Showing posts with label place. Show all posts
Showing posts with label place. Show all posts

11/19/2012

hut, thatched hut

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iori, an 庵 hermitage, thatched hut

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Non-seasonal Topic
***** Category: Humanity


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Explanation


A simple thatched hut is often the subject of Japanese poetry.

. kayabuki 茅葺 thatching, thatched roof .
- Introduction -



The more refined tea house evolved from the simple dwelling of the peasants of the Edo period.

an 庵 hermitage, hut, thatched hut
yado 宿 my home. yado is also a lodging on the road
(there are various kigo with YADO and another season word)

koie, ko-ie, ko ie 小家 small house
sumika 栖 my humble home

. WKD : Living at home in all seasons .


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見渡せば花も紅葉もなかりけり
浦の苫屋の秋の夕暮れ


miwataseba hana mo momiji mo nakarikeri
ura no tomaya no aki no yugure

As I look around
cherry blossoms or crimson leaves
are not to be found -
by the rush-thatched hut along the shore
in autumn's evening dusk.


Fujiwara no Teika, Shinkokin-shu
Tr. Hayashida Hajime


. WKD : Autumn Solitude .


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Shiren yu xie 詩人玉屑 Gemlike words of poets

Under the title “Dwelling in Retirement,” for instance, the book cites Tao Qian as an example under “Historical Facts” and provides 168 couplets by poets from different periods; some of them directly mention the names of Ruan Ji, Ji Kang, and Tao Qian.

The entry also gives twenty-six “Related Images and Motives,” such as “composing a poem,” “study surrounded by bamboos,” “bamboo groves,” “thatched hut,” “sitting in tranquility,” “lonely and tranquil,” “remote place,” “playing the zither,” “purity and loftiness,” and “drinking wine.”

source : Basho-and-the-Dao - Peipei-Qiu


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- Bashō-An, Bashoo-an 芭蕉庵 Basho-An in Fukagawa 深川 -
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


芭蕉葉を柱に懸けん庵の月  
bashooha o hashira ni kaken io no tsuki

one banana leaf
placed on the pillar -
the moon above my hut 






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発句なり松尾桃青宿の春
. hokku nari Matsuo Toosei yado no haru .
(spring). the home of Matsuo Tosei
1677

Matsuo later changed his name from Tosei "Green peach" to Basho (Banana).


. WKD : "spring in this lodge", yado no haru 宿の春 .
Kigo for the New Year

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啄木鳥も庵は破らず夏木立
kitsutsuki mo io wa yaburazu natsu kodachi

even woodpeckers
don't damage this hut:
summer grove

Tr. Barnhill


MORE about Basho haiku
translations and discussion :
. WKD : woodpecker, kitsutsuki 啄木鳥 .


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ばせを植ゑてまづ憎む荻の二葉哉
bashoo uete mazu nikumu ogi no futaba kana
. Planting the first banana tree with his disciple Rika 李下 .


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kakurega 隠れ家 hiding place, hideout, refuge

隠れ家や月と菊とに田三反
. kakurega ya tsuki to kiku to ni ta san tan .
hermitage with moon, chrysanthemums and rice paddies
for Tani Boku-In (Bokuin)


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粟稗にとぼしくもあらず草の庵 
. awa hie ni toboshiku mo arazu kusa no io .
foxtail millet (awa), barn millet (hie)


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初雪や幸ひ庵にまかりある 
hatsu yuki ya saiwai an ni makariaru

first snow -
I am lucky to be here
in my own hut

Tr. Gabi Greve


Written on the 18th day of the 12th lunar month 1686
貞亨3年12月18日, Basho age 43

This day was also considered as the 31st day of the 1st month
太陽暦で1687年1月31日
Other sources place it on the ninth day of the 12th lunar month.
12月9日

On that day he wrote about the first narcissus.

初雪や水仙の葉のたわむまで
. hatsu-yuki ya suisen no ha no tawamu made .

Basho was fond of "first snow" and made some trips to friends when he heard the good news. Now finally it has started snowing on his own home and he is happy to be there.

makari aru 罷りある an emphatic verbal prefix
shows his great joy about the snow.

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この宿は水鶏も知らぬ扉かな
kono yado wa kuina mo shiranu toboso kana

this lodging has a door
not even known
to the water rail

Tr. Gabi Greve

Most probably written when Basho visited Kosen 湖仙亭 in Otsu in 1694.
As a greeting to his host who lived so remote and lonely that
"not even the water rails come to knock at the door".
The voice of the birds sounds like someone knocking on a door,
kuina tataku 水鶏たたく.




source : masuda-art.p1.bindsite

Waka by. Fujiwara no Teika 藤原定家.

槙の戸をたたく水鶏の曙に人やあやめの軒のうつりか

maki no to ni tataku kuina no akebono ni
hito ya ayame no noki no utsuri ka

"At dawn I heard a knock at the door,
but when I opened there was nobody,
just the voice of a water rail outside."



The "knocking of the water rail" is also mentioned in the
Murasaki Shikibu Diary Emaki 紫式部日記絵巻,
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !



. water rail, kuina 水鶏 (くいな) Rallus aquaticus .


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草臥れて宿借るころや藤の花 
くたびれて宿借るころや藤の花
kutabirete yado karu koro ya fuji no hana

just as I am so tired
and look for a lodging -
wisteria flowers

Tr. Gabi Greve


When worn out
And seeking an inn:
Wisteria flowers!

Tr. Aitken


Tired walking
stopping at an inn
wisteria

Tr. David McMurray, 2004
The master poet must have seen some purple wisteria blossoms dangling from a trellis in the evening light. There is a certain harmony between the blossoms and his tired body and soul. His poem does not evoke an image of loneliness, rather he seems to be in a contented frame of mind. He's at one with nature.
source : asahi.com/english/haiku


exhausted,
time to find a lodging -
hanging wisteria

Tr. Shirane


As I seek a bower,
Weary from travel, I find
A wisteria flower.

Tr. Yasuda


Written in 1688, at Yamato Yagi 大和八木にて
This hokku has the cut marker YA at the end of line 2.

. WKD : Wisteria (fuji 藤) .


Oi no Kobumi 笈の小文
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .

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source : hiroko1.exblog.jp
aki yanagi 秋柳 willow in autumn


なに喰うて小家は秋の柳かな 
nani kuute ko-ie wa aki no yanagi kana

what do they eat
in this small house in autumn
below the willow tree ?

Tr. Gabi Greve


This hokku has the phrase stretched over lines 2 and 3:
aki no yanagi kana - autumn for the willow tree
and the cut marker KANA at the end of line 3.

Written in 貞亨元年, Basho age 41 or later.

There is just one small house below the willow tree and Basho wonders how its inhabitants make do with their poor life.


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西行の庵もあらん花の庭 
. Saigyō no iori mo aran hana no niwa .
Basho and Saigyo 芭蕉 - 西行


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source :www.komonjyo.net

I got some rice from friends.

世の中は稲刈るころか草の庵
yo no naka wa ine karu koro ka kusa no io

in the world it is now time
to harvest rice -
my thatched hermitage

Tr. Gabi Greve

Written around 貞亨年間, Basho age 41 - 44

The hut refers most probably to his second Basho-An in Fukagawa.
Someone of his disciples had brought him newly harvested rice to support his poor life.
Basho leads the life of an intonsha 隠遁者 a recluse and makes fun of his lifestyle.

. WKD : The Japanese Rice Culture - .



- Bashō-An 芭蕉庵 Basho-An in Fukagawa 深川 -
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


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Go-goo-An" 五合庵 Gogo-An
The hermitage of poet
. Ryokan / Ryookan 良寛 .
(1758-1831)
At Mount Yahiko in Echigo.


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Worldwide use



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Things found on the way


watamashi わたまし/ 移徙 /渡座 to move into a new dwelling


It was celebrated with a special gift of flowers
watamashi no iwai 渡座の祝


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HAIKU


. WKD : Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .

庵門に流れ入けり天の川
iokado ni nagare-irikeri Amanogawa

flowing in
through my front door --
the Milky Way

Tr. Chris Drake

This hokku was written early in the 7th month (August) of 1814, while Issa was living in his hometown and three months after he had gotten married for the first time. It comes right before a group of hokku in Issa's diary about the Tanabata star festival celebrated on 7/7, so it's obviously written with the star festival in mind. According to the legend celebrated at the festival, the Weaving Woman star (Vega) and the Oxherd star (Altair) are separated by the River of Heaven (the Milky Way) and fated to be able to meet on only one night of the year -- the night of lunar 7/7. On this night, if there are no clouds, the Weaving Woman is able to meet her lover by crossing the River of Heaven on a bridge formed by many magpies lined up side by side.

The word io literally means 'hut, hermitage,' but it was also a standard polite euphemism for one's own home. Similar humble words were also used when referring to oneself or one's family. Since the Milky Way "flows inside" the door, I take "hut" to be a reference to Issa's own house and take him to be watching the Milky Way through his front door. On one level this is a visual hokku about how the Milky Way seems to be flowing down inside Issa's house on a clear night far from city lights on which the stars seem even closer than usual.

But this is the first time Issa has celebrated the star festival with his wife, and in the previous hokku in his diary he writes about "my star," so he may be suggesting that he and his wife are like the star lovers and that this year the Milky Way is also being crossed by Issa and his wife as it flows through their house.

Chris Drake

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隠れ家は気のむいた夜が月見哉
kakurega wa ki no muita yo ga tsukimi kana

in my small home
tonight we feel like it --
moon-viewing

Tr. Chris Drake

This hokku appears along with one other hokku in a letter Issa sent on 8/16/1826 to his student and patron Shunkou (春耕), whose wife Seifu (成布) was also a hokku and renku poet. The word "hermitage; small hut" was a common humble expression to refer to one's own old or poor house, and Issa uses it in several hokku to modestly refer to his own house. In the letter, the reference is clearly to his own modest house.

It's quite normal to want to do moon-viewing, so why does Issa stress this normal feeling? There is no clear answer to this question, but it's known that in the 8th month of this year Issa married for the third time to a woman from a nearby province who worked as a maid in his hometown. The woman, Yao, was thirty-one and had a year-old child born out of wedlock, whom Issa agreed to take care of, and he must have met her at least a few times before they married, since they lived in the same town. A plausible hypothesis for Issa's great happiness at this year's ceremonies for viewing the harvest moon would be that he has either just married or is about to marry his third wife and that having a moon-viewing party with her and perhaps a few relatives in his modest home is a special joy for him at this point in his life. I take "feel like it" to be deliberately ambiguous: it can refer not only to moon-viewing but to getting married and all the things that go with that. If so, then Issa uses "my humble house" in order to stress that he is part of a family again and that watching the moon as part of a family gives him -- and no doubt Yao -- a deep joy that isn't provided at ordinary parties for viewing the moon, even the harvest moon. The translation uses "we" as the subject of the verb to express this connection between Issa's house and his new family.

The second hokku in Issa's letter is equally joyful, almost euphoric:

古壁やどの穴からも秋の月
furu-kabe ya dono ana kara mo aki no tsuki

old walls --
from every hole
autumn moonlight


Continuing the "modest little hut" image, Issa declares that on this special night even the light pouring through the holes in the old walls of his house creates a beautiful counterpoint to the moon-viewing party. The moonlight image might also be a greeting from Issa to Yao to tell her he's sure she will illuminate his old house and make it attractive again. The old walls further suggest Issa himself at sixty-three (he died two years later). He seems to feel light pouring through his life from many directions on this particular full-moon night.

Issa's letter says he plans to visit Shunkou in about three months. No doubt he explained to Shunkou at that time about his third marriage, but the two hokku in the letter may already have given Shunkou a hint about Issa's new frame of mind.

Chris Drake


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菜も蒔いてかすんで暮らす小家哉
na mo maite kasunde kurasu ko ie kana

even planting
vegetables, living unnoticed
in a small house

Tr. Chris Drake

This hokku was written in the 2nd month (March) in 1815, after Issa had moved into half of his father's house in his hometown and gotten married the previous year. It may refer to Issa himself and his new life, and this reading is attractive, especially since Issa thought this hokku was important enough to revise and to show to the haikai master Seibi in Edo in order to get his comments on it.

Issa used his small-feeling half-house as his base for his travels to meet his many students and fellow poets in the Shinano highland area, and he rented most of his rice paddy land to his younger brother and to other farmers who had no paddies. He lived mainly off the rent and his inheritance, since gifts from his students were not enough to support him, especially after he married. One famous hokku expresses his guilty feelings about staying outside while everyone around him was outside taking care of the rice plants, but he was dedicated to haikai and spent much of his time while he was at home writing and communicating by letter with other poets and students. His share of his father's land also contained a dry field or fields for vegetables, and he was known to do a little gardening in his spare time. Some of what he planted seems to have been medicinal plants. While he was living in Edo he learned a lot about the medicinal properties of plants, and he liked to drink herbal broths for various ailments. Issa was fifty-two in 1815, and he felt his body was growing weaker.

If the hokku refers to Issa, the second line might refer to his retirement from the Edo haikai scene a few months before. Issa and his wife seem to have been quite fond of each other, and they also had an agreement that as a haikai poet and teacher Issa would be away from home a good deal of the time. In the previous year, 1814, Issa was traveling 277 days and at home 77 days, and in 1815 the ratio was 248 days to 106 days. In the month in which this hokku was written Issa's diary shows he was home only 8 days, so his life was not one of quiet farming or rustic leisure.

About five weeks before this hokku was written Issa returned from a four-month trip to Edo during which he said goodbye to all his friends and students and formally retired from the Edo haikai world, and at the end of 1815 he made a three-month trip to Edo to say his final farewells, though he made shorter trips to Edo after that and often communicated with Edo haikai poets by mail. The image in the hokku above of living inconspicuously or in obscurity would make a lot of sense if the hokku were referring to Issa's "retired" life in a mountainous area some distance away from Edo. In his own village Issa was hardly inconspicuous, since his return generated quite a bit of controversy. His neighbors had little understanding of what Issa was doing, however, so his haikai existence may have seemed unnoticed or almost invisible, making him feel doubly unnoticed.

The next year Issa gave this revised version of the hokku to the famous poet and haikai judge Seibi for his comments:


kyoo mo kyoo mo kasunde kurasu ko-ie kana

day in, day out
living almost unseen
in a small house


In this version it seems to be the regularity and repetitious nature of "retired" life in the country that is decisive.
Chris Drake


雁にさへとり残されし栖哉
kari ni sae tori-nokosareshi sumika kana

my house --
even the wild geese
leave it behind


This hokku is from the end of the first month (late February) in 1808, when Issa was living in the semi-rural northeast edge of Edo. At that time he was thinking a lot about returning to his hometown, especially after returning for the first time in seven years during the previous fall and then again in early December, when he stayed for five days trying to negotiate about his father's will and receive his part of his late father's house. He made no progress, however, and returned to Edo with nothing at all to show for his second trip, during which he wrote:

snow all day --
hometown people
just as cold


yuki no hi ya furusato-bito mo buashirai

In Edo Issa was finding it impossible to establish himself as a haikai master and teacher, though he had some students here and there in rural areas east of Edo, and when he returned to his hometown his half brother and stepmother treated him as if he were an unwanted intruder who had no right to return or to live in half of the family house. Most of the neighbors felt the same way, and Issa had no close friends or supporters in his own hometown.

Perhaps the wild geese in the first hokku above have been wintering in a field near Issa's low-rent semi-slum house in Edo, or perhaps they are simply flying over his small house on their way back to their northern homes in Siberia, where they will spend the late spring and summer. A great many Japanese poets and people in general seem to have had a special fondness for wild geese, and they expressed especially deep feelings when the geese left their wintering places in Japan and began their journeys back to the north. The haikai phrase "farewell of [and to] the geese" surely expressed a moving experience for many people, and especially, perhaps, for Issa, who no doubt feels kinship with the geese as a fellow migrant who goes back and forth between two homes. The loneliness he feels after the geese have left is surely genuine and not simply rhetorical. In addition, he also feels abandoned and left behind, since he knows how happy the honking geese are to be returning to their northern homes, which they prefer to his house. The birds' destinations must also be a kind of emotional and spiritual home for them, so there seems to be some envy in the hokku as well. Unlike the geese, however, Issa has no warm, welcoming hometown to return to. He has been left behind and left out and ignored even by his own relatives. Eventually Issa was able to leave his Edo home behind, but only after five more years of longing and stressful disputes.

One turn of language seems to express Issa's kinship with the geese very clearly. He uses a Sino-Japanese character 栖 for 'house' that is more commonly used to refer to a bird's nest. It is used only metaphorically to refer to a human house, a meaning ordinarily expressed with the characters 住処 or 住家. Issa may be implying that he still remains behind in his symbolic nest, but he hopes to fly off soon the way the geese now fly by overhead.
Chris Drake



きりぎりすさがし歩くや庵の棚
kirigirisu sagashi-aruku ya io no tana

walking
a cricket searches
shelves in my house


This hokku was written at the end of the seventh month (August) in 1810, when Issa was living in and around Edo, while also negotiating with his half-brother about how they would split up their father's property. At the end of the month he was apparently living in a room in a temple in the town of Futtsu in what is now Chiba Prefecture, across Edo Bay (now Tokyo Bay) to the east. He had gone there to attend the requiem ceremony on 7/13 for the hundredth day after the death of one of his students, a woman haikai poet named Kakyō, at a Pure Land temple called Daijōji, the same temple where he stayed. At that time he also presented one or perhaps two requiem hokku for the dead woman. Issa's diary is vague, but he seems to have stayed in the temple until 8/1, when he took a boat back to Edo. Many scholars and readers have wondered whether Issa and Kakyō were secret lovers, although her husband may still have been alive, so it would probably have been a platonic love if it actually existed. Around this time Issa had no house of his own and was staying with various poets in Edo, so by "my house" he seems to be referring to his room in the temple, which was also the temple where Kakyō's ashes were buried. It seems significant that Issa seems to have stayed there for about two weeks, a time period that might indicate he wanted to stay near Kakyō's ashes in order to pray for her and say farewell to her soul many times. If so, he may be thinking of the temple as his and Kakyō's temporary spiritual house. He uses a humble word for house (the euphemism 'hut'), perhaps because he feels humble and reverent toward Kakyō's soul, and also because although a student she was older than he.

Issa may also feel humble toward the cricket walking around the room he is in, since he often shows great respect for insects and other creatures. While he no doubt feels a little restrained in a temple, the cricket shows no restraint at all and walks here and there, probably over several shelves. It walks confidently and seems to be looking for something, almost as if it were another visitor living in the house, and Issa seems to feel rather equal with the cricket. He may, however, envy the cricket, which is able to take such liberties with the "house," while he feels definite reserve toward the temple and the dead wife of a powerful and rich local man. Perhaps Issa even identifies with the cricket and imagines himself searching through memories of the dead woman and looking for any hint of her spiritual presence. Perhaps after Kakyō's death he also remembers the physical desire he had to hide while she was alive. One is reminded of a scene of gradually revealed hidden desire in a film directed by Luis Bunuel. In the society of Issa's day, even subtle movements by small insects could have large implications. Or could the cricket even be some kind of karmic sign or an attempt by Kakyō's searching soul to find a way to communicate with him?

In Issa's time, as in Basho's time, kirigirisu meant cricket. However, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, when Japan was rapidly westernizing, the reference of the word changed, and it came to refer to a katydid or long-horned grasshopper, while another word, kōrogi, came to be used for cricket. As late as the 1886 third edition of J. C. Hepburn's Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary the definition of kirigirisu is given as 'cricket.' To early and middle twentieth-century Japanese, as well as to R. H. Blyth, katydid, grasshopper, and cricket seemed to be almost equal alternatives for kirigirisu, although in contemporary Japanese kōrogi is almost always used for cricket and kirigirisu for katydid or grasshopper.

Chris Drake

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Other haiku by Issa, Tr. David Lanoue

草の庵年取餅を買にけり
kusa no io toshitori mochi o kai ni keri

thatched hut--
the year's last rice cakes
are bought


Translated by David Lanoue
More ISSA Haiku about Pounding Rice


The discussion started with another translation of this haiku

thatched hut--
the aged rice cake
is purchased


Translating Haiku Forum Nr. 853 / 855 / 858 / 864

In former times, it was customary in Japan to add one year to one's life on the first of January (toshitori). Individual birthdays were not celebrated.
to get older, toshi o toru 年を取る

thatched hut -
buying rice dumplings
to grow older another year

(Tr. Gabi Greve)

"yellowtail tuna to pass into the New Year" toshitori buri 年取鰤 is a speciality for New Year in Western Japan.


The use of IO, iori, 庵 the thatched hut
Translating Haiku Forum


o o o o o

to my hut too
New Year's arrives...
the zooni vendor


waga io ya ganjitsu mo kuru zooni uri
我庵や元日も来る雑煮売

by Issa, 1817

Zooni, glutinous rice cakes with vegetables, is enjoyed in the New Year's season.
This haiku has the prescript, "In Hatsuchoobori Beggar Quarter, I greet the spring."
Hatsuchoobori was a district of old Edo (today's Tokyo). See Maruyama Kazuhiko, Issa haiku shuu (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1990; rpt. 1993) 261, note 1394.
Shinji Ogawa offers this translation:

To my hut
even on the New Year's Day
zooni vendors come


He notes that it is a Japanese custom not to work during the first three days of the year, but in the big city of Edo, zooni vendors were busy as bees.
Tr. and comment David Lanoue




御盛りや草の庵ももりはじめ
osagari ya kusa no iori mo mori hajime

first rain of the year -
my thatched hut too
has its first leak

Tr. Gabi Greve


onburi 御降り rain on January 1, "honorable downpour".
If it rains, the harvest will be blessed in this year.



New Year's rain --
in all our thatched houses
the year's first leaks

Tr. Chris Drake

This humorous hokku is from early in the 12th lunar month (January) of 1820, the same lunar year as Year of My Life but in the following year on the Gregorian calendar. Issa must have been thinking ahead to New Year's when he wrote this hokku.

"Precipitation at New Year's" can refer to either rain or snow on one of the first three days of the new year, especially the first day. It was regarded as fortunate, a lucky sign that there would be a good harvest that year. Along the Pacific coast, the weather at New Year's was generally fair, but in Issa's hometown area, snow was the norm, although Issa's diary shows that on the first day of the next year, a couple of weeks after this hokku was written, it rained, with snow falling on the second and third. Since the chance of precipitation was so high, Issa must have felt it was safe to write this New Year's hokku early.

A second reason for the early composition date might be Issa's interest here in writing not only about himself and his own house but about almost all commoners living in thatched houses. The term "thatched hut" was commonly used as a humble word for one's own house, but Issa adds "too" in the second line, suggesting that just about everyone with a thatched roof must be dealing with a similar leak or two on this auspicious day. Probably the inns and the houses of one or two rich farmers in Issa's hometown had wood or tile roofs, but most people in his hometown and in other farming areas lived in thatched houses, so Issa implies he's writing about countless people all over rural Japan sharing a similar experience. My translation makes explicit this implication. There are many standard expressions in Japanese that refer to the first experience of various things in the new year, but Issa humorously creates a new one with "first leak of the year."

Chris Drake


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木つ々きが目利して居る庵哉
kitsutsuki ga mekiki shite iru iori kana

woodpecker
busy appraising
the meditation hut

Tr. Chris Drake

I've translated the version that appears near the end of My Spring. In Issa's diary the first and second lines are slightly different, though the basic meaning is the same: kitsutsuki no mekiki shite miru . . .


Read the full discussion by Chris here:

. Issa and the Woodpecker .


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. Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 in Edo .

庵買ひて且(かつ)うれしさよ炭五俵
an kaite katsu ureshisa yo sumi gohyoo
買うて且うれしさよ炭五俵
an koote katsu ureshisa yo sumi gohyoo

I bought a hermitage
and got an additional joy -
five bags of charcoal



. sumi 炭 charcoal and kigo .



mizu no yoki iori o tataku odori kana
(1770)

Knocking at a hermitage
Good water there --
A Bon Festival dance.

Tr. Nelson/Saito




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Related words


***** . Mochi and pounding rice .

***** . WKD : Living at home in all seasons .


. WKD - LIST of haiku topics and keywords  


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11/08/2011

Sakai in Edo

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. Places of Edo .
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Sakai Cho in Edo

A pleasure quarter near the center of town at Nihonbashi.
One of the three famous Kabuki theaters of Edo was located in Sakai.


source : carolyn staley prints.com
The Kabuki Theater at Sakai, Fukiyacho 葺屋町
Kitao Masayoshi Keisai (1764 - 1824)


Edo Sanza 江戸三座
the three famous Kabuki theaters of Edo

with a special permission from the city government (町奉行 machi bugyoo).

堺町・葺屋町 Sakai Machi
Kobikichoo 木挽町 Kobiki cho
猿若町 Saruwaka choo.
later renamed Nakamura-za

- 猿若町 Saruwaka cho district
The name of the area is connected to the name of Saruwaka (Nakamura) Kanzaburo who is said to have been the founder of Edo-style Kabuki. The area featured a number of tea houses connected to the theaters which provided visitors with guidance, food, rest and other services, and many theater proprietors and actors settled in the area, forming massive entertainment district. The district flourished until the first year of the Meiji Era, however, the theaters relocated one after another thereafter and the theater town was lost.
- source and more photos : ndl.go.jp/landmarks/e -

Saruwaka Kanzaburō 猿若勘三郎 (1598 - 1658)
the founder of Edo kabuki and first in the premier Nakamura-za lineage.
It was not until the year AD 1624 that a man named Saruwaka Kanzaburo, at the command of the Shogun, opened the first theatre in Yedo in the Nakabashi, or Middle Bridge Street, where it remained until eight years later, when it was removed to the Ningyo, or Doll Street.



quote
Sketch of the Plays in Saruwaka Town (Saruwakamachi Shibai no Ryakuzu)
This is a bird's eye view of the entire Saruwaka Town,
which helps us to gain a good understanding of the atmosphere of this so-called theater town.
By order of the Shogun, the Nakamuraza and Ichimuraza Theaters moved in 1842 (Tempō 13)
and the Kawarazakiza Theater, which is a hikae-yagura
(the alternate theater which was allowed to give a performance
when three officially recognized Kabuki theaters of Edo were not available)
of the Morita Theater moved in the following year into Saruwaka Town,
making it one of the largest theater towns.
Saruwaka town (near Asakusa 6-chome in Taitō ward) was a closed area
which was accessible only through the wooden gates installed at the south, north and southeast of the town.
In addition to the theaters, there were teahouses attached to a theater,
houses for actors and theater-related people, restaurants, souvenir shops, stage set stores,
and theater properties shops in Saruwaka town.
The Shogunate incorporated all the people and properties related to theaters into this town.
The town name used to be Asakusa Seiten town, but changed to Saruwaka town
when Nakamura Kanzaburō (Saruwaka) I, the founder of Edo Kabuki,
opened the Saruwakaza Theater in this town in 1624 (Kan-ei 1).
Saruwaka town had from 1-chome to 3-chome with the Nakamuraza Theater in 1-chome;
the Ichimuraza Theater in 2-chome; and the Moritaza Theater in 3-chome.
In the Meiji period, however, the Moritaza Theater moved to Shintomi-cho (in Chuo ward)
and the other two theaters also relocated to Torigoe-cho and Shitaya Nicho-cho (both in Taito ward) respectively.
The role of Saruwaka Town as a theater town came to an end
after all the rest of the theaters moved to the central area of the city in 1892 (Meiji 25).
This picture is presumed to have been published in 1842 (Tenpō 13)
because the 3-chome area, to which the Kawarazaki Theater
was scheduled to move, is hidden behind the clouds.
source. Tokyo Metropolitan Library


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Nakamura Kanzaburō XVIII 十八代目 中村勘三郎
May 30, 1955 – December 5, 2012

He made his debut under the name Nakamura Kankurō V in April 1959 in the role of Momotaro.



His kabuki credits under that name include roles in Kagami-jishi, Kamiyui Shinza and Yotsuya Kaidan. Nakamura-ya.

In addition to performing at the Kabuki-za and other kabuki venues, Kankurō helped establish the Heisei Nakamura-za, a temporary kabuki stage erected for only one set of performances, in a variety of locations. He erected it, and performed on it, in Asakusa (Tokyo), Osaka, and, in 2004, on a US tour, performing in Boston, New York, and Washington DC. The Heisei Nakamura-za performed again in New York and Washington in 2007.
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !

Kanzaburo passed away much too early.
During his funeral procession, the parade passed the Nakamura-Za and all the people who loved him dearly came out to carry a mikoshi palanquin in his honor.
This was maybe the first time of such an outburst of sympathy for an actor.


彼の世へと顔見世デビュー中村屋
ano yo e to kao mise debyuu Nakamuraya

to the other world
to show his face -
NakamuraYa

Tr. Gabi Greve

Momochigusa 百千草

滑稽俳句協会 Parody Haiku Association
source : www.kokkeihaikukyoukai.net

kaomise 顔見世 "showing the faces"
is the first performance of the New Year,

. Kabuki Theater ... 歌舞伎 .

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'Kogiku in Saruwaka-cho'

Toyohara Kunichika (豊原 国周, June 30, 1835 – July 1, 1900)
was a Japanese woodblock print artist. Talented as a child, at about thirteen he became a student of Tokyo's then-leading print maker, Utagawa Kunisada. His deep appreciation and knowledge of kabuki drama led to his production primarily of ukiyo-e actor-prints, which are woodblock prints of kabuki actors and scenes from popular plays of the time.
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !


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Ichimuraza Opening Comic Puppet Theater
市村座開場浄瑠璃狂言

Utagawa Kunisada III (1848 - 1920)

Famous places in Edo

Ukiyo-e ni miru Edo no meisho.
Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1993.

From Kyôhô period on to Meiji, there were three kabuki theatres, the “sanza,” of which the two oldest, Nakamura-za and Ichimura-za, were located along the single street of Sakai-chô Fukiya-chô (now Ningyô-chô 3-chôme).
(The Morita-za was in Kobiki-chô, some 2.5 km to the south, and rarely appeared in meisho-e.)

Here Masanobu shows us the view from the Sakai-chô end, with the Nakamura-za on the right; the play on the kanban here enables dating of the keikan to early spring (shoshun) Enkyô 2 (1745). Further down on the same side in Fukiya-chô is the Ichimuraza, and on the left are three ayatsuri-ningyô-koya. Some eight years later, Eisen shows the same place but from the opposite direction, with Ichimura-za on the front left, an ayatsuri-za on the right, and Nakamura-za in the distance.
The time is now autumn, at kaomise.
It is intriguing to compare the two views to see what has changed, what has not.

Ten-odd years after Eisen’s print, on 10/7 of Tenpô 12 (1841), the Sakai-chô Fukiya-chô shibai-machi was destroyed by fire, and Mizuno Tadakuni, who had begun the Tenpô no kaikaku just five months before, refused to permit rebuilding on the same site. As a result, a new shibai-machi named Saruwaka-chô was constructed north of Asakusa Kannon, shown here by Hiroshige II in a view showing the three theaters in order of seniority on the west side of the machi: Nakamura, Ichimura, and Morita.
source : www.columbia.edu

and a Japanese link with more photos
Okumura Masanobu 奥村政信


芝居狂言舞台見世大浮絵
source : tisiruinoe

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- quote -
Saruwaka Kyōgen: "The Inner Palace of Chiyoda
An image of Saruwaka Kyōgen performed in the inner palace is illustrated here.
Saruwaka Kyōgen is a type of Nō farce that was a specialty of Nakamura Kanzaburō I and the object carried in the woman's hands pictured in the center of the image is a harlequin/Saruwaka puppet.
The Inner Palace of Chiyoda is a set of illustrations by the hand of Yōshū Chikanobu (Hashimoto Chikanobu) which displays annual events in Edo castle (also known as Chiyoda castle) and the lives of maidservants there. Forty works were issued from the armory in Nihonbashi, Tokyo between 1894 (Meiji 27) and 1896 (Meiji 29).
As it was forbidden to leave written records or speak of the activities that went on inside the inner palace, not much is known about them. Singing, dancing and playing musical instruments was part of compulsory education for samurai daughters and for the festival held in Edo Town on the first day of the horse in February, maidservants such as those rendering services in the next chamber and the third chamber performed dances and farces even in inner palace and the Shogun's wife is said to have viewed this from behind the curtain.
- source : Tokyo Metropolitan Library -

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- quote
Theaters in Sakai-chō and Fukiya-chō 堺町葺屋町戯場
Sakai-chō is a theater district where a playhouse was run from 1651 by the Saruwaka-za Theater (later Nakamura-za Theater), which was founded by the father of Edo kabuki theater, 中村勘三郎 Kanzaburō Nakamura, in 1624.
Fukiya-chō is another theater district where 村山座 Murayama-za Theater (later 市村座 Ichimura-za Theater,)
one of the three kabuki theaters of Edo, relocated from the playhouse built in Sakai-chō in 1634.
However, after this painting was finished, all of these playhouses were moved
to 猿若町 Saruwaka-chō in 1842 as a result of the Tempō Reforms.
- source : Tokyo Metropolitan Library -

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Sakai is a name given to many towns and villages in Japan, which are situated at a border, to another domain or village or region.

Sakai city (堺市, Sakai-shi)
is a city in Osaka Prefecture, Japan.
It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the Medieval era.
Sakai is known for its keyhole-shaped burial mounds, or kofun, which date from the 5th century. The largest of these, Daisen Kofun, is believed to be the grave of the Emperor Nintoku and is the largest grave in the world by area. Once known for samurai swords, Sakai is now famous for the quality of its kitchen knives; most high-quality Japanese cutlery originates in Sakai, and its production is a major industry in the city.

In the Muromachi Period Sakai was one of richest cities in Japan. Sakai is located on the edge of Osaka Bay and at the mouth of the Yamato River, which connected the Yamato Province (now Nara Prefecture) to the sea. Sakai thus helped to connect foreign trade with inland trade.

Sakai was an autonomous city run by merchant citizens. In those days it was said that the richest cities were Umi no Sakai, Riku no Imai (tr. "along the sea, Sakai; inlands, Imai"; The latter is now a part of Kashihara, Nara). The famous Zen Buddhist priest Ikkyu chose to live in Sakai because of its free atmosphere. In the Sengoku Period some Christian priests, including St. Francis Xavier in 1550, visited Sakai and documented its prosperity.

Sen no Rikyū, known as the greatest master of the tea ceremony, was originally a merchant of Sakai. Because of the close relationship between the tea ceremony and Zen Buddhism, and because of the prosperity of its citizens, Sakai was one of the main centers of the tea ceremony in Japan.
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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source : edococo

Edo no Ame 江戸の雨 Rain in Edo
More rain illustrations on this link.


. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .

雨の日や世間の秋を堺町
ame no hi ya seken no aki o Sakai choo

this rainy day -
(I leave behind) the autumn of the every-day-world
entering Sakai town


Matsuo Basho, age 35, in 1678

seken ... has a special notion as a place including the hardships and vicissitudes of every day life.


秋雨がしとしとと降っている。こんな秋の日は淋しいものだが、堺町だけは別で随分賑わっていることだ。
堺町は日本橋にあった色街。秋の淋しさを境で分ける意と、泉州堺の賑わいとをかけた。

source : www2.yamanashi-ken.ac.jp

Even on such a rainy day
This world's autumn has
A border with the pleasure quarter.

Tr. Thomas McAuley


a rainy day
the autumn world
of a border town

Tr. Jane Reichhold

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口切に堺の庭ぞなつかしき 
kuchikiri ni Sakai no niwa zo natsukashiki

opening a new tea jar
in a garden in Sakai -
full of dear memories

Tr. Gabi Greve

Written in 1629 元禄5年初冬

Basho was invited to this ceremony in Edo, but he remembered the splendid tea ceremonies of Sen no Rikyu in Sakai, Osaka.
This hokku is a greeting to his rich host.


Kuchikiri no chaji 口切の茶事 (くちきり) opening the tea jar
kuchikiri, kuchi kiri 口切(くちきり)
kuchikiri chakai 口切茶会(くちきりちゃかい)Kuchikiri tea ceremony
now around November 16
It used to be the 30th day of the 9th lunar month.
Tea leaves picked in early summer are packed inside jars and mature until November. Now the jars are opened (kuchi kiri : open the mouth of the jar).
The leaves are then ground into powder for powdered green matcha.
At this tea ceremony, the tea is prepared using the first fresh powder.
. WKD : Tea Ceremony Saijiki .

. Sen Rikyu, Sen Rikyū 千利休 Tea Master .

MORE - hokku about tea by
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .

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found on the way

Rain in Modern Japan - Photos
source : Lets Japan

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New Kabukiza 2013



The Kabuki-za is back — with big ambitions and aspirations to make the nation’s classical theatrical entertainment more attractive to a 21st-century audience.

The reopened kabuki theater — now reconstructed for the fifth time — in the upscale shopping-entertainment district of Ginza, will roll out a new monthlong program from next Tuesday, three years after it was torn down to be replaced with a more earthquake-resistant structure.

The new building, designed by renowned architect Kengo Kuma, retains the Japanese-style facade of its previous incarnations, the first of which opened at the same site in 1889. Improvements include barrier-free toilets, and less seats at 1,808, but bigger ones that also offer a bit more leg room between the rows. The ticket booths are now located on the second basement floor, which is linked directly to Higashi-Ginza Subway Station and is complete with a souvenir shop and a cafe.
source : Japan Times, March 29, 2013

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. Edo - Nihonbashi 日本橋 .

. The town of Edo, Ooedo, Great Edo, Old Edo, Yedo
江戸 大江戸  Welcome to Edo ! .


. Kabuki Theater ... 歌舞伎 .

. Sukeroku 助六 - Hero of Edo .

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Night View of Saruwakacho

. Utagawa 歌川広重 (Ando) Hiroshige 安藤広重 (1797-1858) .

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Kobikichoo 木挽町 Kobiki cho district


江戸名所図会 Edo Meisho Zue



Located to the Eastern side of Sanjugenborikawa (Sanjukken Canal), from sub-district 1 to 7.
In the beginning of the Edo period, many construction workers using large timber saws 木挽 lived and worked here.


kobiki-noko 木挽鋸(こびきのこ) saw of a Kobiki worker

- quote -
Kobiki Nokogiri and Temagari Nokogiri - Timber Saws
Kobiki-Nokogiri were used in ancient Japan for the rough ripping of logs into boards for carpenters and cabinetmakers. These saws were used by one man, in contrast to Europe, where typically two men used a ripsaw for similar purposes. To properly guide them in very long cuts, the blades of Kobiki-Nokogiri, also known as Maebiki-Nokogiri, were much wider than those of other saws. The saws were roughly made, and at times still showed the smith’s forge marks. Blades were laboriously hand-tapered from teeth to back to prevent jamming.
- source : fine-tools.com/kobiki -


葛飾北斎 Katsushika Hokusai - 木挽 Kobiki cutting wood

In 1642, the 山村座 Yamamuraza Kabuki Theater was constructed in the 6th sub-district and
in 1660, the 森田座 Moritaza (Morita-Za) was constructed in the 5th sub-district.
But the Yamamura-Za was closed in 1714 due to the
絵島事件 "Ejima incident".
At that time there ware more than 16 Chaya tea houses in the district.


Evening Snow at Sanjukken Canal
Sanjugenbori no bosetsu / Kawase Hasui

Ejima-Ikushima affair (江島生島事件 Ejima Ikushima jiken)
the most significant scandal in the Ōoku, the shogun's harem, ...
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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. Japanese Legends - 伝説 民話 昔話 – ABC-List .

- reference : Nichibun Yokai Database -
31 木挽 legends to explore, many related to animals - tba

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- - - - - HAIKU - - - - -

kobiki uta 木挽唄 song of the timber cutters
They are still popular to our day.




松茸や木曽に木曽馬木挽唄
matsutake ya Kiso ni Kiso uma kobiki uta

pine mushrooms -
in Kiso there are Kiso horses
and songs of the timber cutters


鈴木石夫 Suzuki Ishio

The Kiso region was famous for its forests and wood workers.


鮪切る木挽唄など口にせむ
野中亮介

木挽唄芋煮の宴のたけなはに
氏家さち子

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- #sakaiedo #kobikicho #saruwaka #ichimuraza -
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12/07/2006

Mount Aso

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Mount Aso (Aso san 阿蘇山)

***** Location: Kyushu, Japan
***** Season: Non-seasonal Topic
***** Category: Earth


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Explanation

CLICK for more Mount Aso CLICK for more Mount Aso

Mount Aso (阿蘇山, Aso-san) is the largest active volcano in Japan, and is among the largest in the world.
It stands in Kumamoto Prefecture, on the island of Kyūshū. Its peak is 1592 m above sea level. Its caldera is 25 km across north to south and 18 km across east to west. The caldera has a circumference of around 120 km (75 miles), although sources vary on the exact distance.

The eruption which formed the present somma occurred approximately 300,000 years ago.

Four large-scale eruptions (Aso 1 – 4) occurred during a period extending from 300,000 to 90,000 years ago. As large amounts of pyroclastic flow and volcanic ash were emitted from the volcanic chamber, a huge depression (caldera) was formed as the chamber collapsed. The fourth eruption (Aso 4) was the largest, with volcanic ash covering the entire Kyūshū region and even extending to Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Kome Zuka lies in the vast Aso caldera. Mt. Taka, Mt. Naka, Mt. Eboshi, and Mt. Kishima are cones formed following the fourth above-mentioned huge caldera eruption. Mt. Naka remains active today. It is presumed that Mt. Neko is older than the fourth huge caldera eruption.

CLICK for more ASO SAN

© More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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I visited there many years ago. The five peaks of Mount Aso remind us of the sight of Buddha lying down to die (nehan zoo 涅槃像 ).

Here is a photo from the early morning sun !
Click on the photo to see many more beautiful scenes of Aso.

CLICK for original LINK
© ukkai.web

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Aso National Park

The National Park takes in the massifs of the volcano, Mount Aso, and Mount Kuju, together with the Tsurumi, Yufu and Takasakiyama summits to the west of Beppu. The crater region of Mount Aso is bounded on the north by the River Kurokawa and on the south by the Shirakawa, which have their own sources in the park and join at Toshita, on the west side of the volcano.

CLICK for more photos of Aso Shrine
Aso Shrine, Aso Jinja 阿蘇神社

Very different from the rugged beauty of the seething crater and its surrounding lava fields is the green landscape of the Mount Aso Basin, with its gentle rounded summits, its evergreen forests and its little villages. In the northern part of the region, 3/4mi/ 1km north of Miyaji Station, we find the Aso Shrine, dedicated to the divinity Takeiwatatsu-no-Mikoto. Legend has it that the shrine was founded in the year AD 100, making it the oldest in the historic province of Higo. The present buildings (main hall and gate) date from 1842. From early times this was the starting point of the pilgrimage to the Sanjo Shrine on Mount Nakadake.
© www.planetware.com/


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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way



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HAIKU


kigo for late summer




. Aso matsuri 阿蘇祭 (あそまつり) Aso festival  
onda matsuri 御田祭(おんだまつり)Festival of the shrine fields
otaue shinkoo shiki 御田植神幸式(おたうえしんこうしき) rice planting festival
at the shrine 国造神社

. . . CLICK here for Photos !

. Aso matsuri 阿蘇祭 (あそまつり) Aso festival .

at Aso jinja 阿蘇神社 Aso Shrine
March 16

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雲のみね見越見越て阿蘇煙
kumo no mine mikoshi mikoshite aso kemuri

peaks of clouds--
looking down, down...
Mount Aso's smoke


ISSA
(Tr. David Lanoue)



街道続く阿蘇の山

the main road
leading to Mount Aso


Haiga and Renku by Nakamura Sakuo

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Joy full in Japan
Climbing Mount Aso with you
My heart beats faster

© Stephen Wentworth, Hike Japan November 2005

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Related words

****: . Aso Shrine Festivals 阿蘇神社


***** Asama Mountain in Shinano

***** Ashigara Mountain and the Kintaro Legend

***** Fuji, Mount Fuji, Fujiyama, Fujisan

***** Tsukuba Mountain, First view of Mt. Tsukuba (hatsu Tsukuba)


***** Mountain, peak, hill (yama, gake, oka) Japan Worldwide.


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