Mon kado gate

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Daruma Pilgrims Gallery

kokerabuki 柿葺 see below
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mon 門　(kado) ...
the gate of a temple, castle, town or estate



Many farmhouses in my area have a "nagayamon" "long gate house", with one room for the retired head of the family (inkyobeya) and some space for storing supplies at the other side of the entrance throughfare.


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The most beautiful "gate" is probably the Yomeimon in Nikko,
part of the world heritage of Nikko.
陽明門【ようめいもん】－日光東照宮



sanmon 山門 "mountain gate" of a Buddhist temple


monzenmachi 門前町 town in front of the gate of a temple or shrine
They vere especially prosperous with pilgrims during the Edo period.

akazumon 不開門
byoumon 廟門
chuumon 中門
Dairimon 内裏門
hakkyakumon 八脚門
kabukimon 冠木門
Narukomon 鳴子門
roumon 楼門
suzakumon　朱雀門
yashikimon 屋敷門
Youmeimon 陽明門 and many more
Read more information about Japanese Gates
JAANUS : gate ... Daimon 大門 (the Big Gate)


amigasamon 編笠門 lit. gate like a braided straw hat



- quote
amigasamon 編笠門 Also written 網笠門.
A wattle-hood gate.
A simple gate used as a middle gate in a garden *roji 露地, surrounding a tea ceremony house *chashitsu 茶室. The name derives from the gate's resemblance to the shape of a wattle or braided hat. A simple shingled roof *kokerabuki 柿葺, or a cypress-bark thatched roofing *hiwadabuki 檜葺, is commonly used for this type of gate.
An example at Mushakouji Senke 武者小路千家 in Kyoto has a 62cm frontage and is roofed with boards that are 0.9-1.5cm thick, 65cm long and 9-15cm wide. The Japanese cedar boards, sugi-ita 杉板, are the thickest type of roofing boards. The ridge is made of curved bamboo and the underside of the roof is lined with split cedar strips and white bamboo. The gate doors are made of bamboo lattice set in a frame of duck boards *sunoko 簀の子. Another famous example is the middle gate at Daitokuji Kohouan 大徳寺孤蓬庵 in Kyoto.
- source : jaanus/deta/a/amigasamon



- - - - - CLICK for more photos !
kokerabuki　柿葺
A roof covering made with a layer of thin wooden shingles made of cypress. The shingles are about 0.3cm-0.5cm thick, 9cm-15cm wide and about 30cm long. The shingles are secured with bamboo nails.
Sometimes cedar or persimmon wood is used.
(JAANUS)

kokerabukishi, kokerabuki-shi 柿葺師 / こけら葺師
craftsman roofing with wooden shingles
He keeps a lot of bamboo nails in his mouth and spits them out one by one to hammer in as the work proceedes and he fixes each tile on the roof.


- read it online : gakugei-pub.jp -
檜皮葺と柿葺 / 原田多加司
Chapter 1: 1　檜皮葺・柿葺の歴史　屋根の歴史、職人の歴史

. Fukiyachoo 葺屋町 Fukiyacho District of roof thatchers .
Edo

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .


. monzenmachi　門前町　"town in front of the gate" .


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kuchi wa wazawai no kado 口は禍の門
The mouth is the front-gate
of all misfortune.
The mouth is the root of trouble.



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H A I K U


kigo for the New Year

kado no haru 門の春（かどのはる） spring at the gate


. Gate Decoration with Pine, kadomatsu 門松 　


. kado nyuudo 門入道（かどにゅうどう）to ward off the demons at the gate 　
oniuchigi, oni uchigi 鬼打木 (おにうちぎ)


. kadorei 門礼（かどれい）New Year visitor ("at the gate" ) 　
..... kado no reichoo 門の礼帳（かどのれいちょう）
book for signing New Year wishes



. kadobiraki 門開き（かどびらき） "opening the gates again" 　
..... kadoake 門明け（かどあけ）


. hatsu kadode 初門出 (はつかどで) first going out 　
..... hatsuasa kadode 初朝戸出（はつあさとで）
first leaving the house on January 1


. kado-uchi 門打（かどうち）"hitting the gate", spring prayer at the gate 　
special ceremony in North Japan



Sanmonbiraki, sanmon biraki 山門開き (さんもんびらき)
opening the temple gate
During the Edo period, the gates of famous temples in Edo were opened on January 16th and people could climb up the gate tower.
Now this custom has been abolished.


SAIJIKI – NEW YEAR OBSERVANCES


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kigo for all spring

hana no mon 花の門（はなのもん）gate with cherry blossoms


kigo for late spring

kado yanagi 門柳（かどやなぎ）willow tree by the gate


Issa and a pipe haiku

by my gate's willow
. kuwae giseru muyoo de mo nashi kado yanagi 　



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kigo for all summer

. kado shimizu 門清水（かどしみず)
clear water at the corners (of an estate) 　



ari no to watari 蟻の門渡り（ありのとわたり）
ants crossing the gate
(according to the Chinese lore)
refers to a row of ants, to a small mountain pass and to the perineum, part of the human body.



mugura no kado 葎の門（むぐらのかど）
gate covered with cleaver weeds
usually of a poor and abandoned home

. mugura 葎 (むぐら) cleavers



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kigo for late summer

kado suzumi 門涼み（かどすずみ）coolness at the gate






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Read the full discussion of the translations here
. Compiled by Larry Bole 　
Translating Haiku Forum


April is National Poetry Month in the US.
Today, 4/22, I received this Poetry Daily Poet's Pick:

門々の下駄の泥より春立ちぬ
かどかどのげたのどろよりはるたちぬ

Kado kado no
Geta no doro yori
Haru tachinu.

At every doorway,
From the mud on wooden clogs,
Spring begins anew.

Issa

— Translated by Daniel C. Buchanan
One Hundred Famous Haiku
Japan Publications, Inc. (Tokyo and San Francisco 1976)


* * * *

Other translations:

Kado-gado no geta no doro yori haru tachinu

At every gate,
Spring has begun
From the mud on the clogs.
trans. Blyth

Blyth's comment:
To see the beginning of spring in the black mud that sticks to everyone's 'geta',--this especially belongs to Issa. Up to the present, the mud has seemed only something dirty and unwanted, but as the harbinger of spring the mud now is not seen as an inconvenient and ugly thing, but as a delicate happiness for everybody.

* * * *

Kado kado no geta no doro yori har u tachinu.

Spring has come! In the mud of each family's geta.

trans. Max Bickerton
The Transactions of the Asia Society of Japan, Second Series, Vol. IX, 1932

Bickerton's comment:
In his [Issa's] effort to get away from the banal, his conflicts sometimes are very prosaic. Most people associate spring with new leaves, and cherry blossoms, but Issa looks down to people's feet, and sees its arrival in their geta, dirty with the mud of melted snow.

* * * *

kadokado no geta no doro yori haru tachinu

from the mud of geta
going gate-to-gate
spring begins
trans. Higginson
UVA Library Etext Initiative, Japanese Haiku, 'risshun': beginning of spring


* * * *

At every doorway,
From the mud on the wooden clogs
Spring begins anew
trans. Daniel C. Buchanan

I include this translation again because it is also found at the artist Jo Fallon's website:
http://www.jofallon.co.uk/index.php?/work/haiku/



She has illustrated this haiku there with a nice painting.


* * * *

kado-gado no geta no doro yori haru tachinu

muddy clogs
at the gates reveal...
it's spring!
trans. Lanoue



My EL version:

kado kado no geta no doro yori haru tachinu

at gate after gate
mud-caked clogs--
must be spring!


Issa, trans. Larry Bole


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Issa about becoming 60 !

まん六の春と成りけり門の雪
manroku no haru to nari keri kado no yuki

60 years old
my new spring
snow at my gate

. manroku .. the 60th birthday 　


Issa and the outhouse ...
. nushi ari ya no setchin ni mo kado no matsu 　


Issa and the gate of a graveyard
. omboo ga kado mo soyo-soyo aoyagi zo 　



Issa and the new year at his gate
. waga kado wa hiru sugi kara ga ganjitsu zo 　


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門前や　何万石の　遠がすみ
monzen ya nanmangoku no toogasumi

finally Matsuyama !
the far away haze
of a thriving town
(this is a rather free translation)


. Temple Saimyo-Ji and Issa
最明寺（さいみょうじ） 　


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翁忌や何やらしゃべる門雀
okina-ki ya naniyara shaberu kado suzume

Basho's Death-Day--
what are you chattering
sparrows at the gate?


. Issa and the memorial day of Basho 　


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Temple Gate,
no garlic or liquor beyond this point!

. kunshuu sanmon ni iru o yurusazu 　


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. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 Issa in Edo .

あとの家もかすんで音途々哉
ato no ie mo kasunde *[kadode] kadode kana

leaving, leaving
the last house, too
now mist
Tr. Chris Drake

This hokku is from the 2nd month (March) of 1819, the year described in Issa's Year of My Life (Oraga haru). The hokku was written while Issa was traveling around meeting students and patrons in the an area not far from his hometown. The hokku also contains a mystery word that is repeated twice. The word written 音逆 , is repeated twice (the words with asterisks in my Romanization), although its pronunciation doesn't seem to be known.

Issa repeats it in another hokku nearby in his diary, so it's not a mistake for 首途, kadode, 'departure,' though the two words look vaguely similar. No note is given in Issa's complete works, and it is not listed under kadode in the index to Issa's hokku. It is not a commonly known word in Japanese, though it could be Edo-period or local slang or a punning play on words. Literally it means something like 'sound/voice reversal.' I'll try to find out whether scholars in Japan or anywhere else have come up with a good interpretation of this word.

For the moment, however, the concept if not the word kadode seem to be the most likely provisional candidate, judging from the context of the rest of the hokku. Issa seems to be talking about departing, and the repetition of the word fits in well with the other words in the hokku. Issa seems to be leaving one of the towns he's been staying in, probably lodging in the houses of his students. If ato is taken to be the house "after" Issa has left it, the image is redundant and prosaic and conflicts with "too," which seems to refer to other houses.
Rather, the first line seems to say that the house fading into mist is the last house Issa leaves, suggesting that he's stopped at one or more other houses earlier to say goodbye. Issa actually has several students in the area around Zenkoji Temple, where he's been since late in the 1st month, so he may be saying farewell to some of them. After he finishes his farewells at the last house he visits, he leaves town, and the early spring mist gradually comes between him and those he has just been with. Now alone with the mist, he finally feels he has left. The hokku seems to look forward as well as backward as Issa moves on to a new town where other students are waiting -- or perhaps back to his hometown, where his wife and baby daughter are waiting.

Issa uses mist, though a bit differently, in an early hokku about love from 1794, when he was traveling around Kyushu and far-western Honshu. This hokku, apparently in the third person, depicts a man leaving his lover at dawn. It uses a word from classical waka, kinu-ginu, to evoke a man secretly visiting his lover's house and then leaving as soon as the birds begin singing the next morning in order to avoid being detected, and it refers to the woman with the classical word imo. It seems to have been written on a topic, since it has a classical phrase placed before it :

lovers separating

きぬぎぬやかすむ迄見る妹が家
kinu-ginu ya kasumu made miru imo ga ie

parting at dawn
he looks back at her house
until it's mist

The man tries to leave quickly and inconspicuously, yet he walks slowly and keeps looking back until the woman's house is no longer visible in the mist. And the mist allows his heart to return back and linger even longer.

Chris Drake

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夏の夜やあなどる門の草の花
natsu no ya ya anadoru kado no kusa no hana

summer night --
all these wildflowers
by a gate people scorn
Tr. Chris Drake

This hokku was written on the 2nd of the 6th month (July 8) of 1804, when Issa was visiting a town on the Tone River northeast of Edo. Judging from Issa's other hokku, the gate belongs to the house of some rather poor people that most people in town look down on. If they were of the outcast class, Issa would probably have mentioned it. Like many people, Issa has probably been walking around in the evening, cooling off after a hot summer day, and in the dim light he is struck by the beauty of the wildflowers growing near and possibly on the simple gate. Issa doesn't use the word "many," but I take abundance to be suggested by the implied contrast between few human visitors and the many wildflowers that have visited and made the gate their home over the years.

There also seems to be the implication that the residents are too poor to raise fancy flowers for show but that they don't need to because the naturally beautiful wildflowers don't discriminate between the rich and powerful and the poor and weak the way most humans do. Probably there is the further suggestion that people need to learn from wildflowers about the basic equality of all humans and other creatures in the eyes of Amida and the other Buddhas.

Here are some photos of wildflowers that bloom in summer in Japan. Issa doesn't mention any names, so readers can take their pick.
The selection made by Google Japan was much better, so there's not much English here.
- Look at some "kusa no hana" -

Chris Drake


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. Torii 鳥居
Gate of a Shinto Shrine 　


. Geta, Wooden Sandals, Clogs, 下駄


. haru no doro 春の泥 spring mud 　
..... shundei 春泥



. Kimon, the "Demon Gate" 鬼門 　


. Kuromon ("Black Gate") of Temple Kan'ei-ji 　


. Kaminari Mon (Thunder Gate) Asakusa Tokyo 　


. temple gate of Saikoku-Ji 　
with many straw sandals




New temple gate, after the earthquake, in Yonago


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- #mongate #kokerabuki -
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Hokkeji Temple Nara

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Temple Hokke-Ji


Hokkeji (法華寺, Hokke-ji)
is a Buddhist temple located in the city of Nara, Japan.

Hokke-ji was built by Empress Kōmyō in 745, originally as a nunnery temple on the grounds where previously her father Fujiwara no Fuhito's mansion stood. According to records kept by the temple, the initial construction went on until around 782. The temple once had a large complex with several halls and gates, and two pagodas.

Hokke-ji was no exception to be heavily damaged in the fierce Siege of Nara, in 1180. In spite of reconstructions in the 12 to 13th century, the complex was again hit by civil war fights during Sengoku period.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !




奈良　法華寺　光明宗総国分尼寺
http://www.hokkeji-nara.jp/


The name is sometimes rendered as
Hokkedera or Hokedera in English.

. . . . .


Hina eshiki 雛会式/ ひな会式 Hina Doll Ceremony
From the first to the seventh of April.
In memory of Empress Komyo Kogo.

. WKD : hina matsuri　雛祭り Doll Festival


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Empress Komyo 光明皇后 Komyo Kogo

source : hokkeji museum


. Yoogooji 影向寺 Yogo-Ji - Kawasaki .
Empress Komyo is healed by Yakushi Nyorai in 739.


Empress Kōmyō
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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The Salvation of Women in Pure Land Tradition

The Neo-shingon Vinaya monks recognized the rebirth of women and constructed an ordination platform at Hokkedera which permitted them to become regular nuns.
This possibility was open to all women believers.

source : www.shindharmanet.com


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法華寺の空とぶ蛇の眇かな
Hokkeji no sora tobu hebi no manako kana

the squint of the eyes
of a serpent flying in the sky
of temple Hokke-ji

Yasui Koji (Kooji) 安井浩司

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waga seko to
futari mimaseba
ikubaku ka
kono furu yuki no
ureshikaramashi

Were my man
and I to view it together
how very much
this falling snow
would pleasure me.

Empress Koomyoo (701-60)
Tr. Bill Higginson


Empress Komyo (光明皇后, Kōmyō kōgō)
(701–760)
was the Nara period consort of Japanese Emperor Shōmu (701–756).
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


Emperor Shōmu (聖武天皇 Shōmu-tennō) (701 – June 4, 756)
was the 45th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.
Shōmu's reign spanned the years 724 through 749.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


国分尼寺 Kokubun-niji for nuns
. Temple Kokubun-Ji 国分寺 .


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Hokkeji no mamori inu 法華寺の守り犬 protector dog
. . . CLICK here for Photos !

These little clay figures are twisted by hand and then fired. They come in three sizes. They are all made by the nuns of the temple.
Most are painted with young pines. The wood of these trees is used for goma fire ceremonies 護摩木. The ashes from these fires are mixed with the clay.
They also have five red spots for the five parts of a human body 五体.
On the back side is the character for mountain 山, referring to the fact that clay and earth from the compounds of this monastery (mountain) are used.



It is even the subject of a stamp from the year 1969.

. Folk Toys from Nara .


Another toy statue from this temple:

. Shotoku Taishi figure 聖徳太子の尊像 .



. Inu 戌 /　犬　Dog toys and amulets .

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法華寺に守り犬買ふ小正月
Hokkeji ni mamori inu kau koshoogatsu

at temple Hokke-Ji
I buy a dog talisman -
little New Year

Kawai Kayoko 河合佳代子

. WKD : "Little New Year" (koshoogatsu)
January 15

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Haiku about Hokke-Ji

法華寺が多し洛都(みやこ)の暑さかな 筑紫磐井 婆伽梵
法華寺の厠正しき暑さかな 攝津幸彦 未刊句集
法華寺さま菓子も薄紅初句会 澤田弦四朗
法華寺に届く塗箱椿餅 田中英子
法華寺に見ざりし土筆隅寺に 森 澄雄
法華寺の減罪の凍て畳より 井沢正江 晩蝉
法華寺の甍の雨の秋の昼 森澄雄 游方
法華寺の空とぶ蛇の眇(まなこ)かな 安井浩司(1936-)
法華寺の蛇も前兆(シーニュ)に堕ちるべし 安井浩司 密母集
法華寺の里に玉苗余りけり 大屋達治 龍宮
法華寺や開花非開花まんじゆ沙華 北野民夫

海棠や藁屋造りの法華寺 平野木守
秋海や天津小湊法華寺 小杉余子 余子句選

source : HAIKUreikuDB

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Daruma Pilgrims in Japan


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Pagoda (too)

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Daruma Pilgrims Gallery

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Pagodas of all kinds

quote
tou　塔
Also called touba 塔婆, sotoba 卒都婆 or *tasoutou 多層塔 (lit. many layered tower).
A pagoda. Originally in India, a facility for preserving the Buddha's ashes in a simple earthen mound. Over time, the mounds became more and more elaborate.

As Buddhism spread through Central Asia the mound became smaller, elongated and the finial *sourin 相輪, became larger in proportion to the base. After Buddhism reached China, influence from the Chinese watchtower combined with the central Asian stupa to form a tall, tiered structure.

From China it spread to Korea and thence to Japan where it became the focal point on a central axis in early Japanese temples. One pagoda was positioned on an east-west axis sharing importance with a *kondou 金堂 (lit. golden hall) on each side of it. (See *garan haichi 伽藍配置). During the 6c. to 9c. centuries, pagodas were repositories for the Buddha's relics. Also pagodas were built to mark a holy site or as an oblation to the soul of the dead.
During the 8c., two identical pagodas were commonly constructed and were usually placed outside the sacred area where the kondou was enclosed, as at Todaiji 東大寺, Nara. They are no longer extant.
With the introduction of esoteric Buddhist sects, the *tahoutou 多宝塔, a 2- storied pagoda, became popular while the pagoda as a vessel for the Buddha's ashes or relics gradually lost importance. As new sects and new doctrines spread, the pagoda was relegated to an area apart from the central compound of the temple. The Pure Land sects known as Jodoshu 浄土宗 and Jodo Shinshu 浄土真宗 rarely erected pagodas.

Read more HERE
source : JAANUS




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A pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia.

The word is first attested for in English in the period c. 1625–35; introduced from the Portuguese pagode, temple, from the Persian butkada (but idol + kada temple, dwelling.)
Another etymology, found in many English language dictionaries, is modern English pagoda from Portuguese (via Dravidian), from Sanskrit bhagavati, feminine of bhagavat "blessed" - bhaga "good fortune."
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


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from my archives


"Dragon wheel, dragon vehicle"
ryuusha, ryusha 竜車, 竜舎
see:
. Soorin 相輪 finial of a pagoda 　




. Two-tired red Pagoda at Mt. Koyasan, Wakayama



. 成田山 平和大塔 Peace Pagoda at temple Narita san 　



. Pagoda at temple Toji (Tooji 東寺) 　



. Grave marker (sotoba 卒塔婆) 　
sotoba : Japanese pronounciation for STUPA.　


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Koomyoo-Boo, Ikuchijima, Shimanami Kaido

Pilgrimage to Shikoku - - - Gabi Greve, 2005

Nothing is too bright for Ikuchijima Island
Setoda’s Hirayama Ikuo Museum of Art
and much more
- source : Japan Times, July 2015 -





Stupa in Enoshima, near Kamakura



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kigo for late spring



shakutoo 石塔（しゃくとう）"stone pagoda"
..... shakutoo 積塔（しゃくとう）
shakutoo-e 積塔会 (しゃくとうえ)
ceremony for blind people
..... shakutoo-e 石塔会（しゃくとうえ）
zatoo shakutoo 座頭積塔（ざとうしゃくとう）

. Blind people and Haiku


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looking up
what a high pagoda
in the autumn sky

Masaoka Shiki

. "high sky", "high heaven", ten takashi 天高し : KIGO 　　


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白毫の塔まぼろしに山時雨
Byakugoo no too maboroshi ni yama shigure

the pagoda of temple Byakugo
is now only a vision ...
sleet on the mountain

小島千架子




白毫寺多宝塔

More details about the temple Byakugo-Ji, Nara
(in Japanese, with many photos)
source : ~s_minaga

Byakugo means white cilia on the forehead of Buddha Shakyamuni.
The temple is famous for its camellia trees.
It is dedicated to Amida Buddha, built on behalf of Tenji Tenno (626 - 671). The famous wooden two-tired pagoda has been sold in the Taisho area and could be visited in a private villa 井植山荘 near Takarazuka until 2002, when it burned down during a forest fire.


. Sake Legends and Buddhist Temples　酒とお寺 .
Byakugo-Ji and 酒顛童子 Shuten Doji

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Haiku by Kobayashi Issa


塔ばかり見へて東寺は夏木立
too bakari miete Tooji wa natsu kodachi

only the pagoda
shows from tempel Toji ...
summer trees


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よい程に塔の見へけり雲の峰
yoi hodo ni too no mie-keri kumo no mine

so good
to see this pagoda -
billowing clouds



Pagoda of temple Toji, Kyoto


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Stupa

- quote -
The Origins of the Pagoda
According to Wikipedia, the stupa originated in India as a simple earthen burial mound. After Buddha died, his asheswere buried under eight such mounds. It’s unclear when that was, but in the third century BCE, Emperor Ashoka converted to Buddhism, opened the mounds containing Buddha’s ashes, and redistributed them to the thousands of stupas he had built. We therefore know that the stupa came into existence even before that!

By Ashoka’s era, stupas had become more elaborate. They ceased to be monuments to the dead. Instead, people stored sacred relics in these dome-shaped, commemorative structures.

As we’ve seen, both the concept and the word for “stupa” then traveled to China, where the shape of the structure changed, picking up architectural features from Chinese watchtowers and pavilions. The Chinese built pagodas with an odd number of stories, such as three or five. These Buddhist monuments housed sacred relics and writings.

The pagoda then spread to Korea and from there to Japan, arriving in the sixth century with Buddhism. This type of structure became a common sight in Japan, says Wikipedia, whereas it’s rare on the Asian continent. Although pagodas are quintessentially Buddhist, it’s not unusual to find them at Shinto shrines because the Japanese used to blur the distinctions between the two religions.

It is said that only three pagodas in Japan enshrine Buddha’s ashes. Other pagodas enshrine sutra or treasures, and many Japanese pagodas contain statues of deities. But the Japanese eventually stopped treating such structures as places to enshrine relics. Modern pagodas have gone up as symbols of peace or as places to enshrine the spirits of those lost in World War II.
- - - Eve Kushner

- quote -
How the Indian stupa transformed itself into Chinese, Korean and Japanese pagoda is a complex story. Even though one can find many websites, which require filtering for information, I add some elements which will fill in what Eve Kushner has posted.

(1) First, the Indian stupa evolved from burial mounds of the saintly figures, the Buddha included, around the 6th to 5th century B.C. when he lived. Then, as Eve also notes, it was Emperor Ashoka who chose Buddhism as his state religion in the late 3rd century B.C. He ordered all the then remaining relics of the Buddha to be collected, then divided them into 80,000 parts, it was said. Each relic was deposited on the top of a stupa mound. Eventually, the form of stupa evloved into a complex religious symbol, as seen in the attached photo (showin the Great Stupa No. 1 at Sanchi).



The spot where the relic was deposted is marked by an enclosure called harumika. Within the enclosure, right above the relic is the upright "yasti" mast to which "chatra" parasols are attached. (See the diagram)

The correct number of parasols is three, which was what the Buddha when he was the royal prince before his denounciation was permitted to used. The number of parasols may vary from three, five to eight, and so on. What is important in the transformation of the stupa into the pagoda are the yasti mast and tires of chatra parasols. In the Hinamyana form of Buddhism (the so-called Lesser Vehicle, Primitive Buddhism) the stupa represents the Buddha himself. The devottees would walk around the stupa base clockwise along the walkway, a symbolic gesture of going through one of the many life-cycles the Buddha went through while he was in this universe, before his final transformation, the Pari-Nirvana, spinning out of this universe.

(2) Secondly, realating to the idea of pagoda, we have to consider another branch of Buddhism, the Mahayana form, the so-called Greater Vehicle, more developed form of Buddhism), which spread to Afghanistan in the 1st to 2nd century A.D., where Buddhism picks up the Silk Road traveling along eastward through Central Asia, reaching China at Dunhuang and into China proper, from where to Korea and to Japan. As Eve's note also indicates, it was in China that the idea of pagoda evolves. This is due to the populairty of an architectural type of muti-level pagoda-like buildings being common as early as the Han period and even before. It was this idea of traditional pagoda that was adopted to represent the idea of stupa. However, since it is so combersome to build the entire mound, the most important area at the top of the stupa mound, namely, the yasti mast and chatra parasols within the harmika enclosure were applied to the pagoda architectural type in China.
While the earliest dates of the pagodas in China are not known, the Buddhism was popular by the 6th century A.D. As the Buddhism becomes popular by the Tang period, pagodas evolve into multi-tiers, in some cases over 10 levels and more. So, this how the idea of Indian stupa gets transformed into the pagoda form in China, then reading Korea and Japan.

(3) Lastly, the stupa/pagoda is the depository of the Buddha's relic in the purest form, and later of remains of the saintly sage figures. Just to follow the transformation from the Indian stupa to Chinese pagoda gives us a chance to examine how concepts get transformed to suite the new deeds.
- - - Yoshio Kusaba

- discussion of facebook - May 2015


hootoo 　宝塔　treasure stupa

- quote -
. . . In the early modern period debate over the burial ritual for Tokugawa Ieyasu, Tenkai countered the Yoshida house's Yuiitsu Shintō by newly proclaiming "Ichijitsu Shintō." Following in the tradition of medieval Sannō Shintō, Ichijitsu Shintō gave a doctrinal foundation to the rituals conducted for Ieyasu as Great Radiant Deity of the East (Tōshō Daigongen).



Since Tenkai himself did not leave any particular doctrinal texts, we cannot adequately grasp his own doctrines, but from the fact that Ieyasu's body was interred in a treasure stupa of the kind described in the Lotus Sutra, and from the appearance of an interpretation of Ieyasu's spirit as the incarnation of the Ichiji Kinrin as expressed in the ceremonial procedures for Ieyasu's funeral and interment (Sannō ichijitsu Shintō tōchū kanjō chinza saigoku shinmitsu shiki), we can see that the original ground for the Great Shining Deity of the East was regarded as the Tathagata Sakyamuni, or his esoteric incarnation as Ichiji Kinrin.
- source : Sato Masato - Kokugakuin - 2005


gorintoo　五輪塔　pagoda with five layers

- quote -
INTRODUCTION.
Gorintō (Gorinto) 五輪塔 literally means five-ring or five-wheel pagoda.
Also called Gorin 五輪, Gorinsekitō 五輪石塔, Hōkaitō 法界塔, Gorintōba 五輪塔婆, or Gogedatsurin 五解脱輪.



There are many English translations of gorintō, including five-tier tomb, five-element stele, five-wheel pagoda, five-ring tower or five-tier grave marker. Whatever you may call, it is made of five pieces of stone and serves as a grave marker or cenotaph erected for the repose of the departed, one that in olden days contained a relic of the Buddha (hair, fingernail, bone, etc.) Although many older examples are found in Kyoto and Nara, those made during the Kamakura Period are the most beautiful, say experts on Gorintō. The height ranges from one to four meters. Considered indigenous to Japan and not found in other countries. Most of the existing Gorintō in Kamakura were made in the late Kamakura Period.
- source : Mark Schumacher


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Daruma Pilgrims in Japan

O-Fudo Sama Gallery

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[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]
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Eta and Burakumin

[ . BACK to DARUMA MUSEUM TOP . ]
. The Class System of Edo .
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Daruma Pilgrims Gallery

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Eta and Burakumin

eta 穢多 (えた) "filthy mass" , burakumin
the "untouchables" of the Edo period
die Unberührbaren

burakumin (部落民, Literal translation: "small settlement people")
hamlet people

In the feudal era, the outcast caste were called eta (literally, "an abundance of defilement" or "an abundance of filth").
Some burakumin refer to their own communities as "mura" (村 "villages") and themselves as "mura-no-mono" (村の者 "village people").

They are a Japanese social minority group. The burakumin are one of the main minority groups in Japan, along with the Ainu of Hokkaidō, the Ryukyuans of Okinawa and the residents of Korean and Chinese descent.





The burakumin are descendants of outcast communities of the feudal era, which mainly comprised those with occupations considered "tainted" with death or ritual impurity (such as executioners, undertakers, workers in slaughterhouses, butchers or tanners), and traditionally lived in their own secluded hamlets and ghettos.

They were legally liberated in 1871 with the abolition of the feudal caste system. However, this did not put a stop to social discrimination and their lower living standards, because Japanese family registration (Koseki) was fixed to ancestral home address until recently, which allowed people to deduce their Burakumin membership. The Burakumin were one of the several groups discriminated against within Japanese society.

Other outcast groups included the
hinin (非人—literally "non-human") (the definition of hinin, as well as their social status and typical occupations varied over time, but typically included ex-convicts and vagrants who worked as town guards, street cleaners or entertainers. )

In certain areas of Japan, there is still a stigma attached to being a resident of such areas, including some lingering discrimination in matters such as marriage and employment.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


. WKD : kojiki 乞食 beggar .


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quote
Kan Takayuki suggests that senmin were seen as religious people possessing a special talent which enabled them to interact with the mystical world. Some senmin were also called hafurinotami because they performed hafuri ritual duties. They were untouchable because of some ambiguous feeling involving both fear and reverence. Because of these special powers, senmin could have been a political threat to the Japanese Emperor, a living god and the master Shinto-priest who was supposed to have the same mystical powers. The symbolic power of the purity of the Emperor was enhanced by degrading the senmin class. The Emperor was in the highest position and the senmin were at the lowest in a kind of bipolar religious status.
In order to enhance the Emperor’s religious power, senmin were placed under the direct control of the Emperor or some other powerful clans.
Gradually the Shinto concepts of imi (taboo) and kegare (pollution) became linked to the Buddhist prohibition on taking any life.
source : www.iheu.org/untouchability


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In rural Japan, small settlements and hamlets are also called BURAKU until nowadays.
I live in a hamlet with eight neighbour families, each in turn becomes the "hamlet head" (burakuchoo) for one year, even my husband, when it is our turn. This does not have any negative meaning.


The Class System of Edo
mibun seido 身分制度 (みぶんせいど) Klassensystem

At the end of the Edo period, there were about 6-7% samurai, 80-85% farmers, 5-6% merchants and craftsmen, 1.5% priests for Shinto and Buddhism and 1.6% Eta and Hinin.

shinookooshoo 士農工商 Shinokosho
the four social classes of
warriors, farmers, craftsmen, and merchants


source : blog.katei-x.net/blog


. WKD : The Class System of Edo .

. kyookaku 侠客 Kyokaku, "chivalrous Yakuza" .

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Danzaemon 弾左衛門

- quote -
穢多頭 (eta-gashira) / 弾左衛門 (Danzaemon)
Danzaemon was the name taken by the head of the eta and other outcastes (including hinin and sarukai as well) in the Kantô region during the Edo period. The name is believed to have been passed down in a hereditary fashion, or at least to have been continuously held down through the generations.
The Danzaemon held some degree of direct authority (and responsibility) over the outcaste districts of the city of Edo, and of twelve surrounding provinces under his leadership, including the eight provinces of the Kantô, Izu, Kai, Suruga, and parts of Mutsu province, as well as a lesser degree of authority, and responsibility, over all the outcaste districts (buraku) throughout Japan.
The history of the position, or of the first man to hold it, are unclear, but it is assumed that the first Danzaemon was granted this role by the Tokugawa shogunate. The position seemed to have become definite by the mid-17th century, and from the mid-18th century onwards, the geographical extent of the Danzaemon's authority gradually expanded.
Thirteen men are believed to have held the title over the course of the Edo period, ending with Dannaiki, or Naoki, who was stripped of the role - and of the status, authority, and responsibilities associated with it - around the time of the Meiji Restoration.
- reference source : samurai-archives.com... -


弾左衛門とその時代
塩見鮮一郎

- reference : Edo Danzaemon -

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quote : From the Gutenberg Project
Tales of Old Japan
by Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford

THE ETA MAIDEN AND THE HATAMOTO
Once upon a time,
some two hundred years ago, there lived at a place called Honjô, in Edo, a Hatamoto named Takoji Genzaburô; his age was about twenty-four or twenty-five, and he was of extraordinary personal beauty. His official duties made it incumbent on him to go to the Castle by way of the Adzuma Bridge, and here it was that a strange adventure befel him.

There was a certain Eta, who used to earn his living by going out every day to the Adzuma Bridge, and mending the sandals of the passers-by. Whenever Genzaburô crossed the bridge, the Eta used always to bow to him. This struck him as rather strange; but one day when Genzaburô was out alone, without any retainers following him, and was passing the Adzuma Bridge, the thong of his sandal suddenly broke: this annoyed him very much; however, he recollected the Eta cobbler who always used to bow to him so regularly, so he went to the place where he usually sat, and ordered him to mend his sandal, saying to him:

"Tell me why it is that every time that I pass by this bridge, you salute me so respectfully."


GENZABURÔ'S MEETING WITH THE ETA MAIDEN


When the Eta heard this, he was put out of countenance, and for a while he remained silent; but at last taking courage, he said to Genzaburô,
"Sir, having been honoured with your commands, I am quite put to shame. I was originally a gardener, and used to go to your honour's house and lend a hand in trimming up the garden. In those days your honour was very young, and I myself little better than a child; and so I used to play with your honour, and received many kindnesses at your hands.
My name, sir, is Chokichi. Since those days I have fallen by degrees info dissolute habits, and little by little have sunk to be the vile thing that you now see me."

When Genzaburô heard this he was very much surprised, and, recollecting his old friendship for his playmate, was filled with pity, and said, "Surely, surely, you have fallen very low. Now all you have to do is to presevere and use your utmost endeavours to find a means of escape from the class into which you have fallen, and become a wardsman again. Take this sum: small as it is, let it be a foundation for more to you." And with these words he took ten riyos out of his pouch and handed them to Chokichi, who at first refused to accept the present, but, when it was pressed upon him, received it with thanks.

Genzaburô was leaving him to go home, when two wandering singing-girls came up and spoke to Chokichi; so Genzaburô looked to see what the two women were like. One was a woman of some twenty years of age, and the other was a peerlessly beautiful girl of sixteen; she was neither too fat nor too thin, neither too tall nor too short; her face was oval, like a melon-seed, and her complexion fair and white; her eyes were narrow and bright, her teeth small and even; her nose was aquiline, and her mouth delicately formed, with lovely red lips; her eyebrows were long and fine; she had a profusion of long black hair; she spoke modestly, with a soft sweet voice; and when she smiled, two lovely dimples appeared in her cheeks; in all her movements she was gentle and refined.
Genzaburô fell in love with her at first sight; and she, seeing what a handsome man he was, equally fell in love with him; so that the woman that was with her, perceiving that they were struck with one another, led her away as fast as possible.

MORE is HERE
source : www.gutenberg.org


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Buddhists are not allowed to eat meat of animals with four legs.
The custom of eating meat from four-legged animals in Japan, especially beef, became more popular after the Meiji restauration.
Before modern times, beef was not eaten, only the hides of cows were used for drums and other items.

. WASHOKU - Eating Meat in Japan 　


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- quote -
Japan's hidden caste of untouchables
Mike Sunda
Japan has a reputation of being a homogeneous, mostly harmonious society. There are few foreigners, linguistic differences are rare and on the surface class distinctions are largely absent. But, as Mike Sunda discovered, there is one, often hidden, exception: Japan's untouchables.

In the corner of a pristine room tucked away in Tokyo's Shibaura meat market is a table topped with a stack of crudely composed hate mail - evidence of a prejudice that dates back to medieval times.

Slaughtermen, undertakers, those working with leather and in other "unclean" professions such as sanitation have long been marginalised in Japan. That prejudice continues to this day and especially for those working in the Shibaura abattoir.
Never mind that the men here are dicing up some of the most expensive and highly prized animals on the planet. This is where Japan's world famous wagyu beef is prepared - prime steaks, shot through with ribbons of fat, that can set you back eye-watering prices.

It's a process requiring such immense skill, training and mental fortitude that mastering the job can take a decade. And yet, for all the craftsmanship that goes into their work, many here will never speak freely about their occupation.
"When people ask us about what sort of work we do, we hesitate over how to answer," slaughterman Yuki Miyazaki says.

"In most cases, it's because we don't want our families to get hurt. If it's us facing discrimination, we can fight against that. But if our children are discriminated against, they don't have the power to fight back. We have to protect them."

Feudal origins
Like many in the abattoir because of his profession, Miyazaki is associated with the Burakumin, Japan's "untouchable" class.

Burakumin, meaning "hamlet people", dates back to the feudal era. It originally referred to the segregated communities made up of labourers working in occupations that were considered impure or tainted by death, such as executioners, butchers and undertakers.

The lowest of these outcasts, known as Eta, meaning "abundance of filth", could be killed with impunity by members of the Samurai if they had committed a crime. As recently as the mid-19th Century a magistrate is recorded as declaring that "an Eta is worth one seventh of an ordinary person".

Though generally considered offensive, the term Eta is still in use today. One of the letters received at the abattoir expresses sympathy for the animals being killed "as they're being killed by Eta."

The caste system was abolished in 1871 along with the feudal system. Yet barriers to their integration remained. Marginalised Burakumin communities were widespread across Japan.

Having the wrong address on your family registry, which records birthplace and is often requested by employers, often led to discrimination.
Efforts were made in the 1960s to improve their lot by funding assimilation projects that improved housing and raise living standards, but despite this discrimination continued..

Blacklist
In the mid-1970s, a Buraku rights group discovered the existence of a 330-page handwritten list of Buraku names and community locations that was being sold secretly to employers by mail order.

Many big name Japanese firms were using the list to screen job applicants.
As recently as 2009, there was public outcry when Google Earth incorporated publicly available historical maps of Tokyo and Osaka that pinpointed the location of Buraku villages in feudal times, dragging up the contentious issues of prejudice and profiling.

Today, the exact number of people living in historic Buraku communities is hard to pin down.

A government survey in 1993, listed nearly a million people living in more than 4,000 communities around the country. The Burakumin Liberation League (BLL), a rights organisation founded in 1955, puts the number of communities at around 6,000 and estimates that the total number of Burakumin is closer to three million.
Toshikazu Kondo, from the BLL, says they still encounter such lists today, but find that they are being used for different purposes.
"When it was discovered in the 1970s that corporations were using these lists to conduct background checks on potential recruits, regulations were brought up to make that illegal," he says.

"Nowadays it's still a well-known fact that people are buying this information, but rather than corporations, it's individuals buying it to check on future in-laws ahead of marriage. That's one of the biggest examples of discrimination that we frequently face."

The mob connection
In a survey last year conducted by the Tokyo government, one in 10 said that they would have reservations about their child marrying someone with Burakumin ancestry, although nearly a half of respondents said this wouldn't bother them.
One reason for the lingering stigma may be the association of Buraku communities with the yakuza, the Japanese mob.
Jake Adelstein, an American reporter who has worked the Japanese crime beat for 20 years, estimates that a third of yakuza come from Buraku communities, drawn to the organization when other doors were closed to them.

A yakuza leader justified his organisation to Adelstein on the basis that it gave people who had suffered discrimination a family and discipline.

"It's true - the yakuza is a meritocracy," Adelstein says. "If you are willing to be ruthless and a bully and pledge your loyalty to your boss, they'll take you."
However, it's not just those with Burakumin ancestry that run the risk of prejudice. So strong is the historic connection between certain jobs and this historical category of outcasts that all workers at the slaughterhouse run the risk of discrimination, no matter their family history.

Beer snub
Yutaka Tochigi, the 58-year-old president of the Shibaura Slaughterhouse Union left his job as a computer programmer to spend more time with his children but immediately ran into opposition from his family.
"My father said to me that I might as well be pumping septic tanks. I realised that he meant I was doing a Burakumin job," says Tochigi, who doesn't have Burakumin ancestry.

"I remember once when my wife and I were visiting with some of her father's relatives. When I told them what I did, they stopped pouring me beer."

Both Tochigi, and the BLL's Kondo are, however, hopeful that things are changing for the better.

"You don't see as much hate speech as before - and those who have attempted it have been forced to pay damages in court cases," Kondo says.

"We still hear about workplace discrimination and anti-Burakumin graffiti, but more than ever before there are people getting in touch to inform us when this happens."
The small room which contains the table display of hate mail is part of the Shibaura meat market's information centre, an educational outreach effort to try and change attitudes.

Just next to the table, on a wall, are letters of another kind. Grateful messages from groups of schoolchildren brought in on tours to learn about the remarkable skill and dedication with which the labourers carry out their jobs - evidence, perhaps, that old, discriminatory habits may yet be consigned to history.
- source : Mike Sunda -

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Haiku by Kobayashi Issa


えた村の御講幟やお霜月
eta mura no okoo nobori ya o-shimotsuki

in the Eta village
there is a Buddhist banner -
this frost month

Frost Month (shimotsuki)
the eleventh lunar month, now November

. . . . .

えた町も夜はうつくしき砧哉
eta mura mo yo wa utsukushiki kinuta kana

in the outcasts' village too
a lovely night...
pounding cloth

. kinuta 砧 (きぬた) fulling block 　

. . . . .

えっ太らが家の尻より蓮の花 　
ettara ga ie no shiri yori hasu no hana

outcastes' houses --
behind them nothing but
lotus blossoms
Tr. Chris Drake


This hokku is from the 6th month (July) of 1822. I take it to be a strongly positive hokku indicating that Issa feels this outcaste village beside a pond or lake is paradoxically able to give humans in general a vision of the Pure Land on earth. The so-called Eta or "Much Filth" class was the lower of the two outcaste classes in Issa's time, placed below the Hinin or "Non-Human" class, which was not hereditary and which could sometimes be escaped from. The Eta or Ettara, the colloquial term used by Issa, were considered by the authorities and most people to be not only unclean but somehow spiritually "polluted," and after the establishment of the shogunate, they were rigidly separated from the rest of society and forced to live in ghetto-like villages or areas of towns and cities. The standard legal formula was that the life of one ordinary person was worth the lives of seven outcastes. Forbidden to farm, they were forced to do "dirty" jobs that were generally looked down on, such as hunting, butchering, tanning, leatherworking, cremation, gravedigging, public sanitation work, low-level police work, and guarding and executing prisoners. They also did gardening and landscaping, though that hardly seems "polluting."

Five hokku earlier in his diary, Issa uses the traditional Buddhist image of the "lotus in the mud," and in this hokku as well he implicitly invokes purity amid filth and mud, though in a somewhat unusual way. This is because, I think, he knows that Shinran, the founder of the True Pure Land school of Buddhism, refused to use the name Eta and spoke only of "those who had done bad deeds" -- a class of people he eventually expanded to include all of humanity in the present age, though he knew most people didn't want to admit their membership. Since no humans are perfect, Shinran asserted, it is those who have admitted to doing bad deeds who are most loved by Amida, since they are existentially dependent on Amida to guide them to the Pure Land and believe in Amida with a degree of sincerity and intensity that people who seek to improve their karma by themselves by doing good are unable to feel. As Issa also knew, the overwhelming majority of outcaste families believed in Amida and prayed at a True Pure Land "Eta temple" nearby or in the midst of the ghetto. If Shinran had been alive in Issa's time, when discrimination was minutely codified and ghetto boundaries were more rigid than in Shinran's time, he would probably have praised outcaste communities highly as being deeply loved by Amida. In contrast, the True Pure Land upper clergy in Issa's day mostly cooperated with the shogunate in its policy of strictly segregating the outcastes.

It is Shinran's view that Issa seems to hold: the fronts of the rundown houses in the village are not imposing, but what spreads out behind them is. The houses are near the edge of the water, and behind them stretches out a pond covered with lotus blossoms. The contrast is strong, and the sight beyond the back of the houses is transcendent, so I take Issa to be suggesting that the people in the village, with whom he has probably spoken a bit, have in their own way come close to discovering the Pure Land on earth, although most people in the "ordinary" world, with their mud-spattered eyes, see only "filthy," untouchable people in the village. By implication, the mud in the traditional Buddhist metaphor is the rigid class system which treats some of the most devout and sincere believers in the land as nothing more than unclean semi-humans. The outcastes' houses seem to mark the border separating not only front from back but appearance from reality, and the true spiritual level of the villagers, though many of them are forced by their jobs to kill and skin animals or break other Buddhist injunctions, is something lotus-flower-like that can give a careful observer like Issa a temporary vision of what the Pure Land must be like.

Three years earlier, in the 5th month (June) of 1819, another version of this vision appears:

koukou to eta ga yajiri no shimizu kana

how far it spreads,
the pure water behind
the outcastes' houses　

If you take the trouble to look beyond the front of the outcastes' houses, you can see an expanse of pure water just beyond them that seems to suggest to Issa the clear water said to flow in the Pure Land. A pure spring seems to flow into a pure pond that seems to spread out with no limit in sight. Perhaps the feeling of width, almost vastness (koukou), comes from the purity and naturalness Issa feels in the devout outcaste people who live there. They must seem more sincerely open to Amida than most people he meets.

Chris Drake



七夕やよい子持たる乞食村
tanabata ya yoi ko mottaru kojiki-mura

star festival --
in the beggar village
they're all good kids
Tr. Chris Drake


This early autumn hokku was written in 1826, probably in the 7th month (August), a month before Issa married his third wife. Issa's only surviving child, a girl, was born after he died. A version in a letter sent by Issa during this month has the second line as: yoi ko mochitaru.

Issa doesn't use the word, but he seems to be talking about a ghetto village for people of the Hinin outcaste class. Unlike the Eta outcaste class, the Hinin class was not hereditary, though it was hard to get out once you were in it. It was composed mostly of people who had committed what were considered moderately serious crimes, with incest being one of the most common, along with people who could not support themselves and who no longer had relations with any relatives or were alone and sick or were runaways from their families. Many had become beggars, but the authorities didn't allow independent beggars.

Ordinary beggars were forced to join a Hinin ghetto in a city or a segregated village in the country, as in this hokku. Each ghetto had a headman with many assistants, and they negotiated with the local authorities and found work for able members, who did various cleaning and public sanitation jobs as well as working as low-level policemen and prison workers, etc. They did many of the same jobs that Eta did, such as leatherworking, but they were more vulnerable to being laid off, since they didn't have traditional guild rights, as the hereditary Eta class did. Actors and street performers were good examples of Hinin who were sometimes able to make enough money to rise out of the Hinin class. Those who were weak or had no skills, however, continued to be beggars, with the difference being that they had to get permission from and report their earnings to the local Hinin boss.

Issa seems to have visited a Hinin village near his hometown at the time of the 7/7 star festival, known as Tanabata. In his various hokku about outcastes, Issa often stresses that there is no basic difference between outcastes and non-outcastes, and this hokku is no exception. The children of the village must be playing games all day and night and making festival decorations and shapes from paper or straw, and those of them who can write with a brush express their wishes on strips of paper that they hang from the limbs of small bamboo trees that stand in front of people's houses. The children know the legend about this night, according to which the weaving woman star and the oxherd star, normally separated by the Milky Way, will be able to meet once a year on this night if clouds don't cover the sky, and perhaps they worry as kids will about what will happen to the lovers if it rains.

To Issa the kids in the village show just as much creativity and give off just as much positive energy as kids do in every other village, and he seems to be grateful for festivals like the star festival, when the social distinctions of a rigid class system can be mostly ignored, at least temporarily. Issa's use of yoi, 'good, nice, superb,' covers a wide range of meanings, but probably at root he is stating that all human beings are born good, even if some may be burdened with restrictions due to social class, poverty, or karma (though Issa usually isn't a strong karmic determinist, since the compassion and love of Amida and the believer are stronger than karma). Probably Issa is hoping that many of these children will use their best instincts to escape from the Hinin class when they get a little older. Issa himself surely feels kinship with the children, since he signed the preface to a collection of his work in 1811, the My Year's Collection (Waga haru shuu), with the name "Issa, Boss of the Beggars of Shinano."



The picture shows boys in Issa's time writing wishes or perhaps simple poems that they will tie to the limbs of a cut bamboo tree, which serves as a ritual decoration linking earth and heaven.

Chris Drake


. Tanabata 七夕 Star Festival .


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shizu 賎（しず）身分の低い者 a person of low standing,
meeserly, vulgar, despicable
vulgar, mean ...
of low social status 身分・社会的地位が低い
poor mazushii 貧しい。misuborashii みすぼらしい

賎 (also as adverb iyashii )


senmin 賎民 (賤民) humble [lowly] people [folk]
despise people (as opposed to the ryoomin 良民, the good citizens)
Pöbel; Gesindel; Lumpengesindel; Plebs ; Canaille.
sogar die Unberührbaren

gesen no tami 下賤の民 people of low birth, humble origin
. . . . .gemin 下民

kawaramono 河原者 "people living at the banks of rivers"
(including travelling actors)

People were also divided into 5 subgroups
ryooko 陵戸・ kanko 官戸・ kenin 家人・kumehi 公奴婢・ shimehi 私奴婢
mehi, dohi 奴婢 means servant
Knecht; Gesinde; Hörige ; Diener.

. . . . .

鬼は賎の目に見えない
oni wa shizu no me ni mienai

demons are not visible to lowly people

. . . . .



花は賎の目にも見えけり鬼薊
hana wa shizu no me ni mo mie-keri oni azami

these flowers can be seen
even with the eyes of lowly folks -
demon thistles

Matsuo Basho

Tr. Gabi Greve : Thistle Haiku
Read a discussion of this haiku.

.................................................................................


賎の子や稲摺りかけて月を見る
shizu no ko ya ine surikakete tsuki o miru

this child of low folks -
after husking rice
it looks at the moon
Tr. Gabi Greve


Peasant children
hull rice
gazing at the moon.
Tr. Thomas McAuley


A peasant’s child
husking the rice, pauses
to look at the moon.
Tr. Makoto Ueda


Husking rice,
a child squints up
to view the moon.
Tr. Lucien Stryk



A farmer’s child
hulling rice arrests his hands
to look at the moon.
Tr. Nobuyuki Yuasa



a poor peasant boy
husking rice, he pauses now
to gaze at the moon
source : www.tclt.org.uk



We have the same kanji 賤 in this word

. yamagatsu 山賤(やまがつ) woodcutters 　
lumberjacks

Read this entry with another haiku by Matsuo Basho.


- Kashima Kikoo 鹿島紀行 - A Visit to the Kashima Shrine -
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


MORE - kodomo 子供 child, children -
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


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Daruma Pilgrims in Japan
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