Haiku Travels
it is looking
a bit like spring:
moon and plum
haru mo yaya| keshiki totonou | tsuki to ume
春もやや気色ととのふ月と梅
[Hyakkaen Garden]
Seen from the city, Higashi-Mukojima, the site of the Hyakkaen Garden, lies on the opposite bank of the Sumida River, something which is also expressed in the name 'Mukojima,' which means 'Yonder Isle,' or 'Island on the Other Side of the Sumida.' The garden was laid out on fertile land along the river's bank. It used to be an idyllic land of farming villages, vegetable gardens and paddy fields. Shogun Yoshimune (1684-1751) planted cherry trees along the embankment of the Sumida and turned Mukojima into a favorite pleasure resort, where city crowds flocked in spring. It was after all only a short ferry ride away from Asakusa with its popular Kannon temple.
But in the first half of the twentieth century the city expanded and the transformation from agriculture to industry was particularly rapid here. To provide an outlet for the workers, supposedly, one of Tokyo's most rough red-light districts, the Tamanoi, was established. Nagai Kafu has given an extensive description of it in his novel A Strange Tale from East of the River. But that phenomenon has passed, too: both the oldest trade in the world and modern factories have left, and now the area consists of small shops, small houses and huge apartments. It is a bit boring and looks the same as other areas east of the river. Even the somewhat notorious name 'Tamanoi' has been erased: the Tobu line station of that designation has been renamed 'Higashi-Mukojima.' Only where small private homes still remain can the visitor get a whiff of the atmosphere of old Tokyo thanks to the many potted plants in front of the houses. And of course we have Hyakkaen, the Garden of a Hundred Flowers...
[Haiku stone with the first haiku]
This 'Garden of a Hundred Flowers' was established in 1804 by a retired antique dealer from Nihonbashi, Sawara Kiku. It has none of the formal characteristics of Edo's daimyo gardens, to which it forms a refreshing contrast. The garden was the hobby of Kiku and his literati fiends, among whom we find the famous artists Tani Buncho and Sakai Hoitsu, but also a writer of comic verse and a Confucian philosopher. He asked them to donate plum trees and managed to assemble 360 of them. So the original garden had the character of a plum garden - after all, the plum was the symbol of the gentleman also in ancient China (it is refined and unobtrusive compared to the vulgar cherry blossoms and shows its strength by putting out flowers in February when it can still be bitingly cold).
Soon also other plants with classical associations were added, such as the Seven Herbs of Spring (for example dropwort, shepherd's purse and radish; these herbs were eaten in rice gruel for good health) and the Seven Herbs of Autumn (bush clover, eulalia and balloonflowers to mention a few; these were all decorative). In fact, we now find the whole range of Japanese flora, from pines to plums, wisteria to bush clover, and irises to hydrangeas. Kiku's friends also engaged their literary talents in a more direct way by setting up numerous stone steles engraved with haiku and tanka poems. They would gather in the garden to view the full harvest moon or listen to the chirping insects of late summer. The Garden of a Hundred Flowers became one of the major plum and flower viewing spots of old Edo and people touring the Sumida-area would often pay a visit.
Kiku also possessed a small ceramic statue of Fukurojin, one of the so-called
Seven Deities of Good Fortune. This led him to search out the other six
in shrines and temples in the neighborhood and set up a small
pilgrimage course. This mini-pilgrimage, the Sumida River circuit of the Seven Deities of Good Fortune, is undertaken in the first week
of January. Nowadays, Seven Deities of Good Fortune (Shichi Fukujin)
tours are more popular than ever and one finds them everywhere in Japan.
It is a nice New Year-custom.
[Entrance to Hyakkaen Garden]
Famous among the more than thirty stones in the garden are a stele describing the history of the garden as well as a stone on which a painting of bamboo has been incised. I also find two Basho haiku stones here; you'll find the first haiku at the top of this page. Although Basho also lived on the left bank of the Sumida, in his time the garden did not exist yet, so this stone does not commemorate the place where he wrote the poem (that is against my usual policy in this haiku series, but I have included Mukojima-Hyakkaen as it is a great destination thanks to its haiku atmosphere.
The haiku sings of the start of spring after the long winter. Under the moon, which is enveloped in a haze, the plum trees put forth the first blossoms, giving the poet the feeling that spring has finally arrived. A fitting haiku for a plum garden! Basho seems to have inscribed the poem on paintings of plum blossoms and the moon, and it is not difficult to imagine a traditional Japanese painting when you read these lines. The haiku stone was erected in 1836.
[Tunnel formed by bushclover]
Here is the second haiku by Basho represented in Mukojima-Hyakkaen:
a few slices of
konnyaku and
plum blossoms
konnyaku no | sashimi mo sukoshi | ume no hana
Another haiku about plum blossoms, this time unexpectedly paired with konnyaku. Konnyaku is a 'bulbous perennial herb' that has been cultivated in Japan since ancient times. A jelly-like food is derived from the bulb. It is rich in dietary fiber but has no calories and is therefore a perfect health food. Basho was very fond of it. It can be prepared in various forms, one of them thinly sliced as if it were raw fish. This is the sashimi-konnyaku Basho is referring to in this haiku, a staple of the vegetarian kitchen in the Kansai.
According to an accompanying note, Basho sent this poem to his disciple Kyorai, the Master of Persimmons of the Rakushisha hermitage to the west of Kyoto. Apparently, Kyorai had suffered a bereavement and Basho wrote this poem to console him. The haiku stone in Hyakkaen dates from 1814.
Mukojima Hyakkaen is small and attractive. As there are not so many high-rises yet in these surroundings, the view of nature is not marred by concrete colossuses. The garden is quiet and the few visitors seem of a literary bend. Some are slowly taking aim at the flowers with intricate cameras, while others go around reading the texts on the many stone steles that stand along the meandering paths. In September, flowering bushclovers create a veritable tunnel...
Address: 3-18-3 Higashi-Mukojima, Sumida-ku, Tokyo.
Tel. 03-3611-8705
Access: 8-min. walk from Higashi-Mukojima station on the Tobu Isezaki line or a 13-min. walk from Hikifune station on the Keisei Oshiage line.
English Website