Hyakunin Isshu, Poem 24
Translation and comments by Ad Blankestijn
(version September 2022)
Translation and comments by Ad Blankestijn
(version September 2022)
on my present journey
I couldn't bring sacred streamers
to Offering Hill,
so perhaps this brocade of autumn leaves
is to the gods' liking...
kono tabi wa
nusa mo toriaezu
Tamukeyama
momiji no nishiki
kami no mani mani
このたびは
幣もとりあへず
手向山
紅葉のにしき
神のまにまに
Sugawara no Michizane 菅原道真 (845-903)
[Brocade of colored leaves at Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto]
A poem about the beauty of the autumn leaves at Offering Hill - a beauty typical for this place and its kami. It is a characteristic Kokinshu poem containing a witticism based on a pun between a place name (Tamukeyama) and the conceit of autumn leaves as brocade.
In the Kokinshu this poem is accompanied by a headnote which says: "Composed at Tamukeyama, when Emperor Uda (867-931; reigned 887-897) made a trip to Nara." The trip in question, an elaborate excursion to Nara and Sumiyoshi, was made in 898.
[A nusa with white shide in the Kenkun Shrine in Kyoto
Notes
- Tabi: a pivot word that refers both to "this time" and "at this trip," so I have translated it as "on my present journey."
- Nusa: refers to a wooden wand used in Shinto rituals which is decorated with many shide (zig-zagging paper streamers). They are usually white, but can also be gold, silver, or a mixture of several colors - as here where they are so to speak made of the autumn colors.
- Toriaezu: normally "unable to take properly," here it means "unable to bring." Japanese commentators usually debate the why: could the poet not bring a proper offering because of the suddenness of Emperor Uda's excursion? This is very unlikely, considering the elaborateness of the procession. Or does Michizane mean that he could not bring a private offering as it was a public trip?
- Tamukeyama: "Offering Hill," is not the famous Tamuke Hachiman Shrine in Nara's Todaiji, but Tamukeyama was a general name for hills where travelers made offerings to the gods for a safe journey. The poem's Tamukeyama would then perhaps be somewhere between Kyoto and Nara.
- Koyo no nishiki: to compare autumn leaves (koyo) to brocade (nishiki) was conventional.
- Manimani: "to the liking of."
[Kitano Tenmangu Shrine Kyoto]
The poet
Sugawara no Michizane (845-903 - the Hyakunin Isshu calls him "Kanke," "(Michizane) of the House of Sugawara") was an exceptional scholar of Chinese literature, an accomplished poet, as well as an important politician. He was born into a family of scholars, which in his time meant that they were specialists in the Chinese Classics, Dynastic Histories, etc. After passing the civil-service examination in 870, he entered the Japanese court. In 886 he was appointed governor of Sanuki Province on the island of Shikoku. Sugawara returned to Kyoto in 890 and next was promoted to a number of important posts by Emperor Uda, who used him to counterbalance the influence of the powerful Fujiwara family. By 899 he was made Minister of the Right (Udaijin), the second most important ministerial position, by Uda's son, the Emperor Daigo. But Emperor Uda had by now abdicated, and Michizane had lost his precious support. Emperor Daigo favored the Fujiwara, and in 901 Fujiwara no Tokihira, Sugawara's rival, convinced the emperor that Sugawara was plotting treason. Sugawara was banished from the capital and demoted to a minor administrative post in Dazaifu on the island of Kyushu.
[Dazaifu Tenmangu in Dazaifu, Kyushu]
Visiting
Kitano Tenmangu in Kyoto. Following Sugawara no Michizane's death in Kyushu, a series of calamities
(storms, fires and violent deaths) which ravaged the capital Heiankyo, were attributed to his vengeful
spirit. To placate that spirit, Sugawara was posthumously reinstated to
high rank; in addition, the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine was built in Kyoto
where Michizane was worshiped as the deity Tenman Tenjin. Tenjin was
originally a god of thunder related to agriculture, but since Michizane
became Tenjin, this deity was transformed into the patron god of study,
poetry, calligraphy and the performing arts. There are numerous local
Tenmangu shrines throughout Japan - of which some, such as those in
Kyoto, Osaka, Dazaifu, and Hofu are very famous - at which schoolchildren buy
amulets for luck during the period of school entrance examinations in
the spring.
[Bull statue in Kitano Tenmangu, Kyoto]
Michizane is associated both with bulls and plum trees. Bulls because, according to legend, during Michizane's funeral procession, the bull pulling the cart bearing his remains refused to go any further than a certain spot, where later the Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine in Dazaifu (Kyushu) was built. Like other Shinto deities who employ animals as spirit messengers (Inari shrines have the fox, Hachiman shrines pigeons, Kasuga shrines deer, etc.), so the bull became the typical animal of the Tenmangu shrines and one often finds fine bull statues in the shrine grounds (always lying down, as Michizane's bull refused to continue on its way).
Plum trees (ume) became associated with Michizane because he was very fond of this tree, often eulogized in Chinese poetry, and wrote a famous poem from exile in which he lamented the absence of a particular tree he had loved in his garden in the capital. According to legend, that tree then flew to Dazaifu where it still stands in front of the shrine. Tenmangu shrines often have a park with plum trees.
Also see "Buson and Kitano Tenmangu" in the series "Haiku Travels" at this blog.
[Plum blossoms in Kitano Tenmangu, Kyoto]
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); Hyakunin Isshu, Ocho waka kara chusei waka e by Inoue Muneo (Chikuma Shoin, 2004); 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 (Stanford 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 in this post are my own work.