On the eigth we climbed Moon Mountain, wearing the holy paper necklaces and cotton hats of Shinto priests, following behind a mountain monk whose footsteps passed through mist and clouds and snow and ice, climbing miles higher as though drawn by invisible spirits into the gateway of the sky–sun, moon, and clouds floated by and…

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…

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…