Hyakunin Isshu, Poem 7
Translation and comments by Ad Blankestijn
(version September 2022)
Translation and comments by Ad Blankestijn
(version September 2022)
when I look up
to the plain of heaven -
once, in Kasuga,
from behind Mt Mikasa,
I saw the same moon come out
ama no hara
furisakemireba
Kasuga naru
Mikasa no yama ni
ideshi tsuki ka mo
天の原
ふりさけ見れば
春日なる
三笠の山に
出でし月かも
天の原
ふりさけ見れば
春日なる
三笠の山に
出でし月かも
Abe no Nakamaro 阿倍仲麻呂 (698-770)
[Mr Wakakusa in Nara]
"Composed on seeing the moon in China", is the first of several poems on the moon in the Hyakunin Isshu. It is also an expression of longing for the poet's native land, especially Nara, written while the poet lived and worked in China.
Notes
Mt Wakakusa
Mt Mikasa is presently called Mt Wakakusa, it is the hill that looms above Todaiji and the Kasuga Shrine in Nara. It is part of Nara Park. The 342 m. high hill is covered with turf and is known for the turf burning conducted every year on the 4th Saturday of January. Just as Mt Mikasa / Wakakusa now dominates central Nara, so it was in the Nara period, when the present poet saw it as a symbol of his hometown and country.
Envoys to China, as Abe no Nakamaro was, used to pray in Nara's Kasuga Shrine for a safe return. So Nakamaro compares the moon he sees in China to the particular moon that rose the night he prayed at the Kasuga Shrine before he left Japan - it is not a general comparison of Chinese and Japanese moons!
[Mr Wakakusa in Nara]
"Composed on seeing the moon in China", is the first of several poems on the moon in the Hyakunin Isshu. It is also an expression of longing for the poet's native land, especially Nara, written while the poet lived and worked in China.
Notes
- amanohara: the heavens, the skies
- furisake mireba: sake here means "distant", so "to look around into the distance"
- Kasuga naru: at Kasuga, referring to the general area of the Kasuga Shrine
- ideshi: -shi indicates the past tense: "that came out over"
- ka mo: expletive (word to fill out the sentence that doesn't add to the sense)
Mt Wakakusa
Mt Mikasa is presently called Mt Wakakusa, it is the hill that looms above Todaiji and the Kasuga Shrine in Nara. It is part of Nara Park. The 342 m. high hill is covered with turf and is known for the turf burning conducted every year on the 4th Saturday of January. Just as Mt Mikasa / Wakakusa now dominates central Nara, so it was in the Nara period, when the present poet saw it as a symbol of his hometown and country.
Envoys to China, as Abe no Nakamaro was, used to pray in Nara's Kasuga Shrine for a safe return. So Nakamaro compares the moon he sees in China to the particular moon that rose the night he prayed at the Kasuga Shrine before he left Japan - it is not a general comparison of Chinese and Japanese moons!
The Poet
Abe no Nakamaro (698-770) was in 717 sent to study in China, with a Japanese embassy to the Tang court that also included Kibi no Makibi and the priest Genbo. Such embassies represent Japanese efforts to learn from Chinese culture and civilization in the 7th, 8th and 9th centuries. Knowledge and learning was the principal objective of each expedition. Priests studied Chinese Buddhism, officials studied Chinese government organization, doctors studied Chinese medicine, and painters studied Chinese painting. Between 607 and 838, Japan sent 19 missions to China. Approximately one third of those who embarked from Japan did not survive to return home - so dangerous was sea travel.
Abe no Nakamaro remained in the Chinese capital Changan where he took the Chinese name "Zhao Heng" and entered the National University. He next sat for the Tang imperial examinations and became a member of the regular Tang bureaucracy - a severe case of "going native" (although it must be admitted that there were only very few chances to return). He also established a literary reputation in Chinese and is said to have befriended such major Chinese poets as Li Bai and Wang Wei. In 753 he attempted to return to Japan with the embassy of Fujiwara no Kiyokawa, but was shipwrecked on the coast of Annam (again showing how dangerous sea travel was at the time, the ships were often driven completely off course by typhoons). He then became governor-general of Vietnam (at that time under Chinese control) and finally died in Changan after 54 years of absence from home. We have only two poems by Abe no Nakamaro, but the present one is very famous and opens the Travel section in the Kokinshu.
Abe no Nakamaro (698-770) was in 717 sent to study in China, with a Japanese embassy to the Tang court that also included Kibi no Makibi and the priest Genbo. Such embassies represent Japanese efforts to learn from Chinese culture and civilization in the 7th, 8th and 9th centuries. Knowledge and learning was the principal objective of each expedition. Priests studied Chinese Buddhism, officials studied Chinese government organization, doctors studied Chinese medicine, and painters studied Chinese painting. Between 607 and 838, Japan sent 19 missions to China. Approximately one third of those who embarked from Japan did not survive to return home - so dangerous was sea travel.
Abe no Nakamaro remained in the Chinese capital Changan where he took the Chinese name "Zhao Heng" and entered the National University. He next sat for the Tang imperial examinations and became a member of the regular Tang bureaucracy - a severe case of "going native" (although it must be admitted that there were only very few chances to return). He also established a literary reputation in Chinese and is said to have befriended such major Chinese poets as Li Bai and Wang Wei. In 753 he attempted to return to Japan with the embassy of Fujiwara no Kiyokawa, but was shipwrecked on the coast of Annam (again showing how dangerous sea travel was at the time, the ships were often driven completely off course by typhoons). He then became governor-general of Vietnam (at that time under Chinese control) and finally died in Changan after 54 years of absence from home. We have only two poems by Abe no Nakamaro, but the present one is very famous and opens the Travel section in the Kokinshu.
[Abe no Nakamaro gazing at the moon
by Toshioka Yoshitoshi]
Circumstances of the poem
In fact, the circumstances of composition of our poem have been documented, both in the Kokinshu and in the Tosa Diary by Ki no Tsurayuki (ca 935). That last document tells how Ki no Tsurayuki, by ship on his way back from Tosa (Kochi Pref.) to the capital Kyoto, saw the moon rise out of the sea, and not above the rim of the hills as in the capital. That fact reminded him of Abe no Nakamaro, who must have seen that same "moon rising from the sea" when he wrote his famous moon poem. At that time, as Ki no Tsurayuki tells, Abe no Nakamaro was about to board a ship back to Japan at the coast of China (placing this in the year 753, the year of Abe's failed attempt to return to Japan). Chinese officials gave him a farewell banquet in the evening (when an extraordinarily beautiful moon had risen) and they composed Chinese poems for each other. But Abe no Nakamaro was moved to write a poem in Japanese as well, as "in our country we have composed poems since the age of the gods." The Chinese were of course unable to understand it, but the poet explained the meaning in Chinese. After they had it thus interpreted for them, the Chinese were able to judge its feeling and appreciate it. "China and this country have different languages, but since the radiance of the moon is the same for both, men's feelings about it must surely be the same." (translation from Japanese Poetic Diaries by Earl Miner).
In fact, the circumstances of composition of our poem have been documented, both in the Kokinshu and in the Tosa Diary by Ki no Tsurayuki (ca 935). That last document tells how Ki no Tsurayuki, by ship on his way back from Tosa (Kochi Pref.) to the capital Kyoto, saw the moon rise out of the sea, and not above the rim of the hills as in the capital. That fact reminded him of Abe no Nakamaro, who must have seen that same "moon rising from the sea" when he wrote his famous moon poem. At that time, as Ki no Tsurayuki tells, Abe no Nakamaro was about to board a ship back to Japan at the coast of China (placing this in the year 753, the year of Abe's failed attempt to return to Japan). Chinese officials gave him a farewell banquet in the evening (when an extraordinarily beautiful moon had risen) and they composed Chinese poems for each other. But Abe no Nakamaro was moved to write a poem in Japanese as well, as "in our country we have composed poems since the age of the gods." The Chinese were of course unable to understand it, but the poet explained the meaning in Chinese. After they had it thus interpreted for them, the Chinese were able to judge its feeling and appreciate it. "China and this country have different languages, but since the radiance of the moon is the same for both, men's feelings about it must surely be the same." (translation from Japanese Poetic Diaries by Earl Miner).
[Wakakusayama on a moonlit night seen from the Heijo Palace site in Nara]
Visiting
The Kasuga Grand Shrine stands in the midst of verdant woods, just behind Nara Park. The distinguished shrine imparts a great atmosphere of peace and sanctity. The vermilion-painted shrine was founded in 768 as the tutelary shrine of the Fujiwara family, and rebuilt several times over the centuries. The interior is famous for its many bronze lanterns, as well as the many stone lanterns that lead up the shrine. The four deities worshiped here, known collectively as Kasuga Myojin, were carried to Nara on the backs of deer. The inner shrine begins at the Nandai-mon, beyond which is a courtyard. The Chuo-mon is the next gate. Visitors can not go further than this, but it is possible to look through the Haiden (Oratory) to the four individual shrines of Kasuga Myojin.
The shrine organizes several important festivals:
Setsubun Mantoro (February 3) and Chugen Mantoro (August 14–15), when 3,000 shrine lanterns are all lit at once.
Kasuga Matsuri (March 13), the main shrine festival featuring gagaku and bugaku dances.
Kasuga Wakamiya Festival (at the Wakamiya Jinja, December 15-18).
Kasuga Taisha is 25 min on foot from Kintetsu Nara Station - a nice walk through Nara Park.
Mt Wakakusa lies behind Nara Park, and between Todaiji and the Kasuga Shrine. At only 350 meter, it can be easily climbed and there is a good view over Nara. It is a 35 min walk from Kintetsu Nara Station. There is a small admission fee and the mountain is closed from mid December to late March.
The Wakakusa Yamayaki is an annual festival during which the grass on the hillside of Mt Wakakusa is set on fire. This is usually preceded by a fireworks display. The festival takes place every year on the 4th Saturday of January (the date may be changed in case of bad weather). Because of Mt Wakakusa's position, both the fireworks and the grass burning are visible throughout Nara.
For more information about the Kasuga Shrine, Mt Wakakusa and Yamayaki: https://www.visitnara.jp/
[Yamayaki festival, Nara]
References: Pictures of the Heart, The Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image by Joshua S. Mostow (University of Hawai'i Press, 1996); Traditional Japanese Poetry, An Anthology, by Steven D. Carter (Stanford University Press, 1991); Hyakunin Isshu by Inoue Muneo, etc. (Shinchosha, 1990); Genshoku Hyakunin Isshu by Suzuki Hideo, etc. (Buneido, 1997); Ogura Hyakunin Isshu at Japanese Text Initiative (University of Virginia Library Etext Center); Hyakunin Isshu wo aruku by Shimaoka Shin (Kofusha Shuppan); Basho's Haiku (2 vols) by Toshiharu Oseko (Maruzen, 1990); The Ise Stories by Joshua S. Mostow and Royall Tyler (University of Hawai'i Press, 2010); Kokin Wakashu, The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry by Helen Craig McCullough (Staford University Press, 1985); Kokinshu, A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern by Laurel Rasplica Rodd and Mary Catherine Henkenius (University of Tokyo Press, 1984); Kokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1994); Shinkokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1995); Taketori Monogatari-Ise Monogatari-Yamato Monogatari-Heichu Monogatari (Shogakkan, 1994).
Photos from Wikimedia Commons. Kasuga Grand Shrine is my own photo.