page 3
In the Footsteps of
Bashō: small group travel in Japan
with a focus on Japanese Literature
by Beverley George
| Introduction | page 2 | page 3 |page 4
In the
Footsteps of Bashō – the first journey
(continued)
At the Yamadera Bashō Memorial
Museum, we were welcomed by Professors Oba and
Aihara who specialise in the poet’s work. The
collection is modestly-sized but expertly
presented to give an intimate glimpse of the
great poet’s life and writings. A guided tour in
Japanese, ably translated by our guide, provided
added insight and immediacy, making it possibly
the most memorable for me of any gallery tours I
have experienced.
Australian travellers on the steps of
the Yamadera Bashō Memorial Museum
with Professor Aihara (left) and Professor
Oba.
Since this visit, many overseas poets, including
Australians, have entered work in the annual
Yamadera Bashō Memorial Museum English Haiku
Contest. In fact in the 7th Collection more
Australians entered work in the Division 4,
non-Japanese, section than did writers from any of
the other twenty-three countries represented.
Details of the 8th Contest are currently on the
Australian Haiku Society web-site.
Memorable for all of us, was a visit to a border
guardhouse, Ho-jin no Ie, where Bashō lodged three
days. Smoke was rising through the thatch as we
approached. This is a place, the curator told us,
seldom visited especially by foreigners. There was
a square fire-place sunk into the floor, over
which a blackened kettle was suspended. We sat
around it as had Bashō over 300 years before and
listened to a translated account of his stay there
in the poets’ own words. It is difficult to convey
the feelings of awe and privilege this bestowed
upon us all.
Travellers at Bashō’s fire at the border
guard’s cottage Ho-jin no Ie
Postscript: A tragic postscript to this wonderful
journey was the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear
disaster which devastated the Tohoku Region we had
recently visited as part of our tour. Our concern
and sympathy continues to be extended to the
victims and their families. Members of the
Japan-Australia Society in Canberra host a visit
each year of children affected by the disaster.
Seeking
Bashō, Shiki and Soseki – the second journey
In April 2012, on a tour with the focus on Matsuo
Bashō, Masaoki Shiki and Natsume Soseki a second
group of travellers visited Arashiyama and the
bamboo forest where at Nonomiya Shrine episodes of
The Tale of Genji are set. We were
fortunate to have the expert guidance of Stephen
Gill (Tito) in a haiku meeting at Rakushisha, The
House of the Fallen Persimmons, where Basho was
hosted by Kyorai and wrote his Saga Diary.
And after a guided stroll through the bamboo
forest, including a visit to Saigyo’s well, we had
the pleasure of mingling, and dining, with the
Hailstone Poets. (On this and a subsequent tour
Australian travellers were joined by New Zealand
poet and Kokako joint-editor, Margaret
Beverland.)
Discussion at Rakushisha led
by Stephen Gill (head of table)
Another highlight was a visit with the SGG
(Systemised Goodwill Guide) group of bilingual
haiku poets, as organised by retired school
principal, Mr Shigeo Tomita, and hosted in a
private home and garden. The meeting was attended
by a city council official and a formal tea
ceremony was included. It was an opportunity to
rekindle old friendships or forge ongoing new
ones.
The SGG haiku meeting at Imabari
In Matsuyama, a castle city, we visited the Shiki
kinen (Memorial Museum to Masaoka Shiki).
matsuyama ya aki
yori takaki tenshukaku
|
Matsuyama –
higher than the autumn sky
the castle tower
– Masaoka Shiki
|
The Shiki-kinen was the venue the 3rd Haiku
Pacific Rim Conference 2007 convened by Minako
Noma, and I was delighted to present a paper on
‘Haiku in Australia’ there. When Minako Noma
attended the four day 4th Haiku Pacific Rim
Conference 2009, which I convened at Terrigal,
NSW, the Matsuyama Municipal Shiki-Kinen Museum
generously donated a copy of a book they had
published, If someone
asks . . .Masaoka Shiki’s Life and Haiku2
to each of the fifty-seven full-time delegates.
ka ni kuware seitōron
o sōshikeri
|
bitten by mosquitos
I have written a draft
analysing political parties
–Masaoka Shiki
|
We visited Shiki’s home, and it was a touching
sight to see his low wooden desk beside which the
great poet lay down to write and paint in the
final stages of his life. Also touching was the
sight of his small baseball cap in one corner of a
glass case in the museum and to remember that it
was Shiki who brought baseball to Japan.
Taneda Santōka’s final home was in Matsuyama,
where aspects of the itinerant poet’s sad life are
on display. When he was only eleven years old, his
mother threw herself in the family well,
heartbroken by his father’s philandering.
Natsume Soseki, the author of Botchan
lived for a considerable time in Matsuyama. A
plaque on the Dogo Patio, the four hundred year
old onsen; an intriguing clock, and a
train are all reminders of this.
A pavilion in Dogo Park, houses a representation
of the renga parties enjoyed by Japanese poets
over centuries.
a servant
prepares sake
|
the poets
ponder their next link
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Another of the highlights of visiting Matsuyama is
to see the haiku posting boxes which are dotted
around the city, even at the castle or on the
trams. Write a haiku! Pop it in!
|