Kyorai the full text

WHR January 2016

We have been publishing in 13 instalments in World Haiku Review the English translation of the public lecture on Kyorai Mukai (1651-1704), one of the most important disciples of Basho, given by Susumu Takiguchi, Chairman of the World Haiku Club on the occasion of World Haiku Festival in Nagasaki in 2010. In this issue of WHR, we are pleased to present its entire text.

Special Commemorative Key-note Public Lecture

By

Susumu Takiguchi

Chairman, the World Haiku Club

Kyorai Mukai (1651－1704)

(The lecture was given at the World Haiku Festival

in Nagasaki held in April 2010)

* * * * * * *

Nagasaki no nagaki mo towan kumo-gasumi

wishing to know

how long the spring mist extends

over Nagasaki

This poem is said to be one which Kyorai wrote wistfully longing to return to his hometown, Nagasaki. This actually came true in Genroku 2 (1689).

When he was only 8 years old, his father, Gensho, took the whole family from Nagasaki to live in Kyoto. It was in Manji 1 (1658). This means that Kyorai was away from his birth place for 31 long years. He was already 38 years old.

He arrived there in summer which quickly turned autumn when he had to leave back for Kyoto already. He left behind a poem which since has become one of his most celebrated haiku:

kimi ga te mo majiru naru beshi hana-susuki

your waving hand

must be mingled among

the pampas grass

His family and friends did not want him to go and came as far as the hill called Himi, the boundary, to see him off, where there were pampas grass waving in the autumn wind as they said the final goodbye to the departing traveller. This haiku was published in the famous Sarumino(The Monkey’s Straw Raincoat) and the kotoba-gaki (a kind of note) says “Departing Ushichi at the Himi Hill when coming back from Chikushi (the Province of Nagasaki)”. Ushichi was a relative of his, said to be either his nephew or cousin or cousin-in-law, and was very close to Kyorai in that he discussed haikai with Kyorai a lot and had tutorial from him.

The Himi Hill is now part of the administrative district of the City of Nagasaki and called Susuki-zuka-cho. There is a stone monument there which was erected in Tenmei 4 (1784), bearing this haiku. To reach there you follow the old Nagasaki Gaido and climb up to the Himi-toge which will lead to Yagami-mura and Susuki-zuka can be found there. It is very picturesque and it commands a fine view of the Mount Unzen. In the past one could not enter or come out Nagasaki except for passing this particular route. It is believed that this haiku was the only known poem Kyorai wrote in commemoration of his first return to his homeland.

Sarumino (The Monkey’s Straw Raincoat) is the famous anthology which established Shofu, or the Basho School Style. It was compiled by no other person than Kyorai and his fellow student of Basho, Boncho Nozawa and published on 3 July Genroku 4 (1691). Kikaku Enomoto wrote the foreward for it. Kikaku was another important disciple of Basho and will be discussed in detail later in this lecture. The anthology is called “the Kokin-waka-shu of haikai” in terms of its importance, influence and quality. Kokin-waka-shu is an ancient waka anthology compiled in early 10th century by a group of top waka poets such as Tsurayuki Ki-no and Tadamine Mibu-no. ‘The Bible of haikai’ would be the apt English expression. When Kyorai was staying in Nagasaki he was not idling time away drinking or playing but was hard at work disseminating and teaching Shofu among his relatives and friends who were engaged in haikai.

Are there any other stone monuments in Nagasaki with inscriptions of Kyorai’s poems? The answer is in the affirmative. At what is now Number 56-2 Honkawa-cho and along the old Nagasaki Gaido stands Watari-dori-zuka, or migrating birds monument, which was constructed in Bunka 10 (1813) by the haikai poets in Nagasaki of the Shomon School in order to commemorate the 120th anniversary of Basho’s death. On the front of the monument are inscribed two haikai poems. One is by Basho which reads:

me ni kakaru kumo ya shibasi no watari-dori

no sooner

clouds come into sight, than

migrating birds appear

And the other by Kyorai which goes:

furusato mo ima wa kari-ne ya watari-dori

my hometown…

now only a temporary abode;

a migrating bird

On the back of the same stone monument is an inscription which reads:

In the summer of Bunka 10 and during Mina-zuki, or the waterless month (June of the lunar calendar) we the disciples of Basho hereby sincerely erected this monument.

There is a stone monument called “Inazuma Kuhi” (the lightning haiku monument) at the site of the famous restaurant Kagetsu located in the gay quarter Maruyama, which reads:

inazuma ya dono keisei to kari-makura

lightning…

which prostitute am I sharing

temporary pillows

At Shuntoku-ji Temple there is a stone monument called Shigure-zuka, the winter rain monument which was erected in Horeki 14 (1764), on which the following poem by Basho is inscribed:

yado kashite na wo nanorasuru shigure kana

lodging given…

I had to give my name,

winter rain

At Suwa-jinja Shrine, there is this stone monument with the famous poem by Kyorai which goes:

furusato wo Kyo de kataru mo Suwa no tsuki

talking in Kyoto

about my hometown, about

the moon at Suwa

Tokuzo-ji Temple in Nagasaki’s Tagami area is the place where once stood Senzai-tei which was the detached residence of Tagami-no-ama, Kyorai’s aunt. Here is a stone monument bearing Kyorai’s poem which he composed while staying in this house in Genroku 11 (1698):

meigetsu ya tagami ni semaru tabi-gokoro

bright moon…

travelling sentiment

at Tagami

*

How, then, in his eyes did the hometown Nagasaki change after thirty-one years’ absence? He must have had something like a dual vision in the sense that on the one hand Nagasaki itself had inevitably changed during that time and there had been changes within Kyorai as a human being on the other. Kyorai was born in Keian 4 (1651) which was half a century after the famous Battle of Sekigahara, ten odd years after the completion of the isolationist policy called “Sakoku”, exactly ten years after the Dutch factory at Hirado was destroyed by the order of the Tokugawa Shogunate and moved to Dejima of Nagasaki, and the third Shogun Iemitsu Tokugawa died of illness in this year and his son Ietsuna became the fourth Shogun. Just eight years after that year, i.e. when he was eight, he and his family left Nagasaki for Kyoto, led by his father.

Thirty years on, Kyorai was living in the Japan which was enjoying an unprecedented prosperity and peace under the fifth Shogun Tsunayoshi and was in the midst of the Genroku Period when Edo culture was at its peak.

It was five or six before Matsuo Basho died at Osaka while on a journey to the West. His life had reached its last ten years during which he was most productive in composing and teaching haikai and also being engaged in writing about it. There emerged many important works by him, not least “Oku no Hosomichi” (The narrow road to the north). It was also the decade when Shofu (the Basho School) was explored and established. Especially important was his effort to construct a new haikai prosody called “Karumi”, or lightness, which would have been the culmination of his contribution to haikai had he lived a little bit longer. It is well known that the one who made greater contribution to the dissemination and handing to future generations of that “Shofu” was no other person than Kyorai. In addition to his efforts regarding “Sarumino” which we saw above, Kyorai wrote in his late years “Kyorai-sho” (Writing of Kyorai), which is one of the most important literature for the study of Basho as it sums up very clearly and succinctly the principle points of the Shofu. He also wrote “Tabine-ron”, which we shall see in some detail, while he made the second visit to his hometown Nagasaki. This book is also an important source for the study of Shofu. (There has been controversy about whether or not Kyorai actually wrote these two important books simply because neither of them was published while he was alive. There are still some academics who maintain that this question is still to be resolved. However, this point will not detain us here.)

It is well known that Kyorai thus occupied a high and influential position among many of Basho’s disciples as an important theorist and that he was especially highly regarded in Kamigata area (Kyoto, Osaka and their environ). Kyorai is said to have been “... head and shoulders above among [haikai] teachers in Kyoto...” Clearly, not only Kyorai is now an important figure for us to study Basho but was then important for Basho himself. Basho called Sugiyama Sanpu the Haikai Judge of the 33 Eastern Domains and Kyorai the Haikai Judge of the 33 Western Domains. It is said that Basho made this remark as a joke at a haikai meeting but it still indicates eloquently how high Kyorai was in his esteem and also his affection for and trust in Kyorai.

Thus Kyorai enjoyed the respect that his fellow disciples of Basho paid for him in his lifetime. His reputation became increasingly higher after his death. He was loved by so many not only because of his achievement but also because of his sincere and gentle personality. The list of what has been called “Shomon Juttetsu” (The ten great disciples of Basho) differs slightly depending on who compiled it. However, Kyorai’s name appears in anyone’s list and at high end at that.

One such list is as follows. Their age in the year Genroku 4 (1691) is shown in bracket. Basho was 48 years old.

Sugiyama Sanpu (45)

Mukai Kyorai (41)

Hattori Ransetsu (38)

Morikawa Kyoriku (36)

Ochi Etsujin (36)

Takarai Kikaku (31)

Naito Joso (30)

Shida Yaba (31)

Mutsukuri Shiko (27)

Tachibana Hokushi (Not known)

*

The thirty years during which Kyorai lived away from his hometown Nagasaki also saw many vicissitudes of his life itself in Kyoto. The time had moved to one of stability and prosperity. The disturbances of the Civil War Era were becoming a distant memory. Many radical reforms introduced for the establishment of the new Tokugawa Bakuhan regime had been translated into stable government. In the hard-won domestic peace, Japan was enjoying the blossoming of cultural and economic life under the Isolationist policy which shielded the country from the outside interference. Studies in such areas as jugaku (Confucianism), medicine, mathematics and agricultural science flourished and the pursuit of tea ceremony, shohekiga (sliding door paintings), ukiyoe (woodblock prints) and haikai became popular as well as what was called the chonin-bunka (townsman culture). Japan had already entered the Genroku Era (1688-1704) which was the Golden Age of the whole Edo period. This was the Japan in which Kyorai lived from the age of eight to thirty-nine. He had fifteen years to go before his death at fifty-four. As we will see, the passage of Kyorai’s life reflected such a time.

Kyorai’s father Gensho was originally a prominent Confucianism scholar and was famous for designing and building the Nagasaki Seido, a shrine dedicated to Confucian and his teachings. He was also a renowned medical doctor. No sooner did he take family to live in Kyoto than he made his name as one of the best doctors in the capital and was appointed as an Imperial Palace doctor. His patients included the Imperial family and high aristocracy. He could be said to be an elite doctor. He was also interested in Western medicine and authored a book entitled Komo-ryu Geka Hiyo (secret book on western surgery). He translated Western books into Japanese too. For example, his book called Kenkon Bensetsu (an account of cosmology) is a translation to which he added his own comments and criticism. Also, he wrote a book called Hochu Biyo Wamyo Honzo (a botanical book on vegetables for cooking in Japanese). These books numbered over twenty, which suggest that he was a highly intellectual person, a Renaissance man. He died on 1 November of Enpo 5 (1677) at the age of sixty-nine. He was originally from Hizen Kanzaki-gun (present-day Saga prefecture).

After Kyorai’s family moved to live in Kyoto there was an important period when Kyorai left the family for a long time (some asserts 7 years, others 9). During this period Kyorai was staying with his uncle on his mother’s side who lived in Chikuzen Fukuoka. The uncle was called Kume Morozaemon Toshikatsu, a samurai serving the Kuroda Han Domain. One scholar, Dr. Sakurai Takejiro, asserts that Kyorai went there when he was sixteen. Not a lot is known but Kyorai trained in bugei (martial arts) and kyuba (horse riding and archery), i.e. all the things one had to do to become a proper samurai, and it is believed that he mastered these arts.

Kyorai’s father was a scholar and a medical doctor and it is generally held that he was not a serving samurai, i.e. a hanshi. However, his father (Kyorai’s grandfather) on his mother’s side was a proper samurai. As things stood Kyorai would not have become qualified as samurai from his father’s occupation. Also, since his elder brother had become a medical doctor and therefore an heir apparent, Kyorai had to find for himself what to do in life. It is believed that he wished to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps and become a serving samurai. People in the samurai class in those days were very precautious by our modern standards and it was common that they should be seriously thinking even as a boy what they wanted or should do in the real world when they grew up. Kyorai’s grandfather’s side, i.e. Mukai family, was a samurai family and was famed for producing brave warriors. Thus, both of Kyorai’s parents came from the samurai class. An article entitled “Rakushi Sensei Gyojo” (Records of Master Rakushi) in the book “Zuisai Kaiwa” talks about Kyorai. It says that Kyorai was taught by renowned experts martial arts, jujutsu (judo), swordsmanship, horse riding, military studies, shintoism etc. It adds that Kyorai worked very hard and became extremely knowledgeable and experienced in these fields. He also studied yusoku-no-michi (knowledge of correct manners, ceremony procedures and ancient matters), astrology and calendar study. These studies were to come in handy for Kyorai in later years.

As was mentioned before, Mukai family was not in the serving samurai status when Kyorai was born in the sense that his father was not formally appointed by a feudal lord, pledging absolute loyalty in return for horoku (stipend) and land. However, this was an exception in the family history. Distant ancestors included distinguished samurai in the Nancho Era (the South Court, 14 century). During the Sengoku Jidai (the civil war period) his ancestor was decorated with military merit for bravery in the Hizen Province (Saga). Kyorai’s grandfather offered his service to the Nabeshima family (the feudal lord of the Saga Han) but, unsatisfied with the terms of employment, moved to Nagasaki. This created the gap in the Mukai family lineage when they became technically not samurai.

The time when Kyorai’s grandfather lived was the one of radical social changes, being the transitional period from the Civil War Era to the formation of the Tokugawa regime. The new measures adopted in quick succession in the formation included harsh ones to consolidate the power base of the new regime in order to maximise the interest of the Tokugawa Family which would last for a long time. Conversely, whatever was thought to undermine their interest or threaten the long reign by them was relentlessly destroyed. Those who were suspected as potential danger were harshly treated and forced to put up with unacceptable conditions. As a result what is known as Ronin class emerged. These were samurai who lost the employment with their lords and could not find any other lords who would give them work, i.e. unemployed samurai. Mukai family may not have been targeted as anti-government but undoubtedly a victim of the social instability of the time.

Interestingly, Nagasaki provided anyone having talent and drive with the opportunity of coming and exploring his possibilities there. It was possible for those who had experienced difficulties elsewhere to build a new life in Nagasaki. This was the same much later on with the hero, Sakamoto Ryoma, who made a dramatic exodus from the Tosa Han Domain (a serious offense), becoming a wanted person, and escaped to move and live in Nagasaki towards the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. He and his friends enjoyed the freedom the city gave them and established a new life and worked hard to search for a new direction in which Japan must be guided in the new age.

*

Having been born into a Samurai family, Kyorai was a man of exemplary character and held a spirit worthy of bushi (warrior) all through his life. Not a few of his hokku reflect such personality of his. For example:

元日や家にゆずりの太刀帯ん （続虚栗）

Ganjitsu ya/ie ni yuzuri no/tachi hakan (Zoku-Minashi Guri)

New Year’s Day...

today I shall wear the special sword

handed down for generations

秋風やしらきの弓に弦はらん （阿羅野）

akikaze ya/shiraki no yumi ni/tsuru haran (Arano)

autumn wind...

I am stringing

a plain-wood bow

鎧着てつかれためさん土用干し（続虚栗）

yoroi kite/tsukare tamesan/doyo-boshi (Zoku Minashi-guri)

wearing the armour,

I shall test my endurance...

Doyo-boshi (airing clothes)

千貫のつるぎ埋けり苔の露 （芭蕉庵小文庫）

Sengan no/tsurugi umekeri/koke no tsuyu (Basho-an Kobunko)

I buried a sword

weighing a thousand kan,

dews on the moss

(1 kan=3.75 kilograms, but this is an exaggerated expression for effect)

Kyorai was a brave man. One episode which is testimonial to his bravery is to be found in a book entitled “Rakushi-sha Kyorai-Sensei Jijitsu” (Facts of Master Kyorai of Rakushi-sha) written by Genchu Mukai. Genchu was a relation of Kyorai. He was a grand-son of Kyorai’s brother, Gentan. According to this book, one day Kyorai was walking near Shogo-in after visiting his father Gensho’s tomb at Shin-nyo-do in the east of Kyoto. Suddenly, he witnessed a wounded wild boar come out of nowhere and assault a hapless farmer who happened to be working nearby. Kyorai was still in mourning which meant no violence perpetrated on his part. However, he could not stand idly by and watch the man killed. He drew his sword and cut down the dangerous beast.

This episode goes some way to explain what sort of person Kyorai was in contrast with his brothers who chose to study medicine and literature. Kyorai was also very bright and his talents led him to be invited to serve Lord Kuroda of the Chikuzen Province in Kyushu. However, he turned this invitation down. Quite why it was is not known. Considering how much Kyorai yearned for becoming a samurai, devoting to learning and martial practice extremely diligently, his decision is a puzzle.

Eventually, Kyorai gave up all his kyuba-no-jutsu to yumiya (all samurai training). Once again the reason is not known. This makes it even more complicated to try to interpret what sort of life he led after that. It is held to have been the decision he made when he was around 25, or in the year of Enpo 3 (1675). In today’s Japan, 25 years old is regarded as very young and green but in Kyorai’s time of early Edo Period it was well into adulthood and maturity and therefore it must have been inconceivable that a grown-up samurai adult should chop and change his life’s plan so carelessly. One can only speculate that there must have been some truly serious reason we do not know, which made it necessary for him to give up his ambition to be a good samurai and presumably to turn round family fortune.

A boy was born to Kyorai’s uncle with whom he was staying. The emergence of this heir to the Kume family meant that the time had come for Kyorai to leave and go back home in Kyoto. There is a possibility that Kyorai might have been expected to succeed the Kume family line in the absence of an heir. Thus, when the boy was born Kyorai lost his reason of being there. There is a hokku which he composed in the winter of Jokyo 3 (1686), remembering the time of his giving up of military practices.

鴨啼や弓矢を捨てゝ十余年

kamo naku ya yumi-ya wo sutete juyo-nen

ten odd years

since I gave up martial arts...

ducks’ cry

*

Having given up on military training, Kyorai went back to live in Kyoto. Exactly when this took place is not known. According to Professor Takejiro Sakurai, it is held that Kyorai was still living in Fukuoka in Kambun 10 (1670). Sakurai estimates that Kyorai must have gone back to Kyoto between Kambun 11 (1671) and early Empo (Empo1 =1673). Suppose it was in 1673 when Kyorai was 23 years old, then he would have been living in Fukuoka for seven years since he went to live there when he was sixteen. Other scholars (e.g. Dr Hatsuo Ouchi) maintain that Kyorai moved from Fukuoka to Kyoto in Empo 3 (1675), in which case he would have been in Fukuoka for nine long years.

The question of exactly when Kyorai moved to Kyoto apart, move he did. As he was conversant with such branches of learning as astronomy and on-myo-do (The Way of Ying and Yang Cosmic Duality), he was invited to be in service for the Dojo Family. He also served for Imperial princes and aristocracy. He was interested in Shintoism and after studying Juka-Shinto (Confucius-Shinto) he became an expert on Shinto. It is also known that he was helping his elder brother Gentan (haiku-name: Shinken) who was a medical doctor. In Rakushi Sensei Gyojo which was mentioned before, there is an entry which goes, “...The Master (Kyorai) gave up on serving as samurai, and instead helped his elder brother, which was highly commendable...” Though he had talent and capability with which to be successful in ordinary pursuit of position and security he chose not to do so, which in itself speaks volumes of his pure heart and upright character.

This was also true with Kyorai’s haikai style. Especially important is the fact that he not only followed Basho’s teachings faithfully himself but also endeavoured to pass them accurately over to posterity. For this purpose Kyorai sometimes went so far as to admonish Basho’s fellow disciples such as Kikaku and Kyoriku when they transgressed these teachings. Some have asserted that this was a case of Kyorai splitting the unity of the disciples or having an outright row with them but my view is that theirs was a gentleman’s (i.e. adult’s) relationship and that these disagreements were part of their honest exchanges. As if to prove this point, other disciples such as Kyoriku are known to have been openly praising Kyorai.

All these would become almost trivial when we turn to the most important of all things which happened to Kyorai during the thirty years from the time he left Nagasaki and the time he made the first revisit to that place. It was of course Kyorai making acquaintance with Basho. It is not known exactly when, where and how these two individuals met for the first time. However, it is held that they were first introduced to each other roughly when Basho was forty-two years old and Kyorai, seven years younger, was thirty-five. The one who introduced them was Kikaku Enomoto (1661-1707) who, around that time, was only twenty-five years old. Also, it is known that Kyorai had just begun to take up the Way of Haikai when he met Basho for the first time.

It is important to know that the year in which Kyorai’s work ever appeared for the first time in a senshu (anthology) was 2 Jokyo (1685). Kyorai was already thirty-four then. Kikaku, on the other hand, became Basho’s disciple when he was only thirteen or fourteen, as he himself mentioned, “...the beginning of Enpo...”, which would be around 1673. Kikaku was a child prodigy. For example, at the age of twenty-one Kikaku wrote a draft of Azuma Nikki, which was compiled by Gonsui. Two years later at 23 he compiled the first anthology of haikai, the famous Minashi-Guri (shrivelled chestnuts 1683), with Basho’s postscript. At thirty-one he was so distinguished as to write the preface to the all-important Sarumino (Monkey’s Straw Coat). Kikaku was some kind of an exception but even then one can say that Kyorai was quite old when he took up haikai. The aforementioned anthology in which Kyorai’s work first appeared as far as we know is called Ichiro-Fu (poems at a building). It was compiled during the summer of 1685 by Fubaku who originally came from Ise but was living in Edo at that time. The following two verses are the work by Kyorai in this anthology:

五日経ぬあすは戸無瀬の鮎汲まん

Itsuka henu asu wa Tonase no ayu kuman

Five days have passed...

I shall drink tomorrow

with Tonase’s sweetfish

雪の山かはつた脚もなかりけり

Yuki no yama kawatta ashi mo nakari keri

Snow mountain...

no pair legs were

dissimilar

*

It is possible that Kyorai began to practice haikai shortly before the compilation of Ichiro-Fu in the summer of 1685. A year before that, namely the first year of Jokyo (1684), Kikaku came up to Kyoto and stayed there for some time during which he had kukai meetings with local haikai poets. This resulted in the compilation of the anthologyShimi-Shu. Kyorai’s name was not yet found in it.

If Kyorai had already started the way of haikai before the compilation of the anthology then he would most probably have met Kikaku as one of the local haikai poets of Kyoto and Kikaku would have had no hesitation in engineering to include Kyorai in the anthology. The two poets got on splendidly well with each other.

As we have already seen Kyorai appeared as an established haikai poet in a proper anthology the following year, which seems to indicate that he entered the world of haikai only recently and made a rapid progress. In other words either Kyorai was not yet practicing haikai in 1684 or he was such a beginner that he was not yet good enough to be included in an anthology. It may well be that he met Kikaku who was visiting Kyoto and was persuaded to begin haikai on the latter’s strong insistence.

The second year of Jokyo (1685) was very important for Kyorai in another way. That is to say that in this year Kyorai had a second home built in Saga area of Western Kyoto. This was the detached house which was to become Rakushi-Sha (Falling Persimons Pavillion) when in 2 Genroku (1689) Kyorai came back from his visit to Nagasaki. There were as many as forty persimmon trees in this second house which indicates that it was quite a sizable estate.

Kyorai’s main house is said to have been situated near Shogo-in inOkazaki. He must have been a man of substance if in addition to this main house he could afford to buy a large estate even if it was in the countryside. There were forest lands in Shogo-in. The area where Kyorai’s main house was located is held to have been called OkazakiVillage. Kyorai’s family was a rich family with successful medical doctors. However, Kyorai was not a doctor himself and quite how he amassed wealth is a moot point.

Shogo-in in Okazaki still exists today, having Kyoto University in the immediate North and the Heian Shrine and Okazaki Park in the immediate South. In South-East is Higashi-yama. Okazaki was a favourite district for many of the members of the Imperial family and aristocrats to live in the Heian Period (794~1185). After that the district reverted back to agricultural lands. It is a long way away from Saga even by today’s standards. How much more so it must have been in Kyorai’s time. Saga must have looked to him and his contemporaries as if it were distant countryside. Kyorai’s family cemetery is located in the Shin-nyo Doh Temple which is a short distance to the North-East from Shogo-in.

A number of reasons have been pointed out why Kyorai entered haikai so late. As was mentioned before Kyorai was of a samurai family and it was customary for a samurai family to prefer waka to haikai, which explains why he did not take up haikai for a long time. Of course there were exceptions such as Morikawa Kyoriku, a samurai of the Hikone Domain, who was a famous haikai poet under the Basho school. I would mention Hori Jakuo, who once was a retainer of the Omura Domain and who enjoyed haikai. Basho himself was of a samurai stock, serving Todo Yoshitada (haiku name: Sengin) who was the lord of Iga Ueno province.

However, generally speaking it was traditionally one of the accomplishments for a samurai to be good at waka composition. Kyorai was no exception. He was conversant with waka and haikai was something foreign to him. It may be that he just did not have any opportunity to be introduced to haikai. His enthusiasm for waka can be seen in the description of his interests in Rakushi Sensei Gyojo:”…(Kyorai) was interested in Fuga no Michi (the way of poetry) and left not a few waka poems…”

Moreover, Kyorai a straightforward, upright and proud person. To put it more simply, he was a very serious person and a bit rigid in his approach to things. He followed serious and difficult learning and discipline. Thus, a sense of play, decadent taste, plebeian pastime, humour, or vulgarity of haikai were perhaps all remote from his life’s philosophy. Kyorai’s father was also an intellectual, hobnobbing among the courtiers and high aristocrats. Close to him, Kyorai was also associated with the high society, which may mean that he was removed from the populace and its culture such as haikai.

*

Thus apparently haikai was an unlikely pursuit for Kyorai. There must therefore be some good reason why in the event he began to be interested in it. The key to this question lies in Kikaku. It goes like this: When Kikaku visited Kyoto he was introduced to Kyorai through a mutual friend. Kikaku in turn introduced Kyorai to Basho later. The mutual friend in question is said to be Bunsoku Wada who originally came from Kyoto but at that time was living in Edo as a haikai master. Kikaku was only in his 20s but being precocious had managed to make himself established as a “seasoned” haijin, having the haiku career of over ten years. He was in many ways opposite to Kyorai. He had a penchant for date (coxcombry), was a bit of a doraku-mono (libertine), foppish and extravagant. However, he had a serious side also. For instance, he published a diary composed of memorial haiku entitled “Hana-Tsumi” (picking flowers) after the death of his beloved mother. Nevertheless, on the whole he was living a life of debauchery. One of his haiku goes:

since fifteen

I’ve been drinking…

this day’s moon

Kikaku set out on a journey for Kyoto and Osaka area in the summer of Jokyo 1 (1684). The famous haikai feat by Saikaku Ihara was performed on the 5 June and Kikaku was asked to play the role of Koken (official assistant) for him. The venue was Sumiyoshi Shrine in Settsu. Here, Saikaku is said to have performed a Doku-gin (solo renku) in which he created 23,500 stanzas within a single day and night. There is a poem by Kikaku which recalls this occasion.

When Saikaku did the Yakazu-Haikai in Sumiyoshi, he asked

me to be his assistant:

he gallops away

20,000 stanzas, while this fly

gasps for air

What the poem means is that while Saikaku Ihara was churning out one poem after another at an incredible speed comparable to that of the legendary thoroughbred that was said to be able to gallop one thousand ri (about 2,440 miles) a day, Kikaku was assisting the Master like a fly. At that time Saikaku was 43 years old, well-established and influential whereas Kikaku was 24 and only a young upstart. Despite his youth and relative inexperience Kikaku was given this very responsible job as an official assistance of the big man. Also, in spite of the significant age difference in feudal Japan the two were good friends. This was partly because Saikaku recognised Kikaku’s unusual capability and was magnanimous towards him but it was largely because Kikaku was such an outstanding talent. Kikaku’s haikai had a reputation of being “flamboyant”, “novel and magnificent” or “foppish” just like himself as a person. His works are at any rate full of evidence of his talent. The following are some examples:

越後屋に衣さく音や更衣

echigo-ya ni kinu saku oto ya koromo-gae

season of changing clothes –

the sound of fabrics being torn

at Echigo-ya

名月や畳の上に松の影

meigetsu ya tatami no ue ni matsu no kage

harvest moon –

the shadows of pine trees

on the tatami mats

この木戸や鎖（じやう）のさゝれて冬の月

kono kido ya jo no sasarete fuyu no tsuki

winter moon –

this wooden gate now

being locked

鐘ひとつ売れぬ日はなし江戸の春

kane hitotsu urenu hi wa nashi edo no haru

each and every

bell is sold out –

spring in Edo

鶯の身を逆（さかさま）に初音かな

uguisu no mi wo sakasama ni hatsune kana

hanging upside down,

the bush warbler sends me

his first song

草の戸に我は蓼くふほたる哉

kusa no to ni ware wa tade kuu hotaru kana

living in a hut,

I am but a firefly feeding

on smartweeds

稲妻やきのふは東けふは西

inazuma ya kino wa higashi kyo wa nishi

lightning –

flashing in the east yesterday

and today in the west

It is almost certain that Kikaku met Kyorai for the first time when the former was visiting Kyoto. As has already been mentioned, Kikaku was travelling in Keihan area at that time. The person who introduced the two to each other is said to have been the aforementioned haijin, Bunsoku. It is not hard to imagine that the encounter was dramatic, if not a predetermined fate which would be a little over-exaggerated. To prove it, one would not be able to have better words than those of Basho’s. Basho wrote:

If we just look back on the time when Kikaku was travelling in the Capital (Kyoto) he became very close to Kyorai Mukai and the two had occasions to drink together or have tea together. They talked and talked, all things sweet or sour, bitter or mild with the water of hearts shallow or deep, knowing the tastes of a hundred rivers by a single scoop of the water.

This quote is derived from an epilogue written by Basho for a Kyorai’s haikai travelogue entitled “Ise Kiko” (A Journey to Ise) . Kyorai made a trip to Ise Shrine with his sister, Chine, in the autumn of Jokyo 3 (1686) and this travelogue was written about it. It is my surmise that Basho was told of the relationship between Kyorai and Kikaku by both of them. Kikaku must have told his side of the story in the way which would amuse Basho. Basho liked Kyorai and trusted him. For him Kikaku was also a favourite disciple. When later there was an incident whereby Kyorai attacked Kikaku, Basho defended Kikaku. Whatever else may have happened to these two, one thing is certain: when they met for the first time they got on well like a house on fire according to the epilogue of “Ise Kiko”.

*

It is an important fact that Kyorai and Kikaku developed such a close relationship, the two poets with significantly different personality and poetic style. That Kikaku played a go-between role to introduce Kyorai to Basho had a profound impact not only on these three eminent people but also more broadly on the Shomon (Basho School),

Shofu (Basho style of haikai) and most importantly on all manner of development of haikai and haiku to this day. We shall look at these points more closely but before that let us examine a little bit more of the way in which Kyorai’s poems began to become noticeable in different anthologies.

We have already seen that Kyorai’s poems which are known to be the first to appear in printed form were the two poems in the anthology “Ichiro-Fu” published in Jokyo 2 (1685). Following this, we have the aforementioned poem which was published in the Saitan-Cho of Jokyo 3 (1686):

hatsu haru ya ie ni yuzuri no tachi hakan

New Year’s Day…

I will wear the sword,

the family treasure

Saitan-Cho is the three-page printed paper (Mitsu-mono) bearing hokku, wakiku and daisan (the first, second and third stanza) from the New Year’s haikai-no-renga meeting. The same poem later appeared in the Zoku Minashiguri with the shogo (first five on) changed from “hatsu-haru ya” to “gan-jitsu ya”. Though Kyorai had given up the idea of becoming samurai he kept the samurai spirit and pride, which is reflected in this poem as it shows the pride of a samurai family with a sword which had been handed from one generation to another and which was an apt object to wear to celebrate the New Year. Kyorai wrote a lot of poems which similarly show the samurai spirit.

In addition to this poem by Kyorai, the same Saitan-Cho carries the Mitsu-mono of Basho’s hokku, Bunsoku’s wakiku and Kyorai’s daisan:

medeta hito no kazu ni mo iran toshi no kure Basho

(celebration,/ I should be counted as a person,/ the Year’s end)

shuku no ichi ni izuru matsu-uri to kikoereba Bunsoku

(market day for excellent poems/comes a pine-decoration vender/one hears)

akatsuki no ashi yuu uma no tomo hoe te Kyorai

(dawn/tying the leg of a horse/a friend cries: Note the precise meaning of this stanza is obscure.)

However, the most important of all for Kyorai was the anthology called Kawazu-Awase (competition on the theme of frogs) which was also compiled in Jokyo 3 (1686). It was compiled by Senka who was a haikai poet living in Edo and a student of Basho. Kawazu-Awase is nothing but the anthology which has the most famous haiku in the world: furu-ike ya kawazu tobi-komu mizu no oto (old pond/a frog jumps in/the sound of water). In it is a pair of poems, one by Kyorai and the other by Rika, which are put together (ku-awase) and the verdict was that Kyorai was the winner.

hito-aze wa shibashi naki-yamu kawazu kana Kyorai

(one rice paddy/stopped making noise for a while/frogs)

mino-uri ga kozo yori mitaru kawazu kana Rika

(a straw raincoat vendor/has seen since last year/this frog)

In the spring of Jokyo 3 (1686) important members of the Basho School gathered together in a haikai meeting at the Basho-an (Basho hut) in Fukagawa, Edo. They held a ku-awase (haiku competition) there, composing only poems about frogs. During the process Shugi-Han (collective judgement) was conducted and the record of it was compiled into an anthology, namely, Kawazu-Awase. As was mentioned, it was published later in the same year. The members included Sodo, Koya, Ransetsu, Sanpu, Sora, Kikaku and Fuboku. As Kyorai lived in Kyoto, he took part in this competition by letter. Even it was done by correspondence, or in fact because of that, it can be said that Kyorai’s rise through the ranks of haikai poets was phenomenal.

As Basho’s “old pond” poem was composed during this Ku-Awase it can be said that the meeting was one of the most important of all in the history of haikai. Basho was especially mindful of this point as he put a lot of mental energy to it. The haiji (verdict comments) of the Shugi-Han make a very interesting and rich reading in terms of their contents. It is also important to note that there are individual poems in the competition which are really excellent. Another important thing connected with this anthology is the fact that Basho took the trouble of writing to Kyorai on 11th of March of the same year. In this letter Basho was singing in praise of Kyorai’s poem. Basho wrote that he and his followers in Edo were all very pleased to see that Kyorai seemed to have acquired the true spirit of haikai very quickly and that when it came to Kyorai’s poem about a frog everyone was much surprised to see something new written about frogs when they all had concluded that whatever poem could be written about frogs they had already written, leaving no room for any new poem to emerge under the same topic.

The same letter also mentions that Basho was going up to Kyoto in the very near future and that he was looking forward to visiting Kyorai at his hut in Sagano and to discussing various matters closely. This visit, however, came to nothing but the letter proves that the relationship between Basho and Kyorai had already become a very close one. It is only natural that we should assume that Basho had already permitted Kyorai to become his disciple by then. On the contrary, it seems to be Basho who was keener to have such a meeting, which may indicate that Basho was willing to welcome Kyorai as his student.

As we have seen Kyorai made a trip to Ise Shrine in the autumn of the same year (1686), after which he went on to visit Edo in early winter, where he had a life-changing encounter with Basho.

*

To recapitulate, Kikaku came up to Kyoto in Jokyo 1(1684) and met Kyorai for the first time. The following Jokyo2 (1685) saw Kyorai’s ku appearing for the first time in the Ichiro-fu which was compiled by Edo haijin. In the following Jokyo3 (1686) Kyorai’s works appeared in Kikaku’s Saitan-cho: one his ku and the other his ku as daisan for the mitsumono. In the autumn of the same year Kyorai made a trip to Ise and then onto Edo where he had a historic meeting with Basho.

Kyorai stayed on in Edo and welcomed the New Year Jokyo4 (1687) there with his old and newly acquired haikai friends. Thus he started his haikai activities in earnest right from the start of the year. Especially important was the Sangin-Kasen with the theme of “hisakata ya” (from the waka makura kotoba for ama=heaven, ame=rain, tsuki=moon, kumo=cloud, sora=sky, hikari=light, yoru=night, miyako=capital city etc.), which he performed with Basho, Ransetsu and Kikaku. In it, his own ku, hisakata ya konare konare to hatsu-hibari (after a long absence/come hither, come hither/invites the first sky lark song) , was chosen as tateku (special hokku), which was unusual because it was customary to choose teteku from among poems of past masters. This alone is a testimony to his advancement in haikai within a short period of time.

The same year saw the compilation of Zoku Minashi-Guri (Second Empty Chestnut) edited and completed by Kikaku in November. In this anthology as many as fifteen of Kyorai’s ku were included. Kyorai also sent to Kikaku tsuito-ku (poem of condolence) because the latter’s mother passed away on 8 April. This date indicates the possibility that Kyorai may have stayed in Edo as late as the summer of the same year. During this long stay Kyorai deepened his relationship not only with Basho but also with many followers of Basho in Edo. Zoku Minashi-Guri appeared when Shofu (Basho Way) reached maturity. The fact that so many of Kyorai’s poems were selected for it means that he had established his position as an important haijin of the Basho School. With this his advancement as a haijin began to accelerate. Let us see some of these fifteen ku.

fukeru yo wo tonari ni narau suzumi kana

night deepening…

following my neighbour, I too

try to cool myself outside

tabine shite ka waroki kusa no kayari kana

sleeping on a journey,

mosquito smoker, emitting ordor

of foul-smelling grass

yoroi kite tsukare tamesan doyo-boshi

wearing my armour

I’ll work out how tired I am…

summer airing

yujo tokiwa mimakari keru wo itamite hisasiku aishirerikeru hito ni moshi haberu (mourning the death of geisha Tokiwa, I talked to a person who had known her for a long time.)

tsuyu-keburi kono yo no hoka no miuke kana

dew mist…

redemption of a prostitute

outside this world

kumo yorimo saki ni koboruru shigure kana

winter rain…

beginning to fall

before the clouds

Jokyo4 (1687) thus became an important and fulfilling year for Kyorai. On 25 October of the same year Basho left Edo and set out west on the journey of Oi no Kobumi (The Records of a Travel-Worn Satchel ). He reached Kyoto in April the following year and met Kyorai again. On 20 September, that year, Jokyo 5, turned into Genroku 1 (1688) because of the changeover of the Emperor from Emperor Reigen to Emperor Higashiyama. This ushered in the prosperous Genroku Era when Edo culture blossomed. Kyorai’s intercourse with Basho became ever closer and his relationship with the master’s fellow students also got deeper. Thus expanded the opportunities for Kyorai to prove himself as a haikai poet and as an important follower of Basho.

Records show that Basho went up on the Tokaido route, arriving at his hometown, Iga Ueno, towards the end of the year. There, he welcomed the New Year in. That was Jokyo 5 (1688). The first destination was Ise where he visited the Ise Shrine. When spring came he took Tokoku (one of his disciples) with him and went to Yoshino, enjoying the cherry viewing. He then visited Koya-san, through Waka-no-Ura, to arrive at Nara on 8 April. After that, he reached Osaka, making excursions to Suma and Akashi. Basho loved going on journeys, of course, but even so this itinerary seems pretty heavy. It is believed that Basho arrived in Kyoto late April and stayed there about twenty days. There are scholars who maintain that there is no definite proof that Basho actually met Kyorai during his stay in Kyoto. However, it is known that Basho was looking forward to meeting Kyorai in this journey and it is utterly unthinkable that he did not see him in the end.

In Tabine-Ron, Kyorai recorded an episode whereby Basho mentioned to him that he, Basho, was on the trip of Yoshino on foot, everyday reciting Kyorai’s ku, ototoi wa ano yama koetsu hana zakari (the day before yesterday/I was climbing over that mountain…/cherry blossom in full bloom). Kyorai must have felt very proud of himself when he heard such an agreeable thing directly from the mouth of his master. To read it in the original, “…One day I composed a ku, ototoi wa ano yama koetsu hana zakari (the day before yesterday/I was climbing over that mountain…/cherry blossom in full bloom), my master said that no one would select this ku as good at present and that it would take another two or three years before anyone would come around do it. Later on, my master dropped in on his way back from the trip to Yoshino and mentioned to me that every day he was reciting this ku during that trip…”

Let us look at the ku more closely. Firstly, Basho was not just praising Kyorai’s ku but also more importantly he was pointing out that the ku was ahead of the time and that therefore no one could appreciate its quality and worth yet, and that it would take another two or three years for people to catch up with it. One is reminded that Haydon said exactly the same thing to Mozart. To talk about “the day before yesterday” in the poem would sound rather odd to start with. However, this is a case of honka-dori (to base one’s poem on good poems of the past masters).

The poem for Kyorai’s honka-dori was the famous one written by Fujiwara Shunzei, which goes: omokage ni hana no sugata wo saki-datete ikue koe-kinu mine no shirakumo (regarding the clouds/over the distant mountains/as cherry blossom to show my way/I have climbed over many hills). Kyorai also “…stopped to look back (in my own trip) to find all those hills covered by cherry blossom which I climbed over the day before yesterday…”. He was emulating the sensibility of Shunzei’s poem. The expression of “the day before yesterday” gives the feeling of passing of time. It also suggests looking back the old time of Shunzei with nostalgia and the continuity of time. The expression of “that mountain” gives the sense of spatial expansion and the great size of vista. If it had not been for the honka-dori of Shunzei’s poem, Kyorai’s ku would have looked rather exaggerated and over the top.

*

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 of fueki-ryuko during the winter after he completed the journey to the deep North, which proves the point.

*

Fueki-ryuko is one of the most cardinal teachings of Basho along with Fuga-no-Makoto. Add Karumi and you have what might be termed as the Trinity of Shofu, i.e. the most important three principles of Basho’s Way. Fueki-ryuko is an abbreviation of senzai-fueki, ichiji-ryuko. Fueki literally means that which never changes, pointing to unchanging values or eternal truth. On the other hand, ryuko signifies that which changes according to the time, pointing to relative values at any given time. Basho preached that in haikai both of them were needed.

The same is true with all other genres of literary and artistic activities when one comes to think about it. In fact, it is a profound and universal concept which applies to each and every human activity, ranging from politics to various social activities of us humans. Thus it is an important concept indeed but it is also something which, looked at differently, should really be regarded as a truism. However, to achieve it is easier said than done. Whether it is kabuki, novel, film, pop song, manzai comedy, or even our daily conversation, the whole thing will become repetitive and utterly boring if it is merely copying the tradition or past examples. On the other hand, if we only follow the fashion of the time everything would become gimmicky, superficial and rootless.

Let us look at it in terms of haiku. Tradition in haiku is important till the end of time. However, if we misunderstand what tradition really means and either merely mimic the past or blindly cling to it we would end up in becoming a meaningless copycat. Such a conduct without new inspirations or one’s own original thoughts and sensibility, would only produce rotten past. Conversely, if we disregard tradition and indulge in new fads for their own sake or bring something different just to be different, or even swallow passively whatever changes prevalent at any given time, we have little hope of creating any haiku of merit. Moreover, whatever school of thought one belongs to, fueki and ryuko are both needed and, in fact, indispensable.

The reason why I have elaborated on fueki-ryuko is that no other person than our Kyorai did regard it as important among many of Basho’s teachings and played a huge part in the understanding and dissemination of it. There were subtle differences among Basho’s disciples in interpreting fueki-ryuko and for this very reason Kyorai’s very clear explanation turned out to be extremely useful. In addition to fueki-ryuko , there are many other important teachings of Basho which were clarified and passed on to succeeding generations including our own by Kyorai. If I were to talk about them it would take me more than a week. Therefore, instead, I am leaving for your perusal the handout which explains some of them.

*

As we have seen, Kyorai’s first encounter with Basho took place in Genroku 2 (1689). They soon became closer to each other with increasing rapidity. This is an interesting and important story but allow me to omit it because the pressure of time compels me to stick to the main subject of today’s talk.

We therefore move straight to Genroku 11 (1698) when Kyorai went back to his hometown, Nagasaki, for the second time. He was already 48 years old then and nine years had passed since his first visit there. This first visit lasted only 3 months whereas the second was for over one year and two months. The reason is held to be that Kyorai had a lot of things he planned to achieve in Nagasaki. He had been under the weather since the autumn of the previous year and it is understandable if he wanted to do a good work in Nagasaki while his health still allowed him to do so. After the second visit he never returned to Nagasaki ever again.

The trip took place four years after Basho had died on 12 October of Genroku 7 (1694) in Osaka in the midst of his journey to the western regions. From the point of view of haikai history Kyorai’s second and last journey back to his hometown played a significant role not only in the development of the Shofu (Basho School) but also in disseminating Shofu within the haiku community of Nagasaki. I would like to remind each and every haijin living in Nagasaki Prefecture of the fact that he or she is actually enjoying and benefitting from the legacy of Kyorai’s efforts and scholarship of over 300 years ago.

It is known that Kyorai left Kyoto during the latter half of June. The date of his arriving in Nagasaki is 11 July. No sooner did he do so than he had a meeting with Shiko at Sonen-Tei, the following day to be exact. He thus wasted no time by, for instance, having a leisurely rest after the long journey. On the contrary, he is known to have had a busy and active time during the first two months. His activity included writing haibun such as Iri-Nagasaki-Ki and Senzai-Tei-Ki.

When winter came Kyorai met Yaba, another important student of the Shomon (Basho school), who came to visit Nagasaki. In the spring of the following year of Genroku 12 (1699) Kyorai received a haikai book, Hentotsu, written jointly by Riyu and Kyoriku, which was sent to him from Kyoto. He used it for discussing various haikai topics with local poets in Nagasaki such as Ushichi and Rocho. These poets were keen to ask various questions to Kyorai who answered them conscientiously. The conversation was recorded and compiled by Kyorai, which was later to become published as the famous Tabine-Ron, one of the most important hairon books in the history of haikai.

For Kyorai, writing this book was the greatest achievement of his second visit to Nagasaki. His aunt Tagami-Ni had a second house in Nagasaki called Senzai-Tei and it seems that he used it as his base while staying there. They had a cherry blossom viewing together.

There is an anthology called Wataridori-Shu which was to be published later in Hoei 1 (1704) under Ushichi’s name. Kyorai had scribed the text and taken part in its editorial work during his stay in Nagasaki. It can be said to be a commemorative anthology to mark the return of Kyorai to his hometown (observation made by Prof. Taizo Ebara). Also, the questions and answers between Kyorai and Ushichi, Rocho and others, which appear in Kyorai-Sho, were largely done during his second visit to Nagasaki (Prof. Taizo Ebara). After such busy days, Kyorai left Nagasaki in late September and retuned to Kyoto at the beginning of October.

*

When Kyorai set out on his journey from Kyoto to his native town, Nagasaki, for the second time he wrote a haiku at Fushimi which more than reveals his personality, especially his tender heart. It has a maegaki (foreword) which says, “When I began my trip to Chikushi I looked back in my boat passing Fushimi towards where my dear children stayed behind: “

夕立の雲もかゝらず留守の空 去来 （『金毘羅會）

yudachi no kumo mo kakarazu rusu no sora

not even the clouds/of evening shower hang over/the sky above my absent home

It is believed that Kyorai never had a seisai (legal wife) but that he kept a naisai (common law wife). Her name was Kana. According to some study she was originally a yujo (courtesan) of Gojozaka, Kyoto. Now as Kyorai’s mistress she bore him two girls. The first daughter was born in Genroku 8 (1695) when Kyorai was 45. At the time when he set off on his scond journey to Nagasaki she was 4. The second daughter was born two years later, Genroku 10 (1697) and 2 years old at that time. The evening shower haiku depicts Kyorai as a father who was turning 50 soon and who was missing his young children left behind at home. Kanan was also a haijin of the Shomon (Basho school) and her name began to appear in haikai anthologies in Genroku 5 (1692). After Kyorai died she became a num, calling herself Teiju (some say Teisho), and came under the protection of Genkei who was an adopted sone of Gentan. Kana’s poems are to be found in Tagami-no-Aki, a commemorative anthology for the death of Kyorai, which was published in Hoei 2 (1705), and in other anthologies of the Shomon.

There is much more I want to say about Kyorai but as the time does not permit me to do so I know I should conclude my talk today. There are so many things which we know about him but at the same time there are almost too many things which we still do not know and which brings out our intellectual frustration. Why, for instance, did he really give up his ambition to become a samurai when young after having made that resolve and endeavoured hard to train in martial arts? Why did he not choose one occupation to specialize in after mastering so many different things? How did he become so well to do as to be able to afford a second home, Rakushisha? What made him take up haikai so suddenly when he was well-established as a waka poet? Why in his middle age did he not get married formally but chose to have a mistress with whom he had two children? Why was he criticized not having talent for haikai and therefore producing poems of little merit when he was so excellent in his achievements in haikai theory? For us residents of Nagasaki-prefecture what is most curious for us why did he not decide to move from Kyoto to his hometown Nagasaki permanently? If he pondered upon this what were the main factors which tipped the balance for him to decide to stay in Kyoto for the rest of his life? Such questions as these come to mind one after another.

However, from what is known about Kyorai we can see for certain that he had excellent talents, that he was a man of respectable character, that he was extremely diligent in studying Basho’s teachings and understanding them well and that after the Master’s death he made an utmost effort to establish and disseminate Shofu. As a result he came to be admired as one of the Shomon-no-Jittetsu (Ten Most Prominent Disciples of Basho) of which he ranked one of the highest. Notwithstanding this serious side of Kyorai, he also had a different aspect which was more gentle and human. And, that is that he was also someone who had a penchance for things romantic and erotic, enjoying visits to gayquarters. Nagasaki was famous for Maruyama gayquarters, which was as prosperous as Yoshiwara in Edo and Shimabara in Kyoto. Kyorai wrote a haiku which was a giveaway of his visit to Maruyama:

いなづまやどの傾城（けいせい）とかりまくら

inazuma ya dono keisei to kari-makura

lightning…

with which courtesan

shall I sleep tonight?

There stands a stone monument with this haiku engraved at a corner of a small lane leading to the ryotei (high-end Japanese restaurant) Kagetsu. Kagetsu was the largest geisha house founded in Kanei 19 (1642) in the old Maruyama gay quarters, which now has become one of the most famous restaurants in Japan. The lane was there in the Edo Period and has not been altered since. The only difference today is its surroundings: tall buildings, telegraph poles, hoardings, and, at night, neonsigns. If you ignore all these modern eyesores and imaging all those years ago then you may see Kyorai walking in front of you towards the geisha house.

(END)

Copyright: ©Susumu Takiguchi and World Haiku Review 2015