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
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.
