Spring 1688

March 21, 2025
In the Flint Hills of Kansas

In 1688 Matuso Basho left Edo to travel to Ueno to celebrate the Lunar New Year. On the way, on January 13, in 5th year of the Jokyo era, 1688, Basho composed this haiku, wondering, I suppose, when Spring would truly come.

Spring, has it arrived,
It is only the ninth day
In the mountains and countryside, one wonders
春たちて　まだ九日の　野山哉
Haru-tachite mada kokonoka no noyama Kana
— Matsuo Basho, Spring? 1688

I just checked.
In Tokyo today and tomorrow,
It is a sunny 72.

Meanwhile in Kansas

Here in the Flint Hills of Kansas, it is March 21st, the official first day of Spring. When one walks in the woods, one sees the first hint of green. The daffodils bloom. Magically, the other day leaves began to appear on the trees and plants began to sprout. Still, the cold and warn winds continued to battle, but we know who is going to win this battle.

As for practical gardener,
have patience,
follow the Dao …

Speaking of wind whose cold gusts blow night and day …

Oh the wicked wind that blows,
Like a boxer’s swift fists,
Battering my head
— Bashō no yōna

I had hoped to go to Teter Rock,
to see the wild mustangs,
oh, the wind held me back.

politics

Bashō no yōna violates Basho’s rule, which is to never speak of politics. A conversation full of sound and fury, where nothing really changes.

In poetry
there is no place
for politics

In Japan
the LDP is slipping
but not yet fallen

In America
Trump says
America is back

Where am I going
With this?
Nowhere

How Dao!

What can one say about politics? People have their minds made up and so they rarely listen. Why we can’t get along is an enduring question that has no answer. How Dao.

Matsuo Basho spoke not of politics. The closest he comes is in the following haiku where he implies that both the Tokugawa Shogun and the Dutch Capitain must pay homage to the spirits on sacred Mt. Tsukuba. Mount Tsukuba was the home of the Shinto gods It is located northeast of Tokyo, Edo which, in Basho’s day, was the seat of political power.

In the following haiku we have a play on words. “Kabitan” or “Kapitan” refers to the captain of the Dutch ships that arrive at trading post on Dejima Island in Nagasaki. In Basho’s time, each year on the first day of March, the Dutch captain “crawled” or made his way in a long procession beating gifts to the Shogun at his castle in Edo near Mt. Tsukuba. Tsukubaru (つくばる) is also an old poetic form meaning to crawl. To “obsequiously come” if one wants to pontificate. Submissive is clearer. Ah, but the shogun too makes his homage to Mt. Tsukuba.

Basho was 35 when this was written. He too had come to Edo a few years earlier, seeking fame if not fortune.

the Dutch Captain,
must come to Mt. Tsukuba
each Spring

the Dutch Captain
comes crawling (to the Shogun)
in Spring

甲比丹も. つくばはせけり . 君が春
kapitan mo . tsukuba wa sekeri . kimi ga haru

— Tosei (Matsuo Basho), Spring 1678

the Dutch captain also	甲比丹も.	kabitan mo
to Mt. Tsukuba must come	もつくばはせけり	Tsukuba wa sekeri
each Spring	君が春	kimi ga haru

Pi Day

endless numbers flow,
a circle’s secret message,
Pi enough for all
— Bashō no yōna, Pi Day

Pi (π) is a mathematical representation, approximately 3.14159, of the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. The sequence of digits do not repeat in any predictable pattern. Thus, Pi is an irrational number, meaning the numbers go on and on to the end of time without ending.

How Dao!

3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510
5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 …

Interesting facts:

The frequency of numbers will average out the more decimals that appear. Numbers will occasionally repeat consecutively, numbers will appear consecutively. Since the sequence is infinite, every possible combination will appear. Thus, one will see a Fibonacci sequence (“12321” at position 3,632) or a palindrome (“2002” at position 12,563). See the monkey paradox.

Basho was no mathematician. Basho did not focus on numbers. But Basho’s fame comes from his mastery of the haiku. The form is characterized by its 5-7-5 syllable structure.

Basho on numbers. This was written in 1678, the 5th year of the Enpo era, when Basho was 33 or 34 years old. Basho had not yet taken on the name Basho. Rather, his pen name was Tosei meaning “unripe peach.” To support himself he was working for the waterworks department in Edo. His haiku appeared in a work called 江戸吟三 Edo Sangin, literally meaning Three Hundred Verses from Edo. It is a collection of 300 verses edited by 信徳 (Shintoku) including haiku by Tosei (Basho) and Shinsho (Sodo). It was written in Edo and published in Kyoto.

Kadomatsu —
The New Year’s pine —
To think,
One night feels like thirty years.

門松やおもへは一夜三十年
kadomatsu ya omoeba hitoyo sanjuunen
— Tosei (Matsuo Basho) New Years, 1678

Note. Kadomatsu (門松), literally gate (門) and pine tree (松). It is a New Year’s decoration made of pine, bamboo, and occasionally flowering plum branches. It is placed at the entrance (gate) of the home to welcome the toshigami (年神), the New Year deity, who brings good fortune. What’s in a name? Notice Basho’s family name was Matsuo 松尾.

omoeba (おもへは), I think, to think, in my thoughts. I like to think Basho’s thoughts had something to do with René Descartes (1596 – 1650) or maybe Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662) and his Pensées, but that is highly unlikely.

What was Basho thinking?

“The past is prologue,” as Shakespeare said. And what’s to come, one might ask. Basho would literally write the future.

Will this be the year
this unripe peach ripens
in the sun of summer?
Bashō no yōna, 2025

Morning Coffee

Tea or coffee. For Matsuo Basho, the morning drink was tea. For me it’s coffee.

Brown beans in a bag,
Ground down very fine,
Each drip divine

The smell, the steam,
The sip as I first lift the cup,
A religious rite
— Bashō no yōna, 2025

It is tea time.

Matsuo Basho on drinking tea, or should we say “cha.” This haiku was written in 1691 at Shozui-ji Temple in Katata on Lake Biwa. The eccentric poet and Buddhist monk Ikkyu Sojun (1394–1481) trained here. Nearby deep green fields of tea blanket the fields.

朝茶飲む僧静かなり菊の花
Asa cha nomu sō shizukanari kiku no hana

While I drink my morning tea,
The silent monk is serene,
As a chrysanthemum in bloom.
Matsuo Basho, 1691, age 44

A bonus Spring haiku. One written by Issa, first published in 1794.

茶の煙柳と共にそよぐ也
cha no kemuri yanagi to tomo ni soyogu nari

the steam of tea,
the willow tree together sway
as one

To Wait

They keep wheeling people by

But not you

So I wait

Finally, to hear a name

And then to loudly shout

That’s me!

What Matsuo Basho might have thought or said had he had to sit in a hospital waiting room.

No Bells

The End of March, 2nd year of Genroku, 1689
Kanuma City, Tochigi Prefecture,
Oku no Hosomichi

鐘撞かぬ.里は何をか.春の暮
kane tsukanu . sato wa nani o ka . haru no kure
When no bell rings
What do the villagers do,
— Spring Nightfall
Matsuo Basho, Oku no Hosomichi, late Spring 1689

What do you do when no bell rings to tell you its sunset?

After leaving Edo, this was Matsuo Basho’s fifth or sixth stop on his five month long journey, Oku no Hosomichi. Bell ringing at dusk is symbolic in the Buddhist religion. The ringing of the bells (or bell,m depending on the wealth of a village and its temple) is to purify the heart of its 108 earthly desires. Each stop, each village bell, on Basho’s journey, one supposes was shedding one earthly desire. At the very least, the bell told the farmers it was time for rest and relaxation.

Basho had not yet gotten to Nikko. Desiring to see Urami Falls, he took a detour. Indeed, he would take many detours along the way.