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:

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).
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.
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

Wishing and Hoping

Spring 1668

In Kyoto and elsewhere in Japan, it is Spring again. The daffodils are in full bloom, waving at a poet trying to capture the moment in words. It is 1668, two years since the death of Todo Yoshitada, young Matsuo’s samurai master. Matsuo is not yet Basho. He is still Matsuo Kinsaku, age 24, living in Kyoto, wishing and hoping.

Spring
flowers laughing in the wind
wishing and hoping

春風に吹き出し笑ふ花もがな
haru kaze ni fukidashi warau hana mogana
Matsuo Kinsaku (Basho) Spring, 1668

Mogana

Mogana — “wouldn’t it be nice if, if only, here’s hoping, wishing, wishing and hoping” are some of the meanings of mogana — the poet’s hope or desire for a beautiful spring.

Since Burt Bacharach died this year at the age of 93, I think it appropriate to mention his song, Wishin’ and Hopin’, first released in 1962. There are at least two great renditions, in 1962 by Dionne Warwick, the other by Dusty Springfield in 1964. Interestingly, Dusty’s Italian recording became “Stupido, Stupido.” It seems”desiderare e sperare” didn’t resonate well with the amorous Italians.

Wishin’ and hopin’
— to find love, hold him
then kisses will start
RIP, Burt Bacharach, 1928-2023

Meanwhile

Meanwhile in the world, King Charles II was back on the throne in England. France’s King Louis XIV and Spain’s King Charles II were fighting over the Netherlands. Japan was at peace under the rule of Tokugawa Ietsuna.

Notes on Translation

haru kaze ni (in a Spring wind or breeze) fukidashi warau (blowing and laughing) hana (flowers) mogana (indicates hope or desire, i.e. Basho wishes the flowers were laughing in the wind).

Haru kaze 春風 — A Spring breeze is associated with many things including happiness and joy, a smiling face.

Fuki 吹き, blowing or boasting; dashi 出しbroth. I inagine flowers waving in the breeze to and fro like a bubbling broth.

The Season is Winter

rider on horseback in the snow, hiroshige

Toki Wa Fuyu

” 時は冬.” Toki wa fuyu, the season is winter. How cold is it? On cold winter days, it is not just me, even my shadow is frozen.

冬の日や馬上に氷る影法師

fuyu no hi ya bajō ni kōru kagebōshi

these cold winter days
on horseback
— my shadow is frozen
Matsuo Basho, Oi no kobumi, Winter 1687

On the Tokaido

From Oi no kobumi, on the Tokaido, en route to Cape Irago, riding on a particularly long stretch between snow covered fields and the bitterly cold sea. Things on Basho’s mind include things from the past — Saigyo’s waka, Sogi’s renga, Sesshu’s landscape painting, and Rikyu’s Way of the Tea; those and the bitter cold.

One of the reasons for reading Basho’s haiku is that they give us “an alternative possibility of being.” (Jane Hirshfield, Seeing Through Words: Matsuo Bashō, interpreting Oi no kobumi)

Notes on Translation

Tokaido – the eastern coastal sea route from Edo to Kyoto. The 19th century artist Utagawa Hiroshige painted the 53 stations of the Tokaido.

Fuyu no hi – winter day, on cold winter days, fuyu no hi ya, where ya is added for emphasis.

Koru – frozen; Kageboshi – shadow

Hiroshige, Man on horseback in snow (original image Wikipedia)

Nobody Going My Way

Where Matsuo Basho walks that lonesome road for the very last time.

この道や行く人なしに秋の暮
kono michi ya / yuku hito nashi ni / aki no kure

This road!
No one is going my Way
This autumn evening
Matsuo Basho, Autumn 1694

Thoughts

Basho’s title for this poem is Shoshi, Thought. And one can expand on this thought. Was Basho going a different direction? Was he at the end of his road, so to speak?

The concept of man as a solitary individual in this world is a familiar one in literature and religion. Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), a Christian allegory by John Bunyan is a Western example. So to is the old spiritual You Got to Walk that Lonesome Valley.

Basho left little cottage in Edo’s Fukagawa District for the very last time in the summer of 1694. He died on November 28, 1694.

Notes on Translation

Kono, this; michi, road or way. The Way (道, Tao or Dao) referring to Laozi’s Tao de Ching. Ya, for emphasis.

Yuku, to go; hito, a man; yuku-hito, a man who is going. Nashi ni, no one.

Aki no kure, Autumn evening, a frequent topic for Basho.

Becoming and Speaking

Matsuo Basho’s thoughts on writing poetry were simple:

松の事は松に習へ、竹の事は竹に習へ
Matsu no koto wa matsu ni narae, take no koto wa take ni narae

a pine trees as a thing, be a pine tree,
for bamboo as a thing,
be bamboo

At the same time, Basho warned his students:

我に似るなふたつに割れし真桑瓜
ware ni niru na futatsu ni ware shi makuwauri

Don’t mirror me
like two halves
of a melon.

Basho’s student, Doho, gave us this Tao-like thought:

造花にしたがい、造花にかへれとなり
zoka ni shitagai, zoka ni kaere to nari!

to make a flower, submit and obey,
to make a flower
go back and become!
from Doho’s “San-Zoshi,” explaining Basho’s poetical teachings

Speaking

This fits in nicely with advice I was once given on public speaking

When talking to an audience
Pause, then
Speak from the heart

This did not always work. For fear always lurks nearby. In case of panic, the advice is “curl your toes” this distracts and unfreezes your mind. It works.

Becoming Basho was a long process. He was for a long time, Tosei, an unripe peach. A move to Edo, a trip across the Sumida River to Fukagawa, a simple cottage, cold nights, loneliness, a gift of a banana plant, in time, a basho tree weathering the storms.

Notes on Translation

Matsu, a pine tree. There is a well known haiku, that goes Matsushima, Matsushima, Matsushima, Ah! This was, supposedly, Matsuo Basho’s exclamation on arriving at Matsushima, considered to be one of Japan’s most beautiful spots. (Basho visited here on the Oku no Hosomichi, the Journey to the Northern Interior.)

koto, thing.

zoka 造花, make a flower; shitagai, submit, obey.

kaere, go back, return; nari, to be, become: go back and become

ware, me; niru, resemble, look like, mirror

futatsu, two

makuwauri, oriental melon

Hackberries

hackberries falling,
fluttering wings of grey starlings,
a brisk morning wind

榎の実散る椋の羽音や朝嵐

e no mi chiru
muku no haoto ya
asa arashi
Matsuo Basho, date unknown

While hackberries don’t make much of a splash, starlings can create a stunning spectacle, first with their loud morning chattering and then when they all rise at once.

Notes on Translation

e, enoki 榎, the (Asian) hackberry tree; chiru 散る, fall, scatter

muku 椋, grey starling; haoto 羽音, the sound of wings, fluttering wings

asa arashi 朝嵐, literally morning storm, referring in this case to a windstorm

Yummy

The hackberry tree is a native Kansas species, a tough cookie that can survive prairie fires, It has small tough berries that are a source of food for birds. Several websites including earththplanet.org say “All “hackberry berries are edible and highly nutritious.” The taste, to me, is bland, and better left for the birds. Pioneers in Kansas ate them in a pinch. And hackberries were found in the tomb of Peking Man, dated to be 500,000 years old!

This haiku is like a hackberry, without much meat, unless I am missing something.

Stone Mountain

Ishiyama

At the conclusion of his trip into Japan’s northern interior (Oku no hosomichi), Matsuo Basho rested for awhile in Ōtsu, on Lake Biwa. Places to visit include Ishiyama (Stone Mountain) whose temple, Ishiyamadera, is built on a massive formation of white stone called wollasonite. (Basho is buried in nearby Gichu-ji temple, also in Ōtsu.)

石山の石より白し秋の風
ishiyama no ishi yori shiroshi aki no kaze

whiter than stone of
Ishiyama
— autumn wind
Matsuo Basho, Oku no hosomichi, Autumn 1689

Shiroshi, white. In Buddhism, the transience of human life was so associated with the dew carried by the autumn wind in the early morning is called white dew — Shiratsuyu. White is also associated with purity. Ishiyamadera, the temple, is where Murasaki Shikibu began writing The Tale of Genji on the night of the full moon, August 1004.

The following year, Basho returned and lived within the grounds of Chikatsuo Shrine (adjacent to Ishiyama) in what he called Genju-an (the Unreal Dwelling). Thinking of his own mortality and because hail (arare 霰) is white, he composed this haiku.

石山の石にたばしる霰かな
Ishiyama no / ishi ni tabashiru / arare kana

showering stones
on Ishiyama
— hailstones
Matsuo Basho, Winter 1690

Matsuo Basho had four more summers and three winters to live.

Lightning

1688 – Genroku

England was experiencing its Glorious Revolution. Europe was beginning its Age of Enlightenment. Japan was at peace. It was the era of Genroku 元禄. The reigning emperor was Emperor Higashiyama (東山天皇), but true power lay in the hands of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (徳川綱吉), the fifth shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty.

Basho’s study of Buddhism inspired the following haiku. Lightning (稲妻 inazuma) being both enlightening and ephemeral.

稲妻を手にとる闇の紙燭哉
inazuma o / te ni toru yami no / shisoku kana

lightning —
a paper candle
in the darkness
Matsuo Basho, Summer 1687

Note. Paper candle, an ancient means of lighting, a torch.

By the mid-1680s, Basho’s fame was established. He had left Edo for Fukagama where he lived in a simple cottage. There he taught his students and received guests. A disciple gave him a banana plant (basho) as a housewarming gift. And it was this tree that grew beside his cottage that became the symbol of the poet — fragile and, one might say, useless.

あの雲は稲妻を待つたよりかな
ano kumo wa / inazuma o matsu / tayori kana

that cloud —
lightning is waiting
to visit
Matsuo Basho, Summer 1688

In late spring and summer of 1689, Matsuo Basho journeyed to Japan’s northern interior, following a route that took him along the eastern coast, crossing to the west coast, then traveling west and south to Osaka, returning to Edo and the Basho-an in late fall to work on what was to become his best known work (Oku no Hosomichi).

稲妻にさとらぬ人の貴さよ
inazuma ni / satora nu hito no / tattosa yo

lightning —
to one who understands
life is precious!
Matsuo Basho, Winter 1690

Note. Tattosa 貴さ, noble and precious. Yo よ, adding emphasis.

In the summer of 1694, Matsuo Basho was 50 years old. He left Edo for the last time, spending time in Ueno, his birthplace, and then Kyoto, where he spent time as a student, before going to nearby Otsu by Lake Biwa.

稲妻や顔のところが薄の穂
inazuma ya / kao no tokoro ga / susuki no ho

lightning —
in place of faces
pampas grass
1694 — summer
Matsuo Basho, Summer 1694

Note. Miscanthus (susuki, commonly called pampas grass) — ever changing, from fresh green shoots in early spring to the long lasting shimmering seed-heads of autumn, a reminder of the fleeting nature of the seasons.

稲妻や闇も方行く五位の声
inazuma ya / yami no kata yuku / goi no koe

lightning
deep in the darkness
the sound of a heron
Matsuo Basho, Summer 1694

Note. The heron (crane) is a divine bird traveling between heaven and earth.

**inazuma ni satoranu hito no tattosa yo**, 稲妻にさとらぬ人の貴さよ

For Those Who Can’t Get Enough

Inazuma — etymology. 稲 ina, meaning “rice plant”, plus‎ 妻 tsuma, meaning “spouse”. Deriving from an ancient belief that lightning mated with (fertilized) rice plants.

Compare Basho’s haiku with the Diamond Sutra (a Sanskrit text translated into Chinese during the Tang dynasty):

So you should view this fleeting world:
As a drop of dew or a floating bubble in a river,
As lightning flashing in a summer cloud,
As a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream.
Diamond Sutra, Chapter 32

Practice

morning after morning
you must practice to proceed
— a cricket

朝な朝な手習ひすすむきりぎりす

asa na asa na / tenarai susumu / kirigirisu
Matsuo Basho, before 1680

Practice, practice, practice

The subject of this haiku, the almost insignificant cricket (kirigirisu, きりぎりす), and its need to practice to move on, suggests that it was written before 1680. Before 1680, Matsuo was an up and coming haiku poet with some disciples and still known as Tosei, the unripe peach, and not as Matsuo Basho. He acquired this name only after much practice and leaving central Edo for the Fukagawa District and his simple cottage with the banana tree.

Asa na asa na, morning after morning just keep at it. Eventually, it will come. But probably not for the short lived cricket.

For those who like conjecture, Buddhism suggests that Enlightenment must be earned, thus for the cricket to advance beyond being a lowly cricket it must practice (tenarai). Tenarai may refer to one of the chapters of the Tale of the Genji, a story of a commoner wanting to rise. Susumu meaning “to proceed” or “advance.” In the Tale of the Genji, the hero leaves the Imperial Court and goes to seek the advice of a recluse, which may have inspired Basho’s move from Edo to Fukagawa.

There is a similar thought expressed in the Latin phrase, Ars longa, vita brevis, or”skill takes time, life is short.” There is also the old joke that the tourist asks in New York — “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.”

**tenarai susumu**, 手習ひすすむ, practice to proceed

Morning Glories

Here we have the 39-year-old Matsuo Basho, living now in Fukagawa, in the 2nd year of Tenwa, 1682, with itchy feet who begins to wander away from Edo, the capital.

I am a fellow
who eats breakfast
gazing at morning glories

朝顔に / 我は飯食ふ / 男かな
asagao ni / ware wa meshi kû / otoko kana
Matsuo Basho, Summer, 1682

A Literary Wanderer

Asagao (朝顔, Morning Glory) is one of the fifty-four chapters of The Tale of Genji (a 12th century tale Basho was familiar with). In this tale, Gengi wants her, but Asagao, an imperial princess, shuts herself up in her residence, much like Basho distancing himself from Edo and his students for his simple cottage in Fukagawa.

So was Basho now a wandering Genji, love struck, gazing at some distant asagao?

The American poet, Walt Whitman possessed a similar sentiment when it came to knowing what he was seeing:

“A morning glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.”

Metaphysics dealing with the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, of knowing.