Return of Spring

This verse is included near the end of Volume 1 of Kikusha's Hand-picked Chrysanthemums. It was written by her younger brother Tamon, whose haikai name was Konshi. 

Happy that today or tomorrow, the deeply missed Lady of the Ichiji-an Studio will finally return home: 

as I waited
I learned its fragrance --
old plum tree

machi etari sono ka narawamu toshi no ume

待得たり其香習はむ年の梅　　　一陽居今始

It's been warmer this week, so I feel like spring might really be on its way finally.

More Autumnal Kikusha

Today I've got a very sad poem sequence, also from Kikusha. Kikusha's Chinese poetry is very hard for me, so this is by no means perfect. I hope it at least give a hint of the remarkable range of this talented, perpetually questing woman.

（一）
二十年来忘累機
風雲誘処促単衣
環郷松菊東籬遍
禄髪為霜去不帰

（二）
幾年逃世片心微
孤錫帰来叩旧扉
愁殺荒涼深竹色
此君今独立依依

うきわれを照せ昔の秋の月


Headnote: Already more than 20 years have passed since I became a widow, and I have been traveling from east to west. In the autumn of 1798 I returned home, and happened to visit my father-in-law's house. I wrote these two verses to express some of my feelings then.

I.
Twenty years have passed and I have forgotten many moments
Since the spirit of travel beckoned me and I set out with just a single garment.
Going back to my hometown, pines and chrysanthemums are everywhere east of the fence
My black hair turned to frost before I returned from far away.

II.
I grew tired of avoiding the world after countless years,
Returning home with my solitary traveler's staff I knocked on my old door.
I was overwhelmed by sadness, and a deep sorrow
Where he had been now flourishes lonely longing.

shine your light on me,
as I mourn for a distant past --
autumn moon

Kikusha, for All Saints / Day of the Dead

Kikusha wrote some very interesting works: poems in Chinese that were followed with a hokku, in the style of Manyôshû chôka (long courtly-style verse) that were concluded with hanka ("envoy" verses). I am not sure this is right. I've followed the interpretation in Isobe Masaru's 磯辺勝 Edo haiga kikō: Buson no hanami, Issa no shōgatsu 江戶俳画紀行 - 蕪村の花見、一茶の正月 (央公論新社, 2008).

題髑髏図

借問誰家子
紅顔墜露前
懐余這箇物
風動薄茅辺

花の骨ながら犬さへ喰へぬかな

Topic: Skull Picture

May I ask, what family’s child was this?
Still young, fallen frail as the dew.
I ponder on these things that remain
Wayside weeds and grasses, blown by the wind.

withered miscanthus may be called “flower bones”
but they are not
for dogs to gnaw

The picture comes from the Kikusha Commemoration Society's site.

The Courtesan Kasen

Here are some hokku by Kasen 哥川 (ca. 1716-1776). I'm sure I've read some of these wrong, but here they are anyway. Courtesans led tragic, frequently brutal lives. These verses, however, are very evocative and romantic.

upon awakening
I tuned my koto
to the sound of spring rain

目覚ましに琴調べけり春の雨

envious that
snow does not gather on its branches
the plum tree itself blossoms

うらやましつもらぬ雪の梅もさき


without tying back
her beautiful hair --
willow tree

美しいかみもゆはずに柳かな


morning glory --
I too, await someone,
taking a flower for my companion

夕顔やわれも人まつ花のとも


when tying back my hair
I gaze outside --
scattered poppy blossoms

かみゆふて見れば散りたりけしの花

airing out clothes --
a cherished letter
falls from her sleeve

虫干しや恋しきふみのたもとより

These are in Nakajima Michiko's 中島道子 Yûjo Kasen: Echizen Mikuni-minato no haijin 遊女哥川: 越前三国湊の俳人 (渓声出版 [1985]). It's a biographical novel. Sometimes it's so sad/horrific I find it hard to read; it's full of useful information, though.

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.