Haiku Travels
with young leaves
I want to wipe
the tears from your eyes
wakaba shite | onme no shizuku | muguwabaya
若葉して御めの雫ぬぐは ヾや
Basho
[Toshodaiji temple]
On one of his visits to Nara (in 1688), Basho also came to Toshodaiji where he worshiped the dry-lacquer portrait statue made of the temple's founder, the Chinese monk Ganjin, as he related in his Knapsack Notebook. Ganjin had reached Japan only after many tribulations and gone blind because of his hardships. Still, he was determined to make the dangerous sea voyage to bring the correct Buddhist precepts and rules for monastic life to Japan. After working in Todaiji, at the end of his life he retired to Toshodaiji, his private temple and a school for training monks in the Vinaya, the monastic rules.
The statue shows him seated in deep meditation, peaceful but also powerful. Thanks to the soft dry-lacquer used, and the natural paint that has still not faded, it makes a very realistic impression. It was reputedly made a few days before his death, after his chief disciple had had the ominous dream of seeing the roof of the temple collapse. Ganjin died on the 6th day of the 5th lunar month 763, aged 76. He passed away calmly and quietly, seated upright and facing west.
[Statue of Ganjin]
The slightly swollen eyes of the statue seem to hint at Ganjin's blindness. The closed eyes, with the eyelashes painted on, attract the viewer's attention to the face. It is a moving statue that manages to capture the essence of Ganjin. Basho must have harbored the same sentiment. The tears are rather Basho's own tears, on meeting the blind monk, who almost lost his life when bringing the Buddhist Precepts to Japan.
Wiping the eyes with green leaves is also a compassionate gesture towards the monk who can not see the green, young leaves of the new spring. In this way, he can feel their soft new life and smell their freshness... Indeed, the Ganjin statue almost seems alive. Facing him, one can not help but being filled with great respect and affection.
[Ganjin's grave in Toshodaiji]
Toshodaiji is one of my favorite temples in Nara. The main hall houses a wonderful set of three statues: in the center a hollow-core dry-lacquer statue of the seated Birushana Buddha, which is over three meters tall, on the left a gigantic Thousand-armed Kannon, rare because it really has 1000 arms stretching out like a halo behind it, and a Yakushi Nyorai, the Healing Buddha, who dates from the last years of the 8th century. It is a wonder these fragile statues have survived the ages unscathed.
There is more in Toshodaiji: the beautiful Lecture Hall, originally from the Nara Palace, with its Miroku statue; the 8th c. sutra and treasure repositories, two storehouses in the log cabin style of the Shosoin; the elegant Drum Tower; and the Mieido housing the above mentioned statue of Ganjin (which is only shown on June 6, the day Ganjin's death is commemorated) - the hall itself is new and has been decorated with wall paintings of pine forests and seascapes by nihonga painter Higashiyama Kaii, a masterwork of modern art.
Ganjin's grave can be found at the back of the temple grounds. In front of it have been placed a marble table and bronze incense vase in Chinese style. Behind that, steps lead up to a small stone stupa. It is a very tasteful arrangement.
[Toshodaiji's Lecture Hall]
Basho also saw Nara's deer again (how can anyone miss them?) and he wrote:
on Buddha's birthday
happens to be born
a baby deer!
kanbutsu no | hi ni umare-au | ka no ko kana
灌仏の日に生れあふ鹿の子 哉
The head note says: "Worshiping at various temples in Nara on the celebration of the Buddha's birthday, we happened to see a fawn born, a remarkable event given the day." Buddha's Birthday was (and still is) celebrated in temples throughout Japan, and is also called Hana Matsuri, Flower festival. The modern date is April 8. At Buddhist temples, people pour amacha, a kind of sweet tea, over a small image of the Buddha as child.
[Deer in Nara Park]
deer horns
growing into branches
our separation
shika no tsuno | mazu hitofushi no | wakare kana
鹿の角先一節のわかれかな
After the visit to Toshodaiji, Basho wrote the above haiku with the head note "departing from my old friends in Nara," pointing at a group of disciples from Iga-Ueno, who had traveled with Basho.
The deer horn changes every year, as a new horn grows in early summer to part into its two branches. The expression "hitofushi no wakare" points both at the parting into two branches after the first section of the horn, and also at the end of the meeting with friends.
All three above haiku have been included in Basho's Knapsack Notebook.
Toshodaiji
15-min. walk from Nishi no Kyo or Amagatsuji Stations on the Kintetsu Line; 15-min. walk from Yakushiji. There is also a bus from Nara St and Nara Kintetsu St.
Translations and Studies of Basho
Basho's Haiku, 2 vols, by Toshiharu Oseko (1990 & 1996, Maruzen): Basho and his Interpreters, Selected Hokku with Commentary, by Makoto Ueda (1992, Stanford U.P.); Traces of Dreams, Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Basho, by Haruo Shirane (1998, Stanford U.P.); Basho's Narrow Road, by Hiroaki Sato (1996, Stone Bridge Press); Basho's Journey, The Literary Prose of Matsuo Basho, by David Landis Bamhill (2005, State University of New York); Basho Yamatoji by Daiyasu Takashi considers Basho's travels in the Nara area and the haiku he wrote there (Izumi Shobo, 1994)
Basho's Knapsack Notebook is included in the above mentioned translation of Basho's prose by David Landis Bamhill.
[The photos in this post are my own, except the photo of the Ganjin statue (Wikipedia)]