Haiku Travels
Asakusa (Tokyo)clouds of blossoms...
is that temple bell
Ueno or Asakusa?
hana no kumo / kane wa Ueno ka / Asakusa ka?
花の雲鐘は上野か浅草か
Basho[Temple Bell of Sensoji Temple, Asakusa]
In the Edo-period, temple bells such as the one on the Benten Hill of
Sensoji in Asakusa, played an important role in informing the
townspeople of the time of day. Those bells were therefore called 'toki
no kane,' or Bells of Time. The present bell dates from 1692, when it
was cast at the orders of the shogun Tsunayoshi. The bell is more than 2
meters high and measures one and half meter in diameter.
Basho
lived in Fukagawa, on the other bank of the River Sumida. In those
times, although Fukagawa was in the rural outskirts of the city, as there were no high buildings, he could
probably see the roof of the great Kannon temple from his home. Not far
from Asakusa was another temple complex, Kaneiji, in what is now Ueno
Park. Kaneiji also possessed a Bell of Time, now standing in a forlorn
corner of the park.
Basho could hear both temple bells. Sitting
on the verandah of his hermitage (the poem has the head note "At my grassy hut"), among the blossoms of spring, he heard the
boom of a bell... and wondered: was it the one of Kaneiji in Ueno or of
the Kannon temple in Asakusa?
Basho was so visually drunk with the rioting blossoms that even his sense of direction became confused...
Sensoji is very rich in haiku stones - so much that there is even one more haiku by Basho about blossom clouds of blooming cherries.
It is a sort of sequel to the previous "blossom clouds" haiku, where Basho was only listening, drunk with blossoms. Now he is looking and there, above the clouds of cherry blossoms, he sees the impressive tiled roof of the great Kannon Temple in Asakusa, Sensoji...
the tiled roof of the Kannon Temple
is seen far away
in the blossom cloudsKannon no | iraka miyaritsu | hana no kumo
Location: The
haiku has been reproduced on a wooden board near the bell tower on
Benten-yama, in the grounds of Sensoji in Asakusa, Tokyo. Sensoji can be
reached by either the Ginza or Asakusa subway line; the temple grounds
start at the famous Onarimon, only a few minutes from the exits of both
subway stations. When approaching the temple, after walking through the
shop-lined Nakamise-dori Street leading from the Onarimon to the temple,
one reaches the huge Hozo-mon, or Treasury Gate. Benten-yama (where the haiku stone with the second haiku stands) is a small
hill at the back of grounds to the right of this gate and is crowned by
a temple hall dedicated to Benten, the Goddess of Music. Admission
free.
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)
[The photos in this post are my own work]