Haiku Travels
Akashi (Hyogo)
octopus traps -
brief dreams
under the summer moon
tako-tsubo ya | hakanaki yume wo | natsu no tsuki
蛸壺やはかなき夢を夏の月
Basho
[Uonotani mall in "tako town" Akashi]
The city of Akashi, which is mentioned at the end of Basho's Knapsack Notebook (Oi no Kobumi) was the furthest west Basho ever traveled. He spent the night here after visiting the beach of Suma (see my post about Basho and Suma). The trip started in November 1687 and ended in May 1688; Basho was accompanied by his disciple Tokoku.
Akashi is a historic castle town located on the Akashi Strait in the Seto Inland Sea, west of Kobe. The remains of the castle built in 1618 by Ogasawara Tadazane are now a popular cherry blossom viewing spot and are located just north of Akashi Station. Akashi already figures in a waka by 7th century poet Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, considered as "the god of poetry" in Japan - and by extension of literature and scholarship. In Akashi also stands the Kakinomoto Shrine (founded 887), commemorating an early Heian belief that Hitomaro's spirit came to rest in Akashi. The shrine is a 5 min walk from Hiromaru-mae Station on the Sanyo Dentetsu line.
Akashi also appears in The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. Another legendary figure with whom Akashi has been associated is swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, who, when Akashi Castle was being built, may have worked here as a town planner.
Akashi is a historic castle town located on the Akashi Strait in the Seto Inland Sea, west of Kobe. The remains of the castle built in 1618 by Ogasawara Tadazane are now a popular cherry blossom viewing spot and are located just north of Akashi Station. Akashi already figures in a waka by 7th century poet Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, considered as "the god of poetry" in Japan - and by extension of literature and scholarship. In Akashi also stands the Kakinomoto Shrine (founded 887), commemorating an early Heian belief that Hitomaro's spirit came to rest in Akashi. The shrine is a 5 min walk from Hiromaru-mae Station on the Sanyo Dentetsu line.
Akashi also appears in The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. Another legendary figure with whom Akashi has been associated is swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, who, when Akashi Castle was being built, may have worked here as a town planner.
[Octopus in a trap]
Today Akashi is mainly famous as a fishing port - due to the strong current, the fish here is of high quality and the town has a fish market in the form of a 350 m long covered street with more than 100 specialized shops called Uonotana ("fish shelf"). The fish here is so fresh that you can sometimes see the live octopus crawling out of their plastic containers to shoot away! Akashi is also known for the superior quality of its red sea bream (madai) - elegant traditional restaurants in the whole country only serve Akashi sea bream. Sea bream was in the past considered as the King of Fish and has, thanks to its reddish color (and name which resembles "medetai," "lucky"), an auspicious nature. It used to be the most popular fish on sushi before the advent of tuna, and still is a fish that is often eaten salt-grilled, with head and tail attached, on New Year's Day.
But the star of the Uonotana market is Akashi-dako, Akashi octopus. Akashi-dako are known for their thick, firm tentacles, and they have rather lean flesh with a sweet taste. Tako also features in Akashi's most famous B-gourmet dish, Akashi-yaki. Akashi-yaki is a variant of Osaka's tako-yaki. Small pieces of octopus are placed inside a ball-shaped mold containing a mixture of flour and eggs and this is then fried. Akashi-yaki is eaten by dipping in a thin soup (that, plus the addition of eggs to the dough, are the major differences with tako-yaki).
But the star of the Uonotana market is Akashi-dako, Akashi octopus. Akashi-dako are known for their thick, firm tentacles, and they have rather lean flesh with a sweet taste. Tako also features in Akashi's most famous B-gourmet dish, Akashi-yaki. Akashi-yaki is a variant of Osaka's tako-yaki. Small pieces of octopus are placed inside a ball-shaped mold containing a mixture of flour and eggs and this is then fried. Akashi-yaki is eaten by dipping in a thin soup (that, plus the addition of eggs to the dough, are the major differences with tako-yaki).
[Octopus pots lying on the quay of a fishing port]
At an overnight stop in Akashi Basho wrote one of his greatest haiku, cited at the top of this page. Octopus traps are unglazed earthenware pots used for catching octopus. These heavy pots which are left on the sea floor for days at a time. Octopuses enter and remain inside, using the pot as shelter and protection. No bait is used. When the pot is raised, the octopus will not normally try to escape.
Sitting in the pot at the bottom of the sea, the octopus enjoys a brief, pleasant dream, without realizing its pending fate. The summer moon shines innocently over the whole scene - an apt comparison for the human condition: also for us life is short like a summer dream...
[Awaji Island and the Akashi Strait Bridge, "splitting the bay of Suma and the sea of Akashi to the right and left"]
snail
divide your horns
between Suma and Akashi
katatsuburi | tsuno furiwake yo | Suma Akashi
蝸牛 角ふりわけよ 須磨明石
Basho also wrote a playful poem about the border between Settsu and Harima provinces. A snail crossing the border line is half in Settsu (Kobe-Suma) and half in Harima (the Akashi-Himeji area), jokes Basho. In the Knapsack Notebook, Basho does not quote this haiku, but he alludes to the situation by writing "As if reaching out a hand, the island of Awaji splits the bay of Suma and the sea of Akashi to the right and left. Du Fu's vista of Wu and Chu (two neighboring states in ancient China) to the east and south may have been like this, but a truly learned man would have been able to think of many such resemblances."
divide your horns
between Suma and Akashi
katatsuburi | tsuno furiwake yo | Suma Akashi
蝸牛 角ふりわけよ 須磨明石
Basho also wrote a playful poem about the border between Settsu and Harima provinces. A snail crossing the border line is half in Settsu (Kobe-Suma) and half in Harima (the Akashi-Himeji area), jokes Basho. In the Knapsack Notebook, Basho does not quote this haiku, but he alludes to the situation by writing "As if reaching out a hand, the island of Awaji splits the bay of Suma and the sea of Akashi to the right and left. Du Fu's vista of Wu and Chu (two neighboring states in ancient China) to the east and south may have been like this, but a truly learned man would have been able to think of many such resemblances."
The snail probably makes its appearance because the chapter called Suma in the Genji Monogatari says that Suma and Akashi are so close that one can "crawl" from one to the other.
[Akashi Port]
Basho's Knapsack Notebook has been translated in Basho's Journey, The Literary Prose of Matsuo Basho, by David Landis Bamhill (2005, State University of New York Press). My citation is from page 43.
[Except the first photo, which is my own, all photos in this post are from Wikimedia Commons]