The only substantial
collection in English
of Basho's renku, tanka,
letters and spoken word
along with his haiku, travel
journals, and essays.
The only poet in old-time
literature who paid attention with praise
to ordinary women, children, and teenagers
in hundreds of poems
Hundreds upon hundreds of Basho works
(mostly renku)about women, children,
teenagers, friendship, compassion, love.
These are resources we can use to better
understand ourselves and humanity.
Interesting and heartfelt
(not scholarly and boring)
for anyone concerned with
humanity.
“An astonishing range of
social subject matter and
compassionate intuition”
"The primordial power
of the feminine emanating
from Basho's poetry"
Hopeful, life-affirming
messages from one of
the greatest minds ever.
Through his letters,
we travel through his mind
and discover Basho's
gentleness and humanity.
I plead for your help in
finding a person or group
to take over my 3000 pages of Basho material,
to edit and improve the material, to receive 100%
of royalties, to spread Basho’s wisdom worldwide
and preserve for future generations.
Quotations from Basho Prose
The days and months are
guests passing through eternity.
The years that go by
also are travelers.
The mountains in silence
nurture the spirit;
the water with movement
calms the emotions.
All the more joyful,
all the more caring
Seek not the traces
of the ancients;
seek rather the
places they sought.
Excerpts from Kyorai’s Ise Journal, Chine’s death poem, Kyorai’s response, Basho ode to Chine’s existence.
Legend:
Words of Basho in bold
Words of other poets not bold
Chine was the younger sister of Kyorai; passages from Kyorai’s Ise Journal, including four poems of Chine, reveal the exuberance and playful heart of this young woman in Japan of old. The trio of her death-verse, her brother’s response, and Basho’s ode to her existence, are a testament to the warm feelings among these three people.
Kyorai, the second son of a doctor of Chinese medicine, was born in 1651 and Chine about nine years later. With his older brother taking over their father’s medical practice, Kyorai had lots of free time. He helped out in the clinic, did things about the house, and was active as a follower of Basho (another second son with leisure time). Meanwhile Chine and her sisters helped their mother in her household labors.
In the autumn of 1686 Kyorai took Chine on a pilgrimage to the Ise Shrine, central shrine of the Sun Goddess. He later sent a copy of his Ise Journal to Basho so Basho could write an Introduction. The journal is an absolutely unnoticed gem, not only a literary gem, but also a gem of anthropology. Kyorai observes his 26 year old sister as she learns the world outside her parents’ house. Sensitive to her feelings, supporting her with positive energy, and paying attention to the poetry she writes (far better than his own), Kyorai transcends the patriarchal assumptions of his society. In Japan at this time young women were trained to stay quiet, smile, and nod to what the man says. Feminist historian Tokuza Akiko says,
“criticism of women’s intelligence, autonomy, and moral worth was essential to the total subordination of women that society demanded.”
A pretty grim prognosis, but Kyorai appears to have been an exception (as was Basho).
Tokuza continues:
“Parents thus protected their daughters’ chastity and morality by isolating them both from men and from rational and critical thought.”
Chine’s parents however, allowed her to go on this journey, and she seems quite capable of rational and critical thought. Anthropologists should take note.
The Ise Journal begins:
The sun hot yet wind cool on our heads, I take my younger sister on a pilgrimage to Ise.
Until Ise such good companions, morning geese
The genius of Chine’s verse is in the double meaning: “Kyorai and I are good companions” along with “wild geese are our good companions.” The feeling she has watching a flock of geese fly in the direction they are walking, and her feeling for her brother, become one. Affection between adult brother and sister occasionally appears in old-time literature – Ophelia and Laertes in Hamlet, Sebastian and Viola in Twelfth Night -- but the circumstances in these plays are extraordinary beyond belief. The brother-sister bond portrayed in the Ise Journal is unique in literature because it is so ordinary.
Kyorai and Chine stay at an inn:
The innkeeper’s wife is such an uba. She turns her face toward us and shouts “Fresh from the mortar! Before they cool down!” Chine cannot stop laughing.
Uba, “old woman” suggests a former wet nurse, a rather earthy sort of woman (think Juliet’s Nurse). I love the sound of uba (rhymes with “tuba”) here. The innkeeper’s wife was making mochi rice cakes: kneading the mass of cooked rice in a mortar where her husband pounded it with a mallet, then molding into a cake with a surface soft and smooth as a baby’s bottom. At this time women used face powder containing white lead to fill in the wrinkles and obtain a mochi-hada, skin as smooth as mochi.
On behalf of the innkeeper Chine writes:
Kyorai says it is the innkeeper’s job to advertise his wife’s rice cakes, but Chine does that job for him in the following tanka:
If you will not remove that face powder, when oh when can we see the wrinkles in your uba mochi?
Chine uses the classical form for her hilarious look into women’s concern for their aging skin. Change “uba mochi” to “old woman’s skin,” and you will see what 26 year old Chine is saying to this uba in her fifties or sixties. Shoko comments that Chine’s verse is onna-rashiku, “womanly, feminine.” I, like Chine, cannot stop laughing.
For the following night, Kyorai writes
This being Chine’s first time away from the realm of our parents, in sympathy with her upset, I say what I can to divert her.
Kyorai actually pays attention to his sister’s mind and heart. Where else in male literature is there such a record of male consideration for a woman who is not his mother or romantic interest? Basho seems to have had much affection for his seven-year-younger sister Oyoshi – since he often mentions her in his letters -- so he can easily appreciate Kyorai’s feeling for nine-year younger Chine. If you too have a younger sister, you may also feel as they did.
Another night, another inn:
In a house across the way, young and old women gather to hull rice while singing until late night, with the door open, we hear them.
At each lodging the rice-hulling songs are different
On her first journey, Chine learns of human diversity— that people only one day apart do the same work, to different songs. Her verse is anthropology in its purest form.
Beside the river near Ise where Basho wrote 202 WOMEN WASHING TARO, Chine complements that verse:
Put in water hands better be wiped, the autumn wind
Chine is so fundamental, so sensory, so conscious of her hands: where skin is wet, how the wind penetrates! In our time we provide warm water to many people, yet still hundreds of millions in the temperate zone who work in unheated water can appreciate her hands’ awareness of the need to wipe them well with a dry cloth, so they can endure the work for decades of the four seasons.
We change our clothes and fix our hair then with deep respect go to visit the Inner Shrine. Our eyes could not be parted from the scene… In the evening we buy souvenirs for everyone and so it became night.
It is not appropriate to wear dirty travel clothes or loose hanging hair when visiting the home of the Sun Goddess. Just like their descendants traveling today, Kyorai and Chine buy souvenirs for the folks at home. And so ends our time within Kyorai’s journal.
Chine’s journey with her brother was her final fling before marriage. She had one daughter in 1687, but in the summer of 1688 when Basho was in Kyoto he learned that Chine was gravely ill. Her brother used all his medical skill, but still she passed away. Chine’s jisei no ku or “farewell to life” poem was:
Easily glows and easily goes out a firefly
Kyorai responded to his sister’s poem with:
On my palm sadly goes out the firefly
Simple words to express Chine’s humility and Kyorai’s grief.
While in Gifu I hear that Chine has passed away so I send these words to the home of Kyorai.
Now the houserobe of the one who is gone— airing in the heat
Clothing gets musty in the warm moist summer, so one sunny day everything is hung outside to “air in the heat.” Basho cannot be with Kyorai’s family in their grief, but he sends them an image which transcends the distance between Gifu and Kyoto. One of Chine’s kosode, a simple kimono for household wear, is being kept as a memento and is hanging outside with the rest of the family’s clothing. The traces of Chine’s being linger in the fabric she wore, gently dispersing in the warm breeze.
Chine’s laughter resounds through the centuries. May her light continue to shine in our thoughts.
I plead for your help in finding a person or group to take over my 3000 pages of Basho material, to edit and improve the presentation, to receive all royalties from sales, to spread Basho’s wisdom worldwide and preserve for future generations.
The only substantial
collection in English
of Basho's renku, tanka,
letters and spoken word
along with his haiku, travel
journals, and essays.
The only poet in old-time
literature who paid attention with praise
to ordinary women, children, and teenagers
in hundreds of poems
Hundreds upon hundreds of Basho works
(mostly renku)about women, children,
teenagers, friendship, compassion, love.
These are resources we can use to better
understand ourselves and humanity.
Interesting and heartfelt
(not scholarly and boring)
for anyone concerned with
humanity.
“An astonishing range of
social subject matter and
compassionate intuition”
"The primordial power
of the feminine emanating
from Basho's poetry"
Hopeful, life-affirming
messages from one of
the greatest minds ever.
Through his letters,
we travel through his mind
and discover Basho's
gentleness and humanity.
I plead for your help in
finding a person or group
to take over my 3000 pages of Basho material,
to edit and improve the material, to receive 100%
of royalties, to spread Basho’s wisdom worldwide
and preserve for future generations.
Quotations from Basho Prose
The days and months are
guests passing through eternity.
The years that go by
also are travelers.
The mountains in silence
nurture the spirit;
the water with movement
calms the emotions.
All the more joyful,
all the more caring
Seek not the traces
of the ancients;
seek rather the
places they sought.
