Author’s note: I’m afraid that my November with Basho ends today. Unfortunately, due to illness, work demands, and Thanksgiving, I could not keep up. I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey. Sora, suffering from persistent stomach ailments, was forced to return to his relatives in Nagashima in Ise Province. […]
Along the road to Yamanaka Hot Springs, Mount Shirane rose behind our backs. At the foot of a mountain to our left we found a small temple to compassionate Kannon. After the retired Emperor Kazan had made a pilgrimage to the thirty-three western temples, he enshrined an image […]
At a village called Komatsu: Aptly named Komatsu Child Pine, a breeze blows over pampas and clover Here we visited Tada Shrine to see Sanemori’s helmet and a piece of his brocade armor-cloth presented to him by Lord Yoshitomo when he served the Genji clan. His helmet was […]
We crossed Mount Unohana and Kurikara Valley at noon on the fifteenth day of the seventh moon and entered Kanazawa, there we took rooms at an inn with a merchant from Osaka, a Mr. Kansho, who was in town to attend memorial services for the haiku poet Issho, […]
After several days, clouds gathering over the North Road, we left Sakata reluctantly, aching at the thought of a hundred thirty miles to the provincial capital of Kaga. We crossed the Nezu Barrier into Echigo Province, and from there went on to Ichiburi Barrier in Etchu, restating our […]
Husband, Father, Writer, Teacher. American Haijin. Because Haikai matters!
Frank J. Tassone 