Haiku Travels
Nikko (Tochigi)
how glorious -
on spring leaves, young leaves
the light of the sun
ara touto | aoba wakaba no | hi no hikari
あらたふと青葉若葉の日の光
Basho
[Yomeimon, Nikko Toshogu]
After setting out from Edo with his travel companion and disciple Sora on his long trip to the North, Basho wrote his first two haiku in Nikko.
After having left Senju in Edo, Basho spent the first night of his journey in Soka. At least that is what he writes in Oku no Hosomichi. He is remembered by the town in the decorations along the Ayase River path, where portraits of Basho and Sora have been set in a wall. The - more reliable - diary of Basho's companion Sora, however, states that they lodged in Kasukabe, a town a little bit further to the north. Basho may have changed to location to one closer to Edo to emphasize the point he was making in that section of Oku no Hosomichi. He complains here about his sore shoulders because of the load he carried: a coat, a gown, writing equipment and gifts from the friends who have seen him off. In other words, the Buddhist pilgrim Basho is still burdened by worldly possessions and has not been able to shake of his shackles yet..
Now boring suburbs of Tokyo, these two towns were probably not very beautiful in Basho's time either. It is interesting to read the travel account, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, by Isabella Bird, a globetrotting American woman who passed here in 1878 on the way to northern Japan and Hokkaido. "The road was not good, and the ditches on both sides were frequently neither clean nor sweet. The houses were mean, poor, shabby, often even squalid, the smells were bad..." That Basho preferred not to write about Kasukabe is understandable if he found the same conditions as Isabella Bird: "A good-sized but miserable-looking town, with its main street like one of the poorest streets in Tokiyo... [we] halted for the night at a large yadoya, with downstairs and upstairs rooms, crowds of travelers, and many evil smells." At night she found herself the "helpless victim of fleas and mosquitoes..."
After having left Senju in Edo, Basho spent the first night of his journey in Soka. At least that is what he writes in Oku no Hosomichi. He is remembered by the town in the decorations along the Ayase River path, where portraits of Basho and Sora have been set in a wall. The - more reliable - diary of Basho's companion Sora, however, states that they lodged in Kasukabe, a town a little bit further to the north. Basho may have changed to location to one closer to Edo to emphasize the point he was making in that section of Oku no Hosomichi. He complains here about his sore shoulders because of the load he carried: a coat, a gown, writing equipment and gifts from the friends who have seen him off. In other words, the Buddhist pilgrim Basho is still burdened by worldly possessions and has not been able to shake of his shackles yet..
Now boring suburbs of Tokyo, these two towns were probably not very beautiful in Basho's time either. It is interesting to read the travel account, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, by Isabella Bird, a globetrotting American woman who passed here in 1878 on the way to northern Japan and Hokkaido. "The road was not good, and the ditches on both sides were frequently neither clean nor sweet. The houses were mean, poor, shabby, often even squalid, the smells were bad..." That Basho preferred not to write about Kasukabe is understandable if he found the same conditions as Isabella Bird: "A good-sized but miserable-looking town, with its main street like one of the poorest streets in Tokiyo... [we] halted for the night at a large yadoya, with downstairs and upstairs rooms, crowds of travelers, and many evil smells." At night she found herself the "helpless victim of fleas and mosquitoes..."
[The Omiwa Shrine in Soja,
location of Muro no Yashima]
location of Muro no Yashima]
in the hazy air
mingled and mixed
the smoke
itoyu ni | musubitsukitaru | kemuri kana
Via Mamada and Iizuka, Basho next came to what he calls "Muro no Yashima," which he reached on the 29th day of the 3rd month. Muro no Yashima ('The Eight Islands of Muro') can today be found in the grounds of the Omiwa Shrine in the town of Soja in Tochigi Prefecture. Omiwa was one of the most important shrines of the Shimotsuke area, located close to where in ancient times the compound of the regional government stood. It is a branch of the famous Omiwa Shrine in Nara.
To go to this shrine I travel to Yasu-Otsuka station on the Tobu Utsunomiya line. This turns out to be a tiny station where almost nobody else gets off. I am at a loss where the shrine could be, but in the street leading away from the station a man is tending his garden and when I ask for the shrine, he gives me a kind and clear explanation. But the way to the shrine is unexpectedly unpleasant. After walking out of the town, I come to one of those terrible provincial roads, which are too narrow for the heavy traffic thundering over the tarmac. Although the stinking ditches of Isabella Bird are absent, the diesel fumes are not much better. And it is dangerous, too: there is no sidewalk, I have to walk on the road itself which sometimes passes so close to the walls of the houses that I am almost flattened by the trucks. After ten minutes or so, with relief I see a road leading to the right, where in the fields a small forest rises up. That is the shrine, and I find myself all of a sudden in the stillness of the countryside. After the anguish of modern traffic, now I walk amid the sleepy buzz of insects. Under the shade of the tall cedar trees of the shrine, I also find the haiku stone.
Muro no Yashima is a famous utamakura (poetical epithet) and has been re-created by the shrine in a modest wood, where eight small islands ("ya-shima") lie in a pond under the dense trees. There is a vermilion bridge and on the islands stand small shrines. The grounds are deserted and also at other times there are apparently not many visitors as I have to fight my way through large, sticky cobwebs.
[The Haiku Stone in front of the
torii gate leading to Muro no Yashima]
Basho was deeply interested in utamakura - in fact, one of the reasons for his pilgrimage was to visit the utamakura of the North. An utamakura (literally 'pillow word') is a place name that appears in classical poetry. Such geographical names carried fixed, traditional associations. From the late 9th century many place names had come to be linked with standard images and feelings. Poets played with these conventional associations by introducing subtle variations. "Muro no Yashima" became an utamakura thanks to a poem by Fujiwara no Sanekata (d. 998), who wrote about it in a tanka on love, where he complains that although he constantly thinks of his love, he can not let her know because he is not 'the smoke from Muro no Yashima.' The 'smoke' was of course the vapor rising from the pond with the eight islands.
Basho did not include this haiku in Oku no Hosomichi, where he has only quote Sora a myth from the Kojiki in which another 'Muro' figures, but that is not even connected with the utamakura: it is based on a famous passage where a goddess whose marital faithfulness is doubted by her husband, seals herself in a blazing chamber to prove her innocence. Basho puts this wrong, mythological association in the mouth of Sora, the son of a Shinto priest, but it is an enigma why here, at the first utamakura in the whole book, he on purpose uses a wrong interpretation. Perhaps the passage was meant as an introduction of Sora as a person, rather than of an utamakura. In the haiku, however, he keeps to the correct tradition by writing about 'smoke,' which he deftly connects with the haze of the hot air above the pond.
The air around me is hot enough on this summer day, but I cannot find any haze or smoke above the pond of Muro no Yashima in front of me. The only smoke comes from a heap of dead leaves, which lies smouldering on the path to the shrine, but that is hardly a suitable replacement...
Basho did not include this haiku in Oku no Hosomichi, where he has only quote Sora a myth from the Kojiki in which another 'Muro' figures, but that is not even connected with the utamakura: it is based on a famous passage where a goddess whose marital faithfulness is doubted by her husband, seals herself in a blazing chamber to prove her innocence. Basho puts this wrong, mythological association in the mouth of Sora, the son of a Shinto priest, but it is an enigma why here, at the first utamakura in the whole book, he on purpose uses a wrong interpretation. Perhaps the passage was meant as an introduction of Sora as a person, rather than of an utamakura. In the haiku, however, he keeps to the correct tradition by writing about 'smoke,' which he deftly connects with the haze of the hot air above the pond.
The air around me is hot enough on this summer day, but I cannot find any haze or smoke above the pond of Muro no Yashima in front of me. The only smoke comes from a heap of dead leaves, which lies smouldering on the path to the shrine, but that is hardly a suitable replacement...
[Decorative architecture of Toshogu]
On the 1st of April (May 19 in our calendar) Basho reached the famous Toshogu Shrine in Nikko. As the clan shrine of the reigning Tokugawa shoguns, it was of course not open to the general public as it is in our democratic times. Basho could go no further than the decorative Yomeimon Gate, from where he paid his respects. In the haiku, too, he pays homage to the Tokugawa, the de-facto rulers of Japan ('hi no hikari,' the last line of this haiku, can also be read as 'Nikko' and refers to the deified first shogun, Ieyasu). It was customary to pay one's respect to the host when a renku or linked verse session was held, and that is what Basho often does in Oku no Hosomichi: many haiku are a salute to the deity or spirit of the area Basho is visiting.
In Nikko Basho lodged in the inn of one Gozaemon, who impressed Basho as a very honest human being. Basho even calls him hotoke, a Buddha, and wonders of which particular Buddha this man is the reincarnation. This may be additional praise of the Tokugawa: thanks to the civilizing influence and benevolence of the rulers of Japan, there lived such a wonderful person in the town of their funerary temples.
In Nikko Basho lodged in the inn of one Gozaemon, who impressed Basho as a very honest human being. Basho even calls him hotoke, a Buddha, and wonders of which particular Buddha this man is the reincarnation. This may be additional praise of the Tokugawa: thanks to the civilizing influence and benevolence of the rulers of Japan, there lived such a wonderful person in the town of their funerary temples.
[Yomeimon from the other side]
An earlier version of the haiku that was discarded by Basho, read:
how glorious
even in darkness beneath the trees
the light of the sun
ara touto | ko no shita yami mo | hi no hikari
Here again, to reinforce the image of the light of the authority of the Toshogu Shrine, Basho opted for the image of fresh, green leaves (fitting the season, too) instead of mentioning any darkness, even although that darkness was lit up. If you have been in Nikko, it will be easy to imagine the glittering Yomeimon Gate when reading this poem, seen against the backdrop of green leaves. For Basho, Nikko exemplified religious grandeur, natural splendor and the benevolence of the government. There was no sycophancy in this, I believe was Basho was really grateful: after all, the Tokugawas had brought peace and prosperity to a country that had for centuries been ravaged by civil wars.
There are in fact three haiku stones of this verse in Nikko; the one I visit stands in the garden of the Nikko Toshogu Treasure House and has been inscribed by Kosugi Hoan, a famous 20th c. painter who was born in Nikko. I also take the opportunity to see treasures that have over the centuries been dedicated to the shrine. There are many swords and pieces of armor among these and perhaps the most interesting item I see is a yoroi, piece of armor, that used to belong to Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa line, whose ashes rest in a copper dome on the hill behind Toshogu: I am surprised to see how small the armor is...
[Not Urami-no-taki Basho writes about, but the
Kegon waterfall located at Lake Chuzenji]
for a while
I hide under the waterfall
start of the Summer Retreat
shibaraku wa | taki ni komoru ya | ge no hajime
According to the diary of Sora, April 2 (our May 20) was a bright day. Basho left the inn of Gozaemon in the Kamihatsuishi ward of Nikko at 8 o'clock in the morning and walked from Toshogu to the Urami no Taki ("See-from-behind Waterfall"), 2.5 kilometres to the west. Today it is three stops by bus from the shrine to the the Urami-no-Taki Iriguchi bus stop and then a 20 min walk over a road leading away to the right to a parking area. From there it is again a 10 min climb to a wooden bridge which affords a good view of the waterfall. It is 45 meters high and two broad. But it is also very different from the waterfall Basho saw.
In fact, the name is a lie today: in Basho's time one could go behind the waterfall and stand under it, protected by a rocky ledge. That is the origin of the name it still carries. Due to a typhoon, since then the rocks have been shaken up and the path has been washed away. It has become an ordinary waterfall and therefore it is much less popular than in Basho's time. The kuhi, by the way, stands not near the waterfall, but a long way off, in the grounds of the Arasawa Primary School, immediately to the right inside the gate. The writing is again by Kosugi Hoan.
The Summer Retreat the haiku speaks of was the retreat of Buddhist monks for meditation in the rainy period in India. This custom also was transferred to Japan. Monks would stay indoors for meditation for 90 days, from April 16 to July 15 in the old calendar. Apparently, the space in the rock behind the waterfall reminded Basho of just such a monk's cell, while the gushing water of the waterfall was a nice imitation of the monsoon rains poring down in that period. If you have been in Japan during the Rainy Season, you know what Basho means.
And perhaps Basho means more than that. He may be saying here that his pilgrimage, undertaken in the very season that Buddhist monks would retreat for a few months for strict meditation, is also just such a religious exercise...
First Stone:
In the grounds of the Omiwa Shrine, next to the entrance of "Muro no Yashima."
The Omiwa Shrine is a 15-min walk from Yasu-Otsuka Station on the Utsunomiya line. Watch out for traffic on the busy road leading to the shrine!
Second Stone:
The stone I visited stands to the left of the Nikko Toshogu Treasure House.
There are three more stones with the same haiku, two (an old faded one and a new one) in the garden of the private residence of the Kono family (take the long street leading from the station to the shrines and turn right a few houses before the post office) and one in the Dainichido Site Park along the Taiya river.
To reach Nikko, take the Tohoku Shinkansen to Utsunomiya ( 1 hour) and then transfer to the Nikko line (40 min). Another option is an express train on the Tobu line from Asakusa or Kita-Senju (2 hours). In Nikko, the Jr St is close to the Tobu station, from which most buses leave. It is 10 min to the entrance of the shrines; or a 20 min walk.
Third Stone:
Immediately to the right inside the gate of the Arasawa primary school.
From the Urami-no-Taki Iriguchi bus stop walk back in the direction of Nikko and you will soon see the school.
Notes:
A study about utamakura is Utamakura, Allusion, and Intertextuality in Traditional Japanese Poetry by Edward Kamens (Yale University Press, 1997).
Besides the Toshogu Shrine, also visit Rinnoji Temple and the shrine, Taiyuinbyo, dedicated to the third shogun Iemitsu. Rinnoji also has a museum with a nice stroll garden attached. Close to the shrines also stands a small museum dedicated to the painter who wrote the text on the haiku stones, Kosugi Hoan.
[The photos in this post are my own]