf in die Hand / Hände gestützt

hijimakura, ellbow for a pillow
udemakura, my arm(s) for a pillow
..... usually you are lying down

In a very wide meaning, I am tempted to translate

I like to sit there
with my head in my hands ...
hazy moon
English by Gabi Greve

WKD : the first person in haiku . wagami, watakushi ...

春の夜の夢ばかりなる手枕に
かひなくたたむ　名こそ惜しけれ

Suoo on Naishi 周防内侍 (? - 1110)
Female poet of the Heian period

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Thin filled waffers in memory of Shushiki, poetess of the Edo period
"Shushiki monaka 秋色もなか"

matsusugi o homete ya kaze no kaoru oto

Shigure no Matsu 時雨の松 Pine in Winter Drizzel
Matsuo Basho at Temple Jojakkoji, Ogura, Kyoto

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***** Sweets from Japan (wagashi)

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