Category: Stations

Soup and Salad

On the Road Again

Its a lovely Spring day for a walk. And one can walk the coastal Tokaido Road (東海道), some 320 miles, between Tokyo (Edo) and Kyoto in about a week, stopping at one of the 53 post stations for a break. Mariko post station is almost halfway. A good place for soup and salad and plum blossoms viewing.


Plum blossoms,
Fresh greens and grated yam soup
At Mariko station

Plum like taros
at Mariko station
(you must try)
Tororo-Jiru

梅若菜丸子の宿のとろろ汁
Ume waka na Mariko no shuku no tororo jiru

Matsuo Basho, Tokaido Road, Spring 1691

The small round tender taro in the delicious Tororo-Jiru soup looked like plums to the tired Matsuo Basho. Tororo jiru soup (とろろ汁) is a specialty of the Chojiya teahouse (established 1596, still serving Tororo jiru soup) located in Mariko-juku, the 20th station on the Tokaido Road. Utagawa Hiroshige drew this clove shop in the ukiyo-e of Mariko-juku.

Recipe found on the internet:

  1. Grate (each long slender) yam and cut the taros (root vegetables) into small round balls.
    Cut the aburaage (tofu) to 1-cm width and finely chop the naganegi (scallions).
  2. Bring the dashi stock (soup broth) to a boil, add the taros.
    When the taros become tender, add the aburaage and boil for a moment.
  3. Lower the heat and dissolve the miso (paste made from soybeans).
    Place the miso soup in bowls and pour grated yam on top.
    Serve the miso soup with sprinkled naganegi.
    Enjoy!
    (Source of recipe)

Translation Note. Ume (plum blossom) wa kana (young or fresh greens); Mariko (a station post on the Tokaido Road); no shuku (station, post town); no Tororo jiru (a sticky soup with grated mountain yam on top; jiru a homophone for shiru soup.)

Ume wa kana (梅若菜) — The first three characters are Chinese. Taken together they present several meanings. One, Basho is suggesting that the round balls of taro look like plums. Second, wakana, meaning young or fresh greens added to the soup, eaten under a plum tree in blossom. See Hiroshige’s image below. Third, wakana is the name for the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth chapters of The Tale of Genji. Fouth, wakana can refer to a courteous young woman serving the soup.

Chojiya teahouse at Mariko, on the Tokaido Road, artist Utagawa Hiroshige, Minneapolis Art Institute

Echigo 越後

July, 7, 1689

Departing Sakata, on Japan’s northwestern coast, clouds gathered along the Hokuriku Road. My heart was heavy when I heard it was a 130 li (Japanese miles, two and one half miles to the li, making it a distance of 325 US miles) to the capital of Kaga province.

Traveling south along the coast, I arrived at Echigo province (north-central coast) through the barrier-gate of Nezu, and then on to Etchu province through the barrier-gate of Ichiburi. During the nine days of this journey, I wrote little, what with the heat and humidity. My old complaint bothering me immeasurably.

Fuzuki (July) the 6th is not an ordinary night
Tomorrow —
The Weaver meets her lover

文月や六日も常の夜には似ず
fumizuki ya muika mo tsune no yo ni wa nizu

The stormy sea and Sado Island
Swelling before
The Heavenly River

荒海や佐渡によこたふ天河
araumi ya sado ni yokotau amanogawa

Oku no Hosomichi, Matsuo Basho, July 1689

Note. Tanabata, the Star Festival, on the seventh night of the seventh lunar month, based upon an older Chinese celebration. In the Japanese version, the two stars Altair and Vega, representing a cowherd and a weaver girl, though separated by the vast distance of the Milky Way, are allowed to meet once a year. From Ichiburi, Basho was looking out across the Sea of Japan to distant Sado Island. The rough waves and the reflection of the Milky Way (天河, Chinese for Tianhe, Heavenly River) making a path for the two lovers to return to earth for one night.

Basho’s notes.

酒田の余波日を重て、北陸道の雲に望、遥々のおもひ胸をいたましめて加賀の府まで百卅里と聞。鼠の関をこゆれば、越後の地に歩行を改て、越中の国一ぶりの関に到る。此間九日、暑湿の労に神をなやまし、病おこりて事をしるさず。

 

Hiroshige’s Echigo, Famous Places of Japan’s Provinces, 1853, source Wikipedia