Futami – matsuo-basho-haiku

Ogaki, Japan
Mid-October, 1689
Parting from friends

One always has to fill in the details.

At Ogaki, there is a 16th century castle. The area surrounding the castle played a pivotal role in Battle of Sekigahara that brought the Tokugawa clan to power. Basho does not mention the castle or the battle. One imagines that he is still recovering from his Journey to the Northern Interior (Oku no Hosomichi), meeting old acquaintances in Osaka, Kyoto, and Nagoya.

By October, he is ready to leave again. This time to the Grand Shrine at Ise. So, I imagine that he is at a lovely restaurant on the Makida River, joined by some friends for one final farewell, sharing sake, some clams, no doubt taken from Futami, a coastal village on the way.

As Autumn ends
We are parting
Like clam shells (of Futami)

蛤のふたみにわかれ行秋ぞ
Matsuo Basho, Autumn 1689

Notes on Translation

Futami, means ‘parting.’ It is also the beach where the Isuzu River enters the Ise Bay. Nearby, are the Wedded Rocks (Meoto Iwa, 夫婦岩), two sacred rocks in the ocean. The artist Utagawa Toyokuni I recreated a scene of Along the Seashore at Futami. In the background, men can be seen gathering clams.

Hamaguri clams are considered a symbol of friendship and harmony because the shells symbolize a joined pair. Perhaps, the unexpressed thought is the difficulty of separating the shells, and the pain in parting.

hamaguri (clams) no (of) futami (breaking up, forked place in a river, also a place name — Futami, Mie Prefecture, a town Basho would travel to on his way to the Grand Shrine of Mie) ni wakare (farewell) yuku (leave, go, but don’t come back) aki zo (wow, it’s autumn, or autumn’s over)

Autumn Ends

October is a good time to revisit Basho’s haiku on Autumn ending. The leaves are falling. The heat has finally broken. A cold wind is blowing.

Picking Clams, Utagawa Toyokuni I, ca. 1791, **The Met Collection**

Meoto Iwa Married Couple Rocks — Meoto Iwa, Married Couple Rocks

As firmly cemented clam shells
Fall apart in Autumn
So too, I take to the road again

Farewell my friends

蛤の
ふたみにわかれ
行秋ぞ

hamaguri no / futami ni wakare / yuku aki zo

September haiku

It is September 1689. The leaves begin to change colors. Though it may still be hot, the weather can be unpredictable. The typhoons that come in August may still appear.

Matsuo Basho has made his way from Tsuruga, north of Lake Biwa, and proceeded on horseback to the relaxing city of Ogaki in Mino Province. This was coincidentally (or not) near the site of the Battle of Sekigahara, which brought relative peace to Japan and the beginning of the Tokugawa period. In Ogaki, Sora (Basho’s companion on much of The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Oku no Hosomichi, 奥の細道) and another friend Etsujin join Basho at the house of Joko. Other friends, including Zensen and Keiko and his sons, came to see Basho, as if he had returned from the dead.

Closure

It is only fitting that Matsuo Bashō end his journey in Mie Prefecture, the province of his birth near the city of Ueno, and the location of Iga Ueno Castle where he had served as a young boy and man.

On September the 6th, though fatigued from his long journey, Basho went to see the dedication of a Shinto Shrine. Stepping into a boat, Basho makes the journey down the Suimon River to the eastern coast. If he stopped along the way to visit his birthplace or the Iga Ueno Castle, that fact was not recorded. His destination, the Okitama Shrine in Futami (or the more famous Grand Ise Shrine, I am not sure which). There Basho watched the waves crashing against the well-known Meoto Iwa (夫婦岩, Married Couple Rocks) that separate at high tide.

Observing the water come and go, Basho looks to find closure to his journey. So, he included this final haiku in his book The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Literally

A literal translation is:

Hamaguri clams of Futami break apart in Autumn.

Or,

Hamaguri clams of Futami part in Autumn.

Futami is a pun on the words body and lid, two bodies, thus the stretch by translators to “Clams firmly cemented”. The second line is also a pun on the idea of parting for Futami and breaking apart. Futami suggests another image, that of Married Couples Rock. Married couples, whose love blossoms in spring and heats up in summer, now by autumn, find their love has cooled and faded.

There is a final coincidental reference – the Hamaguri clam’s hard shell is used to make stones in the Chinese game of Go.