Taorigiku - Hand-picked Chrysanthemums 3

I stayed for a number of days with the master, and composed one 2-person linked verse sequence.

Sankyô wrote: "In Chôfu there is an exceptional haikai poet whose pen name is said to be Kikusha. In the autumn last year I think, she 'took the moon for a travel hat,' and made compassion her walking staff, and thought to make a brief journey, she said, and in total visited 24 places related to the Founder (Shinran), and also asked to learn the Orthodox Style from me, and achieve the wish of many years.  Thus, she came here by means of a message appended to a letter from Takeoku of Hagi. Because of the Founder's teaching of reliance on Amida's vow to save all beings out of compassion, and (Bashô's) teaching to trust to the natural state of things, we know that compassion in both teachings are the same, and there are not two grounds of discipline." 

continue on

quiet and gentle  --

the misty moon

--  Sankyô

和らかに見られてすすめ朧月

傘狂

it is with humility

that I accept your vernal teachings 

-- Kikusha

教への春を笠にいただく

you receive

a year's worth

of his customary kindness

- Bunsui

お馴染の義理に一季を貰れて

文水

in love, more than anything

a non-threatening appearance

-- Taigo

恋にあぶなげなしなにより

大悟

is the place 

darkened by a frightening shadow

the holy cleansing font?

 -- Banri

おそろしい影を移したみたらしか

万裏

chanting "gate, gate"

I think I'll put away the rosary 

-- Tojû

ぎゃていぎゃていと念珠おしもむ

兎従

I'll also offer gruel for a feast

if it's a snowy morning

-- Soyô

白粥の馳走も雪の朝なれば

曽葉

mountain flowers set out

for the tea ceremony

that a bird glimpses through a window

-- Tosei

窓から鳥の覗く山茶花

杜静

The eight verses on the right-hand side of the front sheet.

Taorigiku - Handpicked Chrysanthemums 2

In the middle of the Tenth Month I took a boat from Mitajiri and we rowed toward Naniwazu (Osaka). I wrote this in the shallows at Suma:

traveling along the sea routes --

at both Suma and Awaji,

plovers

舩路行ば須磨に淡路に千鳥哉

At the beginning of the Eleventh Month we arrived at Naniwazu. I intended to visit the famous places there, but so as not to be late to attend the Gratitude Ceremonies for my esteemed teacher I hurried on to Kyoto. At Honganji I spent seven nights and days attending the sutra readings, and wrote:

thinking of what I owe my teacher

the snow on my travel hat

feels like nothing at all

報恩をおもへばかろし雪の笠

I have just now

arrived but already 

it is the Gratitude Ceremony

今はただ参るばかりが報恩講

As soon as the sutra readings were over, I returned at once to Naniwazu, and on New Year's Eve I went to Kôzu Shrine and wrote:

above all

I visited the shrine at the summit --

first light

高き屋をまづ拝みけり初日影

[Nintoku's waka: 高き屋にのぼりて見れば 煙 ( けぶり ) 立つ民のかまどはにぎはひにけり（新古707)]

A man called Tani Kiyobei lives here. His manner is extremely gentle, and he was sympathetic to my situation as a traveler, and from the day that I first arrived in Naniwa, and I greatly appreciate his kindness in letting me stay with him for a long time. When I finally decided to get back on the road, I wrote:

I even regret departing --

wearing traveling clothes

under Naniwa's plum blossoms

立つも惜し梅の難波の旅衣

I returned to Kyoto. and became friendly with the haikai poet Wazen, and one day we went to a plum-blossom filled valley at Fushimi, and looking at the blossoms I wrote:

too bad the scent

is blowing in the other direction --

wild plum blossoms

吹方へ薫りおしまぬ野梅かな

thatched roof

where I shall I go to seek for them --

plum blossoms

-- The Nun Wasen

藁葺のどちらへ乞はむ梅の花　倭泉

I left Kyoto, and on the road I took resuming my journey, I gazed at the capital's opulent spring scenery, and following the Omi Road from Sanetsu in Shiga I caught sight of the spring colors of the lake and it had many attractions.

In the lake 

I saw consequences --

a blizzard of blossoms

湖に果は見えけり花雪吹

Around the end of the Second Month, I arrived at Mino Province, and wrote this when I went to visit haikai master Sankyô:

blooming flowers

now in reach --

I'm simply happy

咲花に今届く手ただ嬉し

the gorgeous sincerity

of the longing that brought you here 

- Sankyô

したい来たとの誠うららか 

傘狂

I stayed for a number of days with the master, and composed one 2-person linked verse sequence.