Haiku on Mt. Koya: Gate of grave stones
Sep 9th, 2006 by Ad Blankestijn
passing the torii gate
made of grave stones
Month without Godsranto no | torii ya ge ni mo | kannazuki
Kikaku
Another Haiku stone I found on Mt Koya. This one is difficult to explain. The general meaning is: although there are torii gates (a symbol of Shinto shrines) in front of the graves, they have been built of grave stones, and on top of that, Mt Koya is the territory of the Buddha, there are no Japanese native deities here. And that beautifully fits the fact that the author, Kikaku, makes his visit to the mountain in October, the month which was called Kannazuki, or the Month without Gods. In short, this haiku is a crafty play on words.
[Toriigate near a grave on Mt. Koya]
Kikaku (1661-1707) was Basho’s favorite disciple. He was very talented, but (as Basho himself commented) his talent led him to artificiality, as in the above haiku.
Mt Koya is about 1hr 40 min by the Nankai Koya line from Namba St in Osaka; get off at the terminal, Gokurakubashi and take a 5-min cable car for the final haul up the mountain, then transfer to a bus to go to the graveyard.
