The Sagami River Katsushika Hokusai 36 Views of Mount Fuji
Fuji Seashell Games
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Fuji Seashell Game #1
Across the blue lake—
It’s fall on Mercer Island
The leaves have fallen.
The tall lean poplars—
Stick up with roots for branches
Brown delicate veins.
I play seashell games—
With myself this afternoon
Two buried trees deep.
“Copy of page from Fujiwara Teka’s diary Meigetsuki, dated Kennin 1.7.26 9 (1201) with diagram of the Wakadokoro (Poetry Office in the Imperial Palace). The locaton of a bundai (poetry desk) of the kind made for Retired emperor Gotoba from a fragment of the Nagara Bridge is indicated in the upper right corner of the diagram. Courtesy Kyoto Furitsu Sogo Shiryokan.”—Edward Kamens, “Fetishes and Curios,” Utamakura, Allusion, and Intertextuality in traditional Japanese Poetry, Yale University Press, 1997, 137.
“…never served a master must have had around him…he had been brought up…Basho from joining their circle…had sensed some vague animalism. Whatever the truth may have…that Basho’s future as a samurai…upon sudden death of his master…Basho’s decision to leave home…Several early biographies claim…elder brother’s wife, with one of Yoshi Yoshitada’s wife herself. These are biographers who felt the need for the famous poet’s youth. But there is some truth. It maintains that Basho loved a nun called Jutei. She had several children by Basho. At any rate point toward one fact: Basho, still experienced his share of the joys and griefs through at one time or another. A few years very obscure. It was traditional. He went to Kyoto, then the capitol of philosophy, poetry and calligraphy. It’s not likely, however, that he was there for long… He must often have returned to…”—Makoto Ueda, The Master Haiku Poet, Matsuo Basho, Tokyo: Kodansha International, 22.
Fuji Seashell Game #2
Sitting at my desk—
Writing with my Fujitsu
Tablet these haiku.
Composing myself—
Ersatz poet that I am
Playing Seashell Games.
Like Basho back then—
In his banana leaf hut
Down by the lakside.
Yoshitora, “Ko Musashi-noKami Minamoto no Moronao” (Stories of Loyal Retainers) 1864
See “Scene from Oshu meisho zue: Minamoto Toru, seated on the veranda of his Kawara no in villa, looking out on the ersatz Shiogama scene constructed in his garden with inscription of Kokin Wakashu #1088. Courtesy Miyagi-ken Toshokan.”—Edward Kamens, “Fetishes and Curios,” Utamakura, Allusion, and Intertextuality in traditional Japanese Poetry, Yale University Press, 1997, 143.
“Afterward he even wrote, “there was a time when I was fascinated with the ways of homosexual love.” One indisputable fact is that Basho had not lost his interest in verse writing. A haiku anthology published 1667 contained as many as thirty-one of his verses, and his work was included in three other anthologies compiled between 1669 and 1671. His name was gradually becoming known to a limited number of poets in the capital. That must have earned him considerable respect from the poets in his home town, too. Thus when Basho made his first attempt to compile a book of haiku about thirty poets were willing to contribute verses to it. The book, called The Seashell Game (Koi Oi), was dedicated to a shrine in Ueno early in 1672.”
“The Seashell Game represents a haiku contest in pairs of haikus, each one composed by a different poet and judged by Basho. The main value of the book is its contents and the way he refereed the matches. The book reveals him to be a man of brilliant imagination, who had a good knowledge of popular expressions, and the new ways of the work appears that he had compiled the book in a lighthearted poetic talent was evident.”—Makoto Ueda, The Master Haiku Poet, Matsuo Basho, Tokyo: Kodansha International, 22
Fuji Seashell Games
__________________
Fuji Seashell Game #1
Across the blue lake—
It’s fall on Mercer Island
The leaves have fallen.
The tall lean poplars—
Stick up with roots for branches
Brown delicate veins.
I play seashell games—
With myself this afternoon
Two buried trees deep.
“Copy of page from Fujiwara Teka’s diary Meigetsuki, dated Kennin 1.7.26 9 (1201) with diagram of the Wakadokoro (Poetry Office in the Imperial Palace). The locaton of a bundai (poetry desk) of the kind made for Retired emperor Gotoba from a fragment of the Nagara Bridge is indicated in the upper right corner of the diagram. Courtesy Kyoto Furitsu Sogo Shiryokan.”—Edward Kamens, “Fetishes and Curios,” Utamakura, Allusion, and Intertextuality in traditional Japanese Poetry, Yale University Press, 1997, 137.
“…never served a master must have had around him…he had been brought up…Basho from joining their circle…had sensed some vague animalism. Whatever the truth may have…that Basho’s future as a samurai…upon sudden death of his master…Basho’s decision to leave home…Several early biographies claim…elder brother’s wife, with one of Yoshi Yoshitada’s wife herself. These are biographers who felt the need for the famous poet’s youth. But there is some truth. It maintains that Basho loved a nun called Jutei. She had several children by Basho. At any rate point toward one fact: Basho, still experienced his share of the joys and griefs through at one time or another. A few years very obscure. It was traditional. He went to Kyoto, then the capitol of philosophy, poetry and calligraphy. It’s not likely, however, that he was there for long… He must often have returned to…”—Makoto Ueda, The Master Haiku Poet, Matsuo Basho, Tokyo: Kodansha International, 22.
Fuji Seashell Game #2
Sitting at my desk—
Writing with my Fujitsu
Tablet these haiku.
Composing myself—
Ersatz poet that I am
Playing Seashell Games.
Like Basho back then—
In his banana leaf hut
Down by the lakside.
Yoshitora, “Ko Musashi-noKami Minamoto no Moronao” (Stories of Loyal Retainers) 1864
See “Scene from Oshu meisho zue: Minamoto Toru, seated on the veranda of his Kawara no in villa, looking out on the ersatz Shiogama scene constructed in his garden with inscription of Kokin Wakashu #1088. Courtesy Miyagi-ken Toshokan.”—Edward Kamens, “Fetishes and Curios,” Utamakura, Allusion, and Intertextuality in traditional Japanese Poetry, Yale University Press, 1997, 143.
“Afterward he even wrote, “there was a time when I was fascinated with the ways of homosexual love.” One indisputable fact is that Basho had not lost his interest in verse writing. A haiku anthology published 1667 contained as many as thirty-one of his verses, and his work was included in three other anthologies compiled between 1669 and 1671. His name was gradually becoming known to a limited number of poets in the capital. That must have earned him considerable respect from the poets in his home town, too. Thus when Basho made his first attempt to compile a book of haiku about thirty poets were willing to contribute verses to it. The book, called The Seashell Game (Koi Oi), was dedicated to a shrine in Ueno early in 1672.”
“The Seashell Game represents a haiku contest in pairs of haikus, each one composed by a different poet and judged by Basho. The main value of the book is its contents and the way he refereed the matches. The book reveals him to be a man of brilliant imagination, who had a good knowledge of popular expressions, and the new ways of the work appears that he had compiled the book in a lighthearted poetic talent was evident.”—Makoto Ueda, The Master Haiku Poet, Matsuo Basho, Tokyo: Kodansha International, 22
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