Frank J. Tassone

Tag: haikai

  • A November with Basho, Day 14

    Climbed Mount Haguro on the third day of the sixth moon and, with the help of a friend who dyes cloth for mountain monks’ robes, Zushi Sakichi, obtained an audience with the Abbot of Gongen Shrine, Master Egaku, who greeted us warmly…The next day we met at the main temple to write haiku the winds…

  • A November with Basho, Day 13

    The Mogami flows from the Michinoku at the far norther edge of Yamagata country. It is dangerous through Go Stone Rapids and Falcon Rapids, circumscribing northern Moutn Itajiki to meet the sea at Sakata. Mountains rose from either side of the boat as we sped between the trees. The boat was only a tiny rice-boat…

  • A November with Basho, Day 12

    In Yamagata Province, the ancient temple founded by Jikaku Daishi in 860, Ryushaku Temple is stone quiet, perfectly tidy… Monks at the foot of the mountain offered rooms, then we climbed the ridge to the temple, scrambling through ancient gnarled pine and oak, gray smooth stones and moss. The temple doors, built on rock, were…

  • A November with Basho, Day 11

    Here (Hiraizumi) three generations of the Fujiwara clan passed as though in a dream. The great outer gates lay in runis. Where Hidehira’s manor stood, rice fields grew. Only Mount Kinkei remained. I climbed the hill where Yoshitsune died; I saw the Kitakami, a broad stream flowing down through the Nambu plain, the Koromo River…

  • A November with Basho, Day 10

    Ojima Beach is not–as its name implies–an island, but a strand projected into the bay. Here one finds the runis of Ungo Zenji’s hermitage and the rock where he sat zazen…Smoke of burning leaves and pine cones drew me on, touching something deep inside. Then the moon rose, shining on the sea, day turned suddenly…

  • A November with Basho, Day 9

    Deeply touched by the famous pine at Takekuma, twin trunks just as long ago… reported to have been cut down and replaced several times, it stood like a relic of a thousand years, impossibly perfect. The poet Kyohaka had given me a poem at my departure: remember to show my master the famous Takekuma pine,…

  • A November with Basho, Day 8

    Through narrow Abumizuri Pass and on, passing Shiroishi Castle, we entered Kasahima Province. We asked for directions to the gravemound of Lord Sanekata, Sei Shonagon’s exiled poet-lover, and were told to turn right in the hillds near the villages of Minowa and Kasashima wgeb we canes ti tge sgurbe if Dosojin. It lies nearly hidden…

  • A November with Basho, Day 7

    Crossed on the ferry at Tsukinowa to the post town of Se-no-ue to see the ruins that were Sato Shoji’s house, beyond town to the left, near the mountains. We were told to look at Saba Moor in Iizuka, and we eventually came to Maru Hill where the castle ruins lay. Seeing the main gate…