14/11/2012

Oku Station 37 - Natadera

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- Oku no Hosomichi - 奥の細道 - おくのほそ道
The Narrow Road to the Deep North -


. Oku no Hosomichi - 奥の細道 - Introduction .

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元禄2年8月5日 - 6日
加賀市山中温泉 Kaga Town, Yamanaka Onsen 山中温泉 Yamanaka Hot Spring


- - - Station 37 - Natadera 那谷寺 - - -


On my way to Yamanaka hot spring, the white peak of Mount Shirane overlooked me all the time from behind. At last I came to the spot where there was a temple hard by a mountain on the left. According to the legend, this temple was built to enshrine Kannon, the great goddess of mercy, by the Emperor Kazan, when he had finished his round of the so-called Thirty- three Sacred Temples, and its name Nata was compounded of Nachi and Tanigumi, the first and last of these temples respectively. There were beautiful rocks and old pines in the garden, and the goddess was placed in a thatched house built on a rock. Indeed, the entire place was filled with strange sights.

Whiter far
Than the white rocks
Of the Rock Temple
The autumn wind blows.

I enjoyed a bath in the hot spring whose marvelous properties had a reputation of being second to none, except the hot spring of Ariake.

Bathed in such comfort
In the balmy spring of Yamanaka,
I can do without plucking
Life-preserving chrysanthemums

The host of the inn was a young man named Kumenosuke. His father was a poet and there was an interesting story about him: one day, when Teishitsu (later a famous poet in Kyoto but a young man then) came to this place, he met this man and suffered a terrible humiliation because of his ignorance of poetry, and so upon his return to Kyoto, he became a student of Teitoku and never abandoned his studies in poetry till he had established himself as an independent poet. It was generally believed that Teishitsu gave instruction in poetry free of charge to anyone from this village throughout his life. It must be admitted, however, that this is already a story of long ago.

My companion, Sora, was seized by an incurable pain in his stomach. So he decided to hurry, all by himself, to his relatives in the village of Nagashima in the province of Ise. As he said good-bye he wrote:

No matter where I fall
On the road
Fall will I to be buried
Among the flowering bush-clovers.

I felt deeply in my heart both the sorrow of one that goes and the grief of one that remains, just as a solitary bird separated from his flock in dark clouds, and wrote in answer:

From this day forth, alas,
The dew-drops shall wash away
The letters on my hat
Saying 'A party of two.'


Tr. by Nobuyuki Yuasa
source : terebess.hu/english


那谷 Nata
山中の温泉に行ほど、白根が嶽跡にみなしてあゆむ。左の山際に観音堂あり。花山の法皇三十三所の順礼とげさせ給ひて後、大慈大悲の像を安置し給ひて那谷と 名付給ふとや。那智谷組の二字をわかち侍しとぞ。奇石さま%\に古松植ならべて、萱ぶきの小堂岩の上に造りかけて、殊勝の土地也。

石山の石より白し秋の風 Ishiyama no ishi yori shiroshi


山中 Yamanaka
温泉に浴す。其功有明に次と云。

山中や菊はたおらぬ湯の匂 Yamanaka ya kiku o taoranu yu no nioi

あるじとする物は久米之助とていまだ小童也。かれが父誹諧を好み、洛の貞室若輩のむかし爰に来りし比、風雅に辱しめられて、洛に帰て貞徳の門人となつて世にしらる。功名の後、此一村判詞の料を請ずと云。今更むかし語とはなりぬ。

曾良は腹を病て、伊勢の国長嶋と云所にゆかりあれば、先立て行に、

行行てたふれ伏とも萩の原 - yukiyukite taore-fusu tomo hagi no hara
曾良 Sora

と書置たり。行ものゝ悲しみ残ものゝうらみ隻鳧のわかれて雲にまよふがごとし。予も又

今日よりや書付消さん笠の露 kyoo yori ya kakitsuke kesan kasa no tsuyu


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source : facebook

Natadera 石川県小松市那谷町ユ122 Komatsu, Ishikawa

- Homepage of the temple
- source : www.natadera.com


- quote -
The origins of Natadera
Natadera has its principal deities the Eleven-headed Thousand-Armed Kannon(Sanskrit:Avalokitesvara), the Hakusan Myori-daigongen(Engulish:the Supreme Power of Hakusan), and the natural rocky mountain caves, has worshipped both gods and Buddha from it's beginnings.
Taicho brought the teachings of Jinenchi from the heart of the Yoshino mountains, and founded the temple in the beginning of the Nara Period, in the first year of the Yoro Era(717 C.E.), calling it Iwaya-dera.
The name was changed to Natadera by the emperor Kazan, who ruled during the Heian Period. In his later years, Kazan often stayed at the temple, and designed the gardens to resemble the Fudaraku mountain of the Pure Land on which lives Kannon (Skt:Sukhavati.)
- source : www.natadera.com/en -



. Kazan Tenno 花山天皇 (968 - 1008) .

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山中や菊はたおらぬ湯の匂
Yamanaka ya kiku o taoranu yu no nioi

Yamanaka -
no need to pluck chrysanthemums:
the fragrance of these springs

Tr. Barnhill



今日よりや書付消さん笠の露
kyoo yori ya kakitsuke kesan kasa no tsuyu

from this day forth -
the inscription washed away
by the dew on my hat

Tr. Barnhill


Read the text of Barnhill here
source : books.google.co.jp


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今日よりや書付消さん笠の露
kyoo yori ya kakitsuke kesan kasa no tsuyu

From today on
I'll keep the inscription erased
dew hat.

Tr. Aitken



from this very day
cancel out the inscription
bamboo peaked hat's dew

Tr. Corman / Kamaike


MORE - hokku about - kasa 笠 hat - by
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


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quote from Will Aitken
The Kakusan Gorge is so beautiful, the air so clear, the birdsong so piercing, there's an air of unreality about this walk, as though it exists outside of time.

In a way it does, because people come from all over the world to this isolated peninsula in northern Honshu, a three-hour train ride from Tokyo, to stroll this path and to view the same landscape that Basho, one of Japan's greatest and most influential poets, first visited in 1689. He bathed at a mineral springs in Yamanaka Onsen, the village at the end of this walk, and afterward wrote these lines:

After bathing for hours
In Yamanaka's waters
I couldn't even pick a flower.

Tr. Will Aitken

- snip -
For a poet noted for the stark simplicity of his lines, Basho led a tumultuous life.
. . . . And as for his humble ways, he and Sora usually stayed, not in picturesque huts where they shared frugal meals, but instead lived well in the villas of wealthy merchant-class patrons along the way.

MORE

source : Will Aitken

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Matsuo Basho took a break from his "Narrow Road to the Deep North" Journey and stayed at a Ryokan named "Izumiya" in Yamanaka Onsen from July 27th (September 10th on the solar calendar) to August 5th of Genroku 2 (1689).
During the nine days, Basho visited the Shrine of the Healing Buddha, spent a relaxing time at the hot spring, and enjoyed the magnificent landscape of Yamanaka Onsen thoroughly.
Later he praised Yamanaka Onsen as one fo the three best hot springs in Japan.

Afterwards Matsuo Basho recited a haiku:
"Yamanaka ya Kiku wa taoraji Yu no nihoi".
This haiku means that Yamanaka Onsen can give one longevity and "after going into Yamanaka Onsen's hot spring water, you don't even need to drink the dew of the chrysanthenum of eternal youth that is collected by the Chinese Chrysanthenum Fairies.".



"Gyoki, Nobutsura, Rennyo, Basho"
are worshipped as the "Four Sages" of Yamanaka Onsen since ancient times and are respected even now as the persons who built the foundation of Yamanaka Onsen.

Gyoki was the monk who discovered Yamanaka Onsen during Nara Era, and Nobutsura Hasebe was the Lord of Noto who revived this hot spring which was lying derelict.
The eminent monk Rennyo also left numerous legends behind him during his visit to the Yamanaka Onsen.

The Four Sages were deeply connected with Yamanaka in different eras; and with 1300 years of history, visitors can still feel the rich culture in this Onsen District along with the constantly flowing hot springs that emerges from underground.
source : www.yamanaka-spa.or.jp


Basho also wrote this hokku

かがり火(いさり火)にかじかや波の下むせび
漁り火に鰍や浪の下むせび
isaribi ni kajika ya nami no shita musebi
kagaribi ni . . .

by the fish-luring fires
a bullhead - under the waves
sobbing

Tr. Gabi Greve

Written in 1689 元禄2年7月.

In Yamanaka Hot spring there are 10 specialities, one of them the "Takase fish-luring fires" 高瀬の漁火".

. WKD : bullhead, kajika 鰍 (かじか) .
Cottus pollux or Synanceja verrucosa and Syanaceja horrida


Fires to lure fish have been used in Japan since olden times:

yozuribi 夜釣火(よづりび) light (bonfire) for night fishing
yotaki 夜焚 (よたき) bonfire at night
yotakibune 夜焚舟(よたきぶね) boat with a bonfire or light
To lure the fish at sea, for example octopus.

. WKD : Fishing in Summer .

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湯の名残り幾度見るや霧のもと
yu no nagori iku tabi miru ya kiri no moto

leaving the hot springs,
looking back how many times —
beneath the mist

Tr. Barnhill


leaving the hot springs:
looking back how many times,
searching thruogh the mist

Tr. Chilcott


leaving this hot spring
I look back so many times -
it is all in fog

- or -
leaving this hot spring
I look back so many times -
all in a fog

Tr. Gabi Greve


Basho wrote this and the following hokku as a parting gift for the owner of the hot spring lodging where he had stayed.

The cut marker YA is at the end of line 2.

. WKD : kiri 霧 (きり) fog (in autumn) .
kasumi 霞 mist (in spring)

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湯の名残り今宵は肌の寒からん
湯の名残今宵は肌の寒からむ
yu no nagori koyoi wa hada no samukaran

leaving the hot-springs:
tonight my skin
will be cool

Tr. Barnhill



leaving the hot springs:
tonight my skin will feel so
very cool, so cool

Tr. Chilcott



. WKD : hada samu 肌寒 "the skin feels cold" .
kigo for autumn


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source : en.wikipedia.org

Basho and Sora parting at Yamanaka Onsen 山中温泉


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Yamanaka laquer ware 山中漆器
wood carved into simple forms with a layer of laquer to keep it usable for a long time.

. . . CLICK here for Photos !


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