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.

Taorigiku - Handpicked Chrysanthemums 1

By Tagami Kikusha. Published in Bunka 9nen (1812), it is a poetic travel journal. It's long and will take quite some time to get through. Let's see where it takes us. This is not authoritative, folks, it's a work in progress.

At the end of the first month, in which I had spent the new year season in the capital, when I looked back on on the long stretch of days I passed here here and counted them all up, it has truly been 33 years since I became entranced with the way of fûga. 

First I passed through the provinces of Sanetsu and Ôu, then I crossed over the barrier to the east, "of chattering birds," and the Ôsaka barrier "undeceived by the false rooster's crow." I stayed in Edo for three years, and became aware of the humorous genre of haikai, and there I learned all that I could of its teachings. Later, again my heart felt possessed by the desire to travel, and then many times I crossed the Mojigaseki and travelled to the Western Seas and to Tsukishi of the "countless fires." There I made friends of course with haikai poets but also became familiar with the literature of China, and at the place I stayed in Tama-no-ura I obtained even books by Chinese writers, and had so many in my rucksack and my satchel, that I kept them in my hometown Chôfû, and I now do not think the number of them is such that I can fit them all in. Having traveled round like this to many famous places, historical spots, ruins, and mountain passes spoken of by persons of high reputation, with regret I now leave this up to my ink-stained brush from my travel-case, thinking I might as well publish these scattered jottings, I mutter to myself, smiling. The year is 1812, in the season when the young plants are just starting to grow lush. Ichiji-an Kikusha-ni of Nakato.

Hand-picked Chrysanthemum 1

I lost my husband when I was still young, and because we had no child to inherit the household I adopted a relative's son and left to him the duties of maintaining the estate. Having now attained the status of the leisured, on the day it occurred to me, "I wish I could make a pilgrimage to temples and shrines at famous places all over the realm," I ended up undertaking a solo journey just as I'd imagined. 

月を笠に着て遊ばばや旅のそら

I wish I could wander

with the moon as my travel hat --

a traveler's sky

Written at Hitomaru Shrine in Nagato, Otsu.　(Stele: 日本の文学碑)

make my travel hat

even more melancholy --

rain in cicada season

吾笠に淋しさしめや蝉しぐれ

my writing brush

will become stained even more deeply --

when the persimmon leaves are lush

染めてゆかむ筆柿の葉も茂り時

I passed by Shizuka-ga-ura and took a boat from a place called Kayoi, and without incident arrived at Hagi Castle. Here I benefited from the kindness of a monk from Seikôji temple, and became his disciple, and received his courteous teachings on the world to come. Afterwards I took the tonsure, and wrote:

the dust of the unreliable world

was blown away

in the wind

風に浮世の塵を払けり

My old friend by the name of Chikuô-sha Kion lives here. He has liked haikai from a long time ago. I felt that I wished to learn his style, and he kindly sent a letter on my behalf to the Mino haikai master called Sankyô. At Suô Tenmangû Shrine I wrote:

colorful autumn also --

are those two leaves on the branch?

a plum tree's red

染る秋も二葉の末か梅紅葉

I should learn from it --

the pure heart

of a pond's water

ならひ行ん澄めるこころ池の水

Sketchbook Project 2013: The Great Learning/大學

I finished my entry for Sketchbook Project 2013. A bit of a kakizome 書初め for the new year and a commemoration of last semester's service-learning project, it's a translation of The Great Learning. The paper in the sketchbook that you get when you sign up is not very fancy, so I took it out and rebound it using slightly heavier stock. It turned out to still be relatively transparent, but it stood up pretty well to the ink and pens that I used.

Portions of the Sketchbook Project library are displayed throughout the year in various US cities. I saw the exhibition when it came to Atlanta in the summer and it was fun. It's nice to go to an event that allows people to make art as well as view it, where it can be held and touched and not just venerated from a distance.

Eventually the Sketchbook Project people will digitize the book and post it online. In the meantime, here's what it looks like.

 








Click "Read More" for the rest.

The Way of Great Learning 大學之道

Having worked on neo-Confucianism one way or another all of last semester, I start the year with a translation of the central part of the text of Daxue (Great Learning).

大學之道，在明明德，在親民，在止於至善。知止而後有定，定而後能靜，靜而後能安，安而後能慮，慮而後能得。物有本末，事有終始，知所先後，則近道矣。

The Way of Great Learning is to make shining virtue manifestly clear, to renew the people, and to rest in the achievement of good. Knowing where to rest, then you achieve stability; with stability, then you can be calm; being calm, then you can be secure; being secure, then you can become considerate; being considerate, then you can achieve potential. Things have roots and branches; affairs have beginnings and ends; knowing what comes before and after, that will lead you closer to the Way.

古之欲明明德於天下者，先治其國；欲治其國者，先齊其家；欲齊其家者，先修其身；欲修其身者，先正其心；欲正其心者，先誠其意；欲誠其意者，先致其知，致知在格物。

In the ancient past, the people of the world who wished to make shining virtue manifestly clear first brought civil government the nation; those who wished to bring civil government to the nation first created order in their families; those who wished to create order in their families first cultivated themselves; those who wished to cultivate themselves first corrected their hearts; those who wished to correct their hearts first made their intentions sincere; those who wished to make their intentions sincere first gain knowledge. Gaining knowledge exists in the investigation of things.

物格而後知至，知至而後意誠，意誠而後心正，心正而後身修，身修而後家齊，家齊而後國治，國治而後天下平。自天子以至於庶人，壹是皆以修身為本。其本亂而末治者否矣，其所厚者薄，而其所薄者厚，未之有也！此謂知本，此謂知之至也。

After investigating things, you then achieve knowledge; having achieved knowledge, your intentions become sincere; with your intentions sincere, your heart then is corrected; with your heart corrected, your self is cultivated; with your self cultivated, then your family is ordered; with your family ordered, then your nation is governed civilly; with your nation governed civilly, all under heaven is at peace. From the Son of Heaven down to the common people, cultivation of the self is fundamental for everyone. If the root is in disarray, the branches are not orderly. It has never been the case that the important is properly treated as trivial, and the trivial as important! This cultivation of self is what is called the foundation of knowledge; this is what is called knowledge's ultimate achievement.

# # #

Before I let Daxue go, I've got one last task to commemorate it: a contribution to The Sketchbook Project 2013. The deadline is January 15, so I have to get going on it. If it's any good, I'll post scans of the pages here. Happy new year, in the meantime. Is there such a thing as 初ブログ記事? Anyway, あけましておめでとうございます。

Emory Report Story on the Exhibition

Emory News did a nice story on the exhibition:

Art exhibit celebrates partnership of Emory freshmen and Clarkston refugees

Exhibition Blog

The exhibition now has its own blog!

明明徳 Clearly Manifesting Luminous Virtue

If you can't visit Clarkston, stop by the virtual galleries instead.