Kyorai Mukai

April 2014

SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE KEY-NOTE PUBLIC LECTURE

AT WORLD HAIKU FESTIVAL 2010 IN NAGASAKI

SUSUMU TAKIGUCHI

CHAIRMAN, THE WORLD HAIKU CLUB

Kyorai Mukai (1651－1704):

PART TEN

These were the days when Basho was earnestly in search of a new direction in which haikai should develop itself, the centrepiece of which was his new idea of Karumi. However, there emerged from among his disciples those who could not follow him or understand the concept fully. As a result some of them actually objected to Basho and left him. Basho was ahead of time, which was well reflected on his praise of Kyorai’s poem as we have seen. Basho had only six years to go before he died in Osaka during what became his last journey and before his new haikai idea was completed. He must have found that painfully regrettable. Witnessing all this, Kyorai must have made up his mind to preserve and practice the master’s last wishes, especially in the way of taking over and continuing the Shofu (Basho School Way) in the right manner. This explains the exceptional efforts and energy with which Kyorai devoted himself to it, which far exceeded the usual kind of respect for deceased master expected of a disciple.

Thus this particular year, Jokyo 5 – Genroku1 (1688), should have ended as a very happy year for Kyorai. However, it was not to be. Tragedy struck Kyorai. On 15 May, Kyorai’s beloved sister Chine died a sudden death. She was a follower of the Basho School and left a hokku, which sadly became her death poem:

燃え易くまた消えやすき螢かな千子

moe yasuku mata kie yasuki hotaru kana Chine

easy to burn

and easy to go off…

a firefly

This poem reminds one of some of the haiku of the late Suzuki Masajo. As if to correspond to its sorrowful note, Kyorai wrote a farewell poem which is no less moving:

手の上に悲しく消ゆる螢かな去来

te no ue ni kanashiku kiyuru hotaru kana Kyorai

going off

sadly on my palm...

a firefly

Basho was travelling in the province of Mino when the sad news reached him. He promptly sent to Kyorai a letter of condolences with the following mourning poem:

the kosode kimono

of the deceased must be aired

in the summer wind

Kyorai’s sister had accompanied him in his journey to visit the Ise Shrine before going to Edo. How come she died so suddenly? Unfortunately, little is known about its circumstances.

On 20 September of that year (1688) the name change of the era (what is called kaigen) occurred and it became the year of Genroku. About a month later, on the 20 October to be precise, Kikaku came up to Kyoto again and visited Kyorai’s residence and there they undertook a kukai, inviting another friend, Kasho (later, in 4 Genroku, changed the name to Boncho) . They had ginko in Saga-no fields. As the name indicates, this friend originally came from Kaga Province but now lived in Kyoto, running a medical practice. As Kyorai’s brother Gentan was also a doctor working in Kyoto it is assumed that Gentan and Kasho knew each other. Earlier that year Basho was staying in Kyoto and met Kasho for the first time, which was recorded by the master himself in his letter addressed to Kikaku. Kasho and Kyorai met Basho for the first time about the same time. Naturally, these two followers of Basho became rapidly close to each other. The fact that Kasho’s house at Kokawa-sawaragi-cho Agaru was near Kyorai’s house made it possible for them to see each other often and deepen their friendship. Kikaku, too, joined this circle from time to time and towards the end of the year Kyorai and Kikaku are said to have listened to Hachi-tataki in Sagano.

Then came the year, 2 Genroku (1689), which was significant in many different ways. First of all, Kikaku went on a pilgrimage to Kumano in May accompanied by his aunt, Tagami-ni, who came up from Nagasaki where she lived. In summer he decided to combine sending her off all the way to Nagasaki and his own visit there. Nagasaki was his birth place and this journey therefore marked his memorable return to his home town after 31 years of interval, which I mentioned at the beginning of this talk. This means that up to this point I have been describing his life during these years from the time when he left Nagasaki for the first time and the time of his first return there. Now I would like to turn to his life after these 31 years.

In the same year, 2 Genroku (1689), what can boldly and joyfully be claimed to be the most important thing in the history of world haiku happened. This is of course Basho’s Oku-no-Hosomichi Journey (the journey of the narrow road to the north). The travelogue Basho wrote on the basis of this journey has become not only the peak of the haikai history of Japan, head and shoulder above all other excellent haikai works, but also has gained a position among the best in the history of Japanese classical literature, across all the genres, and an international position comparable to the masterpieces of world literature. Indeed, if we turn to the haiku community in the entire world this travelogue has surpassed the stage of poets’ favourite and become something of an object of religious worship and treated like the Bible.

As is well known, Basho set out from Edo at dawn of 27 March 1689 on a journey which was to last for 5 months and cover 600 Ri (about 2,400 kilo-metres). The journey was one of a huge romance which ended on 21 August of the same year when he arrived in Ogaki. After that Basho stayed in Kamigata (Kansai) for about two years without going back to Edo straightaway. While staying in Kamigata, he made a trip to the Ise Shrine in September, after which he went to his hometown, Iga-Ueno. Then he briefly visited Nara and went up to Kyoto on 24 December, visiting Kyorai there. The purpose of the visit was a cultural one in that he wanted to listen to hachi-tataki. Hachi-tataki was a Buddhist ritual whereby from 13 November to 24 December the monks of Gokuraku-bo (or Kuya-do) of Kyo-Shijo visited one cemetery to another, chanting a Buddhist prayer, hitting hisago (dried gourd) and ringing kane (bell). The chant gave the feeling of sorrow, which was said to move and inspire men of fuga (poetic sentiment). According to Haichi-tataki no Ji written by Kyorai it was a stormy night and Hachi-tataki’s arrival was delayed. The same mentions that Kyorai asked his servant to bring a broom and, thinking that Basho must have got tired of waiting, used it to perform a mock act of Hachi-tataki himself to keep his master amused. At dawn an old, decrepit Hachi-tataki arrived and said that he had strayed from his companions and wandered on his own chanting prayers in his coarse voice. One can almost see what was going on and this episode speaks volumes of how quickly Basho and Kyorai were becoming close to each other around this time.

Kyorai composed two ku to commemorate the occasion:

箒（ほうき）こせまねても見せん鉢叩去来

hoki kose manete mo misen hachi-tataki Kyorai

using a broom

let me imitate

a hachi-tataki

そのふるき瓢箪（ひょうたん）見せよ鉢たゝき去来

sono furuki hyotan miseyo hachi-tataki Kyorai

let us see

that old gourd of yours

hachi-tataki

Thus Hachi-tataki was the main attraction for that night. However, it makes one well entertained to imagine that as Basho and Kyorai had to wait for the arrival of Hachi-tataki until dawn they might have killed time by the master relating the story of his journey to the deep North to his disciple. At the same time as Basho got to know Kyorai’s personality better he began to regard this able pupil as someone with whom to discuss haikai theory candidly. Kyorai recorded that Basho explained to him for the first time the concept offueki-ryuko during the winter after he completed the journey to the deep North, which proves the point.

(To be continued)