Ariwara no Narihira

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Ariwara no Narihira 在原業平
825 – ?July 9, 880 ?(May 28)



a Japanese waka poet and aristocrat. He was one of six waka poets referred in the preface in kana to Kokin Wakashū by Ki no Tsurayuki, and has been named as the hero of The Tales of Ise, whose hero was an anonym in itself but most of whose love affairs could be attributed to Narihira.

He was the fifth son of Prince Abo, a son of Emperor Heizei. His mother Princess Ito was a daughter of Emperor Kammu, so he was therefore linked to Emperor Kammu by both maternal and paternal lineage. Along with his other brothers, he was relegated to civilian life, receiving a new clan name, Ariwara.

Although he belonged to the noblest lineage, his political life was not prominent, especially under the reign of Emperor Montoku. During the thirteen years of the Emperor's reign, Narihira was not raised to a higher rank within the court. This setback was supposedly caused by a scandal involving him and Fujiwara no Takako (藤原高子), an imperial consort or another royal lady.
Both love affairs were referred to in The Tales of Ise.

As a waka poet, his thirty waka were included in Kokin Wakashū. Traditionally he was considered the model for the hero of Tales of Ise, which contains many of his waka, although not all waka in it were his works and some of its episodes can hardly belong to his real life. Thanks to a reference to him in the preface of Kokin Wakashū he is listed as one of the Six best Waka poets and also one of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals.

He has been traditionally regarded as the epitome of the beau homme in the Japanese culture. It is believed he was one of the men who inspired Murasaki Shikibu when she created Hikaru Genji, the hero of Genji Monogatari, especially in the aspects of her story concerning forbidden love between a high ranked woman and a member of the court.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


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わらわべのふみあけたる築泥＜ついじ＞のくづれより通ひけり
When he visits his lady love, he had to climb over an old crumbling wall.


Parody of this event by Matsuo Basho:

猫の妻竃の崩れより通ひけり
. neko no tsuma hetsui no kuzure yori kayoi-keri .


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kigo for mid-summer

Narihira Ki 業平忌 (なりひらき) Narihira Memorial Dayi
Zaigo Ki 在五忌（ざいごき）Zaigo Memorial Day

zaigo implies that he was the fifth son.

It was the 28th day of the fifth lunar month.



flag at temple Futai-Ji in Nara 不退寺
His memorial day is celebrated here on May 28.


. Memorial Days of Famous People .



17 - Ariwara no Narihira Ason 在原業平朝臣
at Tatsutagawa 龍田川

. Ogura Hyakunin Isshu Poems 小倉百人一首 .


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断髪のえりあし青し業平忌
日野草城　「青芝」


早苗田にあやめ立ち添ふ業平忌

三河女と早苗取らうよ業平忌
松本たかし　「石魂」

source : kigosai.sub.jp


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業平の歌よりはじむ夏期講座
narihira no uta yori hajimu kaki kooza

starting with a waka
by Narihira
summer school

Ozawa Katsumi 小澤克己

source : Tr. Fay Aoyagi

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- - - - - His last verse (jisei)

ついに行く 道とはかねて 聞きしかど
昨日今日とは 思はざりしを

tsui ni yuku michi to wa kanete kikishikado
kino kyoo to wa omowazarishi


Upon this pathway,
I have long heard others say,
man sets forth at last -
yet I had not thought to go
so very soon as today.

Tr. Helen MacCullough
source : books.google.co.jp


I have always known
That at last I would
Take this road, but yesterday
I did not know that
it would be today.
Tr. ?
- Reference -

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梅雨入りや　業平朝臣　とむらわんか

the rainy season starts -
performing the memorial service
for Narihira-ason


般若寺の　石塔　夏の天を衝く

the stone stupa
of Hannya-temple is stabbing
the summer sky

Yesterday I visited Futai-ji 不退寺 and Hannya-ji.
Both are the small temples that sight-seeing tourists seldom visit.
Futai-ji is the temple of Ariwara-no-Narihira (825 - 880) who is famous for his beauty and one of the best 6 poets in Tanka world. He has been told as the hero of the famous classic romance "The story of Ise".

The Hannya-ji is an old temple built in AD 8c. This temple is featured in "the
Story of Heike" and "Taiheiki story". During the period of the Nothern and Southern Dynasties, this temple belonged to Southern Dynasty, thus this temple has many sad stories in its history.

- Shared by Naotaka Uematsu -
Haiku Culture Magazine, 2013


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Japanese Reference

在原業平

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Related words

***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　


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. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

Miyagi 宮城県 古川市 Furukawa town

Ono no Komachi zuka 小野小町塚 Mound for Ono no Komachi
Komachi lived here in Furukawa when she was old. She went to the Himuro Yakushi Temple 氷室薬師 one day and was found dead under the Torii gate in the evening.
Narihira visited the Yasoshima 八十島 "80 Islands" (many islands), which are said to be there. From her skull there was grass growing through the eyes, so he did not say 小野 Ono, but あなめあなめ aname aname.

秋風のふくにつけてもあなめあなめ　
をのとはいはしすゝき生けり

akikaze no fuku ni tsukete mo aname aname
ono to wa iaji susuki oikeri -

- quote -
Ariwara Narihira Imagining Skull of Ono-no Komachi
Ariwara no Narihira, a famous Japanese waka poet and aristocrat, is seen sitting on the floor by a window overlooking the garden. He fled the capital because of a love affair with Fujiwara no Takaiko and came to the east. He took lodging near the place where a famous poetess and a rare beauty of her time Ono no Komachi died. They both belonged to Rokkasen - the best-known six poets from the Heian period Japan. Alone and moody, he started imagining to see Japanese pampas grass growing through the eye-sockets of a skull in the garden. He thought it might be the skull of Ono-no Komachi crying.



Series title, Shinkei Sanju-roku Kaisen (Thirty-six New Ghost Stories) on the upper margin. A poem by Narihira to the cartouche in the upper right corner of the image
Akikaze-no Fuku-ni Tsuketemo Aname Aname
Ono towa Iwaji Susuki Oikeri - Narihira
The autumn wind blows, there is nothing more to say,
grass grows through the eye-sockets of the skull of Ono
(Narihira).
- source : japanesegallery.co.uk/default -


A poem by Fujiwara no Norikane

akikaze no fuku tabi goto ni aname aname
ono towa naraji susuku oikeri

the autumn wind
every time it blows
oh, how painful! how painful!
it will not become Ono / a little field
in which pampas grass grows.

Writing Margins: The Textual Construction of Gender in Heian and Kamakura Japan
Terry Kawashima
The image of Komachi as a speaking skull - aname aname
- source : books.google.co.jp -

宮城県大崎市古川南沢字氷室 Himuro Yakushi, at 村上寺

. Ono no Komachi 小野 小町 . (c. 825 — c. 900)


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Shizuoka town 静岡市

Meeting a demon 鬼
When Narihira travelled from Kyoto toward the East, he heard that Oni demons come out at the pass 宇津ノ谷の峠 Utsunoya.
So he performed some rituals to appease the demons at the Jizo Hall in 下野宇津宮素麺谷.
Jizo appeared dressed like a monk, transformed the demons into 10 small dumplings and ate them. People venerate the Jizo to our day.
This is also the origin of the speciality 十粒団子 / todango 十団子 "ten dumplings" from temple 慶竜寺.



Read the details of this legend about the 10 dumplings here:
. Utsunoya Tooge 宇津ノ谷 Utsunoya pass - Shizuoka .


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Tottori town 鳥取市

Once there lived a young samurai in town, who was just as beautiful as the legendary poet
在原業平 Ariwara no Narihira. He made the girls pregnant in no time and children were born to him.
But they say he was a fox.

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- reference : nichibun yokai database -

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- #ariwaranarihira #narihiraariwara -
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Sibelius Jean

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Jean Sibelius

ジャン・シベリウス

8 December 1865 – 20 September 1957



Finnish composer of the later Romantic period. His music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."

The core of Sibelius's oeuvre is his set of seven symphonies. Like Beethoven, Sibelius used each successive work to further develop his own personal compositional style. His works continue to be performed frequently in the concert hall and are often recorded.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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シベリウスのような、
「俳句」みたいな作曲をする人が後にも先にも出てきにくいのはどうしてでしょうか。

Will there be more people who write music like haiku, as Sibelius did?

source :　music.yahoo.co.jp



Ｊ.シベリウス ／ 交響詩「フィンランディア」作品26
Listen to his music here :
Finlandia
source : www.youtube.com


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Reference

. Jean Sibelius .


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Haiku and Senryu

Jean Sibelius -
so sweet melodies
that i fell asleep

- Shared by Hideo Suzuki -
Joys of Japan, 2012



*****************************
Related words

***** Personal Names used in Haiku
Introduction　

***** . Music and Haiku 　



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Hagiwara Sakutaro

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Hagiwara Sakutaro 萩原朔太郎
Hagiwara Sakutaroo

1886年（明治19年）11月1日 - 1942年（昭和17年）5月11日）
born Nov. 1, 1886, Maebashi, Japan
died May 11, 1942, Tokyo.
Father of free verse




a Japanese writer of free-style verse, active in the Taishō and early Shōwa periods of Japan. He liberated Japanese free verse from the grip of traditional rules, and he is considered the “father of modern colloquial poetry in Japan”.
He published many volumes of essays, literary and cultural criticism, and aphorisms over his long career.

Hagiwara Sakutarō was born in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture as the son of a local physician.
Hagiwara married Ueda Ineko in 1919; they had two daughters,

In 1913, he published five of his verses in Zamboa ("Shaddock"), a magazine edited by Kitahara Hakushū, who became his mentor and friend.

©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


He was a friend and mentor of

. 宮沢 賢治, Miyazawa Kenji .

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Sakutaroo Ki 朔太郎忌 (さくたろうき)
memorial day of Sakutaro

. Kigo - Memorial Days - SUMMER .




source :　alternative clothing

pattern for tee shirts


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Lover of Love

I painted rouge on my lips,
and kissed the trunk of a new birch,
even if I were a handsome man,
on my chest are no breasts like rubber balls,
from my skin rises no fragrance of fine-textured powder,
I am a wizened man of ill-fate,
ah, what a pitiable man,
in today's balmy early summer field,
in a stand of glistening trees,
I slipped on my hands sky-blue gloves,
put around my waist something like a corset,
smeared on my nape something like nape-powder,
thus hushed assuming a coquettish pose,
as young girls do,
I cocked my head a little,
and kissed the trunk of a new birch,
I painted rosy rouge on my lips,
and clung to a tall tree of snowy white.

Tr. Hiroaki Sato


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青猫 - blue cat



With more English information:
source :　pippoetry.blogspot.jp


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Reference

. 萩原朔太郎 .


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Haiku and Senryu

五月幟立つ家家の向うに海
gogatsu nobori tatsu ie ie no mukoo ni umi

carp streamers of May
stand in front of each house
and behind them the sea


俳句 - 萩原朔太郎 Haiku Collection
source : www.aozora.gr.jp



*****************************
Related words

***** Personal Names used in Haiku
Introduction　



***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　


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Sendak Maurice

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Maurice Sendak

June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012



an American writer and illustrator of children's literature. He was best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, first published in 1963.

Sendak gained international acclaim after writing and illustrating Where the Wild Things Are. The book's depictions of fanged monsters concerned some parents when it was first published, as his characters were somewhat grotesque in appearance. Before Where the Wild Things Are, Sendak was best known for illustrating Else Holmelund Minarik's Little Bear series of books.



©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


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Reference

. Maurice Sendak .


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Haiku and Senryu

last rays of the sun...
dog-eared Where the Wild Things Are
spread out on my desk

Chen-ou Liu

His genre-breaking and career-making book, Where the Wild Things Are, was published in 1963, the year I was born.
source : www.poemhunter.com



*****************************
Related words

***** Personal Names used in Haiku
Introduction　



***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　


[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]
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Kaneko Tohta

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Kaneko Tohta, Kaneko Tota 金子兜太 Tōta Kaneko
1919 - 2018, February 20

Tohta sensei is the grand old man of modern haiku in Japan.
I see him often on TV and admire his vitality and points of view.
Kaneko Tohta uses the expression
"Mu Kigo 無季語", haiku "without a season word".
kaneko tota, tohta kaneko, tota kaneko, kaneko toota, kaneko touta

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He was born in 1919 in Chichibu, the mountainous area of Saitama Prefecture and began writing haiku when he was 18 years old.

Attracted to haiku through the works of TAKESHITA Shizunojo, KATOH Shuuson and NAKAMURA Kusatao. First submitted to KATOH Shuuson's "Kanrai" in 1941. Graduated Tokyo University in 1943 and started working for the Bank of Japan. Posted to Truck Lagoon as a Naval pay officer in 1944 and repatriated in 1946. After the war he emerged as a flag-bearer for avant-garde haiku and started the haiku group "Kaitei" (Distance to the Sea) in 1962 at the age of 43. "Kaitei" changed from a coterie magazine to a hierarchical structure in 1985.

From before the War until 1955 he stressed the importance of "plasticism" and "sociality" in haiku. His second phase was from the mid sixties to 1975 when he studied classical haiku in depth as a result of heated debate between the conservative and avant-garde factions within the group. The present phase is his third and it is characterized by the popularization of haiku as "poetry for the masses" grounded in the works of such poets as Issa and Santohka and blending the traditional and avant-garde in the melting pot termed "Modern Haiku".

To "practise the modern in the grandeur of the old" is his current catch phrase. He has published over 50 books starting with his anthology "Shounen" (A Youth). Now Honorary President of the Modern Haiku Society and selector for the Asahi Haiku Column.

Haiku International Association
©　www.haiku-hia.com/

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- November 2010

A feature film of NHK showed Tohta sensei well and active. The hot summer of 2010 had adverse effects for him. After a short stay in hospital for low blood pressure, he was able to go back home and continue his haiku meetings. He still reads about 6000 postcards with haiku to judge for competitions.

He rubs his body with a towel every morning, adding exercised to keep the body flexible. He walks a lot to keep fit and enjoys the garden, which his wife had planted with all the trees and plants from their home region in Chichibu some 40 years ago, when they moved in.

His wive, Minako　皆子, had died four years ago of cancer; he now lives with his son and daughter in law, who care for him.






Kaneko Minako 金子皆子（かねこ・みなこ）
1925（大正１４）・１・８ －2006（平成１８）・３・２・
She has written many haiku about spider lilies (manjushage) and many haiku which describe her love for her husband.


枯野ゆきつつ縺れる中学生

満月なり慕情は踝をのぼり

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- October 2014






- source : Takatoshi Goto - facebook

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More English Reference

More Japanese Reference


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The artistic quality and appeal of haiku

In 1970, I was very interested in the wandering poets Santoka and Issa. Although Issa is not usually considered a wandering poet, I was especially drawn to him. Even now I like him more than Basho, Buson, and Shiki. When I tried to see what drew me to him, I found an indescribable accessibility in his poetry. I do not want to use the term "mass appeal," but his haiku are so easy to understand.

Take the following two haiku, for example:

"Carrying poppy plants /passing by / someone fighting"
"Lice on paper scapegoats/ carried away/ by the stream"
Both are easy to understand and wonderful haiku. Two requirements of haiku are artistic quality and general appeal. Isn't it enough for a haiku to possess these two elements? Depending on how these two elements are joined, haiku can be compared with other forms of poetry.

Since that time, I have tried to learn how to accept these two elements of quality and appeal. As a result, my haiku have changed a great deal. Plainly stated, I wanted to create haiku that all could understand and love by all. My poems do not necessarily have to be loved, but I want them to be understood. With this in mind, I have continued trying to find my way. I used to think that quality mattered more than popularity, and that it was all right to write as I pleased. But I changed after the seventies. As a result, I fumbled about in various ways on my own. Some years ago, I asked some friends to show me some haiku loved by everybody and possessed of artistic merit. I wondered what would they come up with.

We settled on three examples.
Basho's "An old pond/ a frog jumps in/ the sound of water" was the first chosen.
Another was Shiki's "Eating a persimmon/ the sound of a bell/ Horyu Temple."
And the third was Kusatao's "Snow is falling/ Meiji/ so far away."

Read the full article HERE
©　www.haiku-hia.com / Kaneko Tohta

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quote - May 6, 2012
Japan's modern haiku master

IKIMONO FUEI: Poetic Composition on Living Things, by Kaneko Tohta.
Red Moon Press, 2011,

THE FUTURE OF HAIKU: An Interview with Kaneko Tohta.
Red Moon Press 2011,

These two handy pocket-size volumes are the first of four to be issued by the Red Moon Press, all dealing with the haiku poet Kaneko Tohta (b. 1919), and intended to introduce his work to a wider readership abroad. The other two, scheduled for later this year, will be translations of his haiku. This is not the first time Kaneko's work has been translated, but it is by far the most substantial introduction to it.



The compact burly figure of Kaneko has been for a number of years a familiar figure on television, and some of the footage from programs in which he appeared was incorporated into a DVD called "Ikimono" (Kinokuniya, 2009) in which he spoke about and read his work. "Ikimonofuei" consists of a translation of a lecture that he gave to the Modern Haiku Association in Japan in 2009, outlining his approach to haiku composition. It does not deal with small matters like syllables and images, but larger and more basic questions.

The word ikimono means "living things" and in the characteristically bold opening to his talk Kaneko sets himself firmly in opposition to the ideas of Takahama Kyoshi (1874-1959), whose conservative practice had wide influence and a large following throughout the 20th century in Japan.
...
The raw, instinctual approach that Kaneko supports comes in part from his own background and upbringing, as we learn from the second volume. But what is refreshing in the lecture first of all is the way that, although he rehearses some of the debates about haiku practice that he has witnessed or been a party to, and thus fills in the background, he is bluntly dismissive of the petty quibbles they involve, as indeed he is also of the theoretical excesses of literary discussion in the present day:
"I want to speak in a more humanly alive narrative voice; I feel I must express myself with this living human body."

source : Japan Times



堀 正広（外国語学部教授）共訳
Kumamoto Gakuen University
source :　www.kumagaku.ac.jp


Ikimono no Fuuei 生きもの諷詠



Meeting of the Gendai Haiku Association

第46回現代俳句全国大会
記念講演は、金子兜太名誉会長による「生きもの諷詠」でした。

source : www.gendaihaiku.gr.jp


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quote - May 13, 2012

Kaneko Tohta appeared in the NHK Haiku program.
At age 92, he was genki, healthy and witty as ever.

He has been the editor of the haiku magazine KAITEI 海程
and this year celebrates 50 years of it.

Lately he sees haiku as an expression of animism.



猪がきて空気を食べる春の峠
shishi ga kite kuuki o taberu haru no tooge

a wild boar came
and ate the air -
mountain pass in spring

An experience from his life in the mountains of Chichibu, close to many wild animals.


a wild boar comes
and feasts on air -
spring mountain pass
Tr. Higuchi Keiko

- Reference -



stone memorial of the wild boar haiku
March 2012



source : kanekotohta.blog. kaneko tohta 海程


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His haiku written during the war

海に青雲生き死に言わず生きんとのみ
umi ni aoi kumo, iki-shini iwazu ikin to nomi

Clouds above the ocean,
Determined to live, without asking
"To die or to live?"



yashi no oka, asayake shiruki hibi nariki

Hills of palm trees,
Those were days with a sky of strong
red at dawn.

Tr. TAI KAWABATA Japan Times, Feb. 2008


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Compiled by Larry Bole

Here are two more of Tohta's wartime haiku from Ueda's book,
"Modern Japanese Haiku: An Anthology":

shinishi hone wa umi ni sutsu beshi takuan kamu

Dead bones
must be dumped into the sea!
I chew a piece of takuan.

Ueda's note:
Takuan, pickled radish, was one of the last food items an average Japanese could get during the war years.



bochi mo yakeato semi nikuhen no-goto kigi ni

The graveyard is burnt too;
cicadas, like pieces of flesh,
on the trees.

Ueda's note:
Written in the Hongo district of Tokyo, an area that suffered heavy air raids during World War II.

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Tenro 天狼 "Heavenly Wolf"


A group of haiku poets, founded in 1948.

. Reference : 天狼


. WKD : WOLF haiku by Kaneko Tohta 　


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激論つくし街ゆきオートバイと化す
gekiron tsukushi michi-yuki ootobai to ka su

. I become the motorbike .



蚊の声のうろつく五臓六腑かな
ka no koe no urotsuku gozoo roppu kana

. The inner organs 五臓六腑 gozoo roppu .


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Here are some examples of the Avantgarde Haiku


梅咲いて庭中に青鮫が来ている
ume saite niwachuu ni aozame ga kite iru

plums are blossoming -
everywhere in my garden
blue sharks have come

from the collection 遊牧集



source : kuuon.fya.jp



blue shark, Isurus oxyrynchus

Here we can feel one part in reality and one part in phantasy, almost like in a painting of Salvadore Dali. Kaneko sensei likes large wild animals, I heard him say once, also elephants and other big fish. You can see a white elephant in the illustration.


This also reminds me of an old haiku by
the Danrin school 檀林(だんりん / 談林)(about 1684)
introduced by Shirane :


mine no hana no nami ni ashika kujira o oyogase

making sea lions and whales
swim in the cherry blossom waves
at the hill top

(Basho was one of the critics of this kind of "nonsense" haikai.)
Haruo Shirane : Beyond the Haiku Moment



And it reminds me of one haiku by Tsubouchi Nenten


桜散るあなたも河馬になりなさい　
sakura chiru anata mo kaba ni narinasai

falling cherry blossoms -
you also must become
a hippopotamus
source
http://www4.ocn.ne.jp/~sas18091/sahaiku.html

This is a play on words.
When Japanese people die, their corpse becomes a "sleeping hippopotamus" (shi kabane) ... kaba ne, sleeping hippo.


- - - - - James Karkoski wrote:
I ran into written transcript of a TV interview Tohta gave and from it I made a rough translation of what he had to say about this haiku (which counts 19):

Yamada: 'A blue shark is coming'??
Tohta:
At that time already the whole body of the garden was, especially in the morning, filled with blue. Blue like the bottom of the ocean. Blueish air, you see. I guess you could say that it was filled with the power of the welcome of Spring. Anyhow, the life of spring came in, you might say, it was that kind of feeling. So, I got up in the morning and suddenly seeing this, I had the sensation of a blue shark swimming. Like that, this was one done at once though. My way of doing it, when I see something, rather than carefully writing what I see, I depend on the feeling that I got while seeing it, and from that feeling write various things using imagination. Virtually, this is my style. I include fictions from my imagination and reality, which is somewhat a random method no doubt. For me, that is appealing.
http://h-kishi.sakura.ne.jp/kokoro-384.htm
- source : facebook -

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銀行員ら朝より蛍光す烏賊のごとく
ginkooin ra asa yori keikoo su ika no-gotoku

these bank clerks
already in the morning they are fluorescent
like firefly squid

die Bankangestellten
schon früh am morgen
wie die Leuchttintenfische


ほたるいか firefly squid from Toyama Bay


Kaneko sensei talks about it
(NHK Haiku July 2009).
After the war, he has been working at various branches of a bank and here in Kobe he saw his fellow workers every morning coming to the office, each one had a small fluorescent lamp on his desk which he switched on to show he was there and working. This reminded Kaneko sensei of the hotaruika.


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竹林を出れば白雲曼珠沙華
chikurin o dereba haku-un manjushage

out of the bamboo grove
there are white clouds
there are spiderer lilies

. Spider Lilies (higanbana, manjushage)

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わが湖(うみ)あり日蔭真暗な虎があり　
waga umi ari hikage makkura na tora ga ari

there is my very own lake ...
there is a tiger with a very
black shadow

Explaining this haiku



. Haiku about bones of salmon 骨の鮭 .


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and about Mister Tohta himself

兜太似の大入道や更衣　

a big Nyudo-monster
like mister Tohta -
changing summer robes

Bakushuu

. Oonyuudoo 大入道 O-Nyudo Monster .


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去りたがらぬ虻も友だち危いな
saritagaranu abu mo tomodachi abunai na

a horsefly not wanting to leave
is my friend, too . . .
well, dangerous
Tr. Fay Aoyagi

Fay’s Note :
“abu” (horsefly) is a spring kigo.
The poet may play with the sound of ‘abu’ and ‘abunai’ (dangerous).


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WKD Library

War, Peace and Kaneko Tota
By Tai Kawabata



Gendai Haiku Saijiki : No Season
現代俳句歳時記 　無季 MU KI
mukigo 無季語 words without a seasonal implication
muki haiku 無季俳句 haiku without a season word

Kaneko Tohta uses the expression
無季語 mukigo
?Muki Kigo? - Problems of Terminology


NHK Haiku NHK 俳句 Kaneko Toota on TV




How Kaneko Tohta enjoys his haiku life
金子兜太の俳句を楽しむ人生
Kaneko Tohta no Haiku o tanoshimu jinsei
published in February 2011 / 2011年2月


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quote
KANEKO TOHTA: Selected Haiku 1937-1960,
translated by The Kon Nichi Translation Group.
. . . we note from the first verse the influence of Chinese poetry on haiku:

white plum blossoms —
Lao-Tzu dwells in a journey
of no-mind

. . . The English versions are occasionally baffling, like this one with the last word left untranslated:

meat devoured
in feast, of wilderness
my wife aware

. . . There are a number of sloppy errors in the book like this, which is really a pity, because it is otherwise a valuable introduction, with much fascinating detail. . . . But a poet of the caliber and distinction of Kaneko Tohta deserves to be treated with a lot more care in the editing and presentation of his work than he gets here.
source : DAVID BURLEIGH - Japan Times, October 2012


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July 18, 2015

United in outrage,
protesters printing Anti-Abe posters in a nationwide campaign of dissent

Posters bearing the message
“We will not tolerate Abe’s politics” 　　
（安部政治を許さない）
were raised Saturday across Japan by protesters against controversial security bills that were forced through the Lower House on Thursday.



This calligraphy was written by the Haiku Poet Kaneko Tohta!
you can print out this poster at any convenience store in Japan . . .
and hang it into your window and distribute it to your friends . . .

. Japanese Politics . . . .


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***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets


Modern Japanese Haiku 新興俳句 Gendai Haiku　現代俳句


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Mukai Chine

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Mukai Chine 向井千子

(? - 1688)
She was the third daughter of Mukai 向井元升. She married the head of a marine trading company 廻船問屋 Shimizu Tooemon 清水藤右衛門.

She was the sister of one of the 10 important disciples of Matsuo Basho

. Mukai Kyorai 向井去来 .
Kyorai lived in
Rakushisha 落柿舎 "Hermitage of the fallen persimmon".



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東西あはれさひとつ秋の風
higashi nishi aware sa hitotsu aki no kaze


source :　a-kakejikujp by 木村亮平


East and west
the deep feeling is but one:
autumn wind
Tr. Barnhill


East and west
Just one melancholy -
Autumn wind.
Tr. Takafumi Saito



east, west
a single type of sorrow —
autumn wind
Tr. John Carley


Written in the eighth lunar month of 1688 貞享5年

Basho was in Edo (East), and his disciple Kyorai was in Ise (West), on a trip with his sister and fellow haiku poet Chine, who died on the road on the 15th day of the 5th lunar month.


東西あはれも同じ秋の風
higashi nishi aware mo onaji aki no kaze


east west (me in the east, you in the west)
(our) deep sorrow (mourning) is the same -
autumn wind
Tr. Gabi Greve


東西あはれさおなじ秋の風
higashi nishi aware sa onaji aki no kaze
(Oi no kobumi)


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Basho also wrote the following poem at the early death of Chine and send his letter of condolence to Kyorai in Kyoto. She was just 25 years when she died.


無き人の小袖も今や土用干
naki hito no kosode mo ima ya doyoo boshi

even the robe
of the deceased included -
dog-day airing
Tr. virginia university


The kimono of the deceased,
Must be exposed to the sun,
in this Doyo season.
Tr. Ozeko


This short-sleeve kimono
Of the deceased
Now in summer aired.
Tr. Takafumi Saito


In summer, on the hottest dog days, robes are aired outside in the garden. At the home of Kyorai, all things are aired too and the memories of his sister must well up even more deeply when he sees her robes swinging in the wind.


. WKD : doyoo-boshi 土用干し　drying during the dog-days .



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Her Death Verse

もえやすく又消やすき蛍哉
moe yasuku mata kie yasuki hotaru kana

How readily the firefly glows!
As readily its light goes out.
Tr. A. Miyamori


it glows so easily
and it goes out so easily -
this firefly
Tr. Gabi Greve


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Japanese Reference

Reference - 向井千子


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Related words

***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　



***** The concept of aware　憐れ　哀れ　－
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


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