Cluster Nine:
The Fields of Nasu (2)

Basho spent two weeks in Kurobane and wrote so many haiku, that we need two clusters to properly cover his tracks in the old town. Here is the second part of my tour of Basho's haiku stones in 'the fields of Nasu.'

On the 12th, Basho was taken by his host Choboji on a tour to the eastern part of Kurobane, such as the Tamaso shrine. They stayed in the house of Suito, the younger brother, who lived in the area. The weather was fine this day. The next day, Choboji again came by, carrying lunch boxes, and they spent the day holding a renga session. It is surmised that the present hokku was the opening verse of that renga.

The general meaning is: in the grassy summer fields, a man was walking carrying hay he had cut as fodder for his horse. I was walking some way behind him, and the straws that fell from the pack on his back, acted as road marks for me; that is how I found your house.

The pastoral scene, the fact that the poet finds such a natural guide, these motifs are all elements of praise. After all, it was usual to start a renga by praising the person who acted as host for the session, and Basho never fails to keep this tradition.

On his trip to the north, Basho held 13 renga sessions. The first one was in the house of Choboji; the second one in the house of the younger brother Tosui - the haiku Basho wrote then has been introduced above.

It is generally surmised that the present haiku formed part of that first renga. Central participants in the session were of course Choboji himself and his younger brother Tosui. The above haiku is not the opening, but sits somewhere further in the chain. Before it comes a verse about an exile cutting grass in the autumn wind. Basho deftly changes the scene to a gyoja, an ascetic priest as the En no Gyoja to whose clogs he had prayed in an earlier Kurobane haiku. The priest usually meditates on top of a stone, and today also stands on it to pray to the morning sun.

This haiku was written down by Sora. There is no direct link with Oku no Hosomichi, but the scenery fits Kurobane well.

Sora has added the comment that the poem describes no such great scenery as the Barrier at Shirakawa, where the priest Noin had written a famous tanka about the autumn wind. There is only the green of the young rice plants and the fresh barley, among which the farmers are busily working. This type of scenery is not very special (I disagree - but then, in Basho time there was a lot more of nature left and paddies must indeed have been a very common sight!).

But, concludes Sora, standing in that ordinary landscape and then suddenly hearing the voice of the cuckoo - that makes one realize that summer has come - therefore out of an ordinary landscape still a deep seasonal feeling can be born.

Finally the time has come for Basho and Sora to leave Kurobane's hospitality behind. After taking leave from Joboji on the 14th, they go to the house of Suito, the younger brother, for another leave-taking. He kindly provides Basho with a horse, so that the haiku master leaves in the same state as when he arrived.

An attendant from Suito's household accompanies them, as he has to take the horse back. Suddenly this attendant asks: "Can you write a haiku for me on a slip of paper?"

Basho is touched by the interest a (presumably uneducated) stable boy has in poetry - that must be special to Suito's household. (I rather assume that - as much in Oku no Hosomichi - it was pure fiction; then it would be another way of praising the elegance of Suito, Joboji and the people of Kurobane).

Basho writes the above haiku down. In the wide, wide plain of Nasuno, suddenly the voice of a cuckoo could be heard. Cuckoo, go on crying and pull the head of the horse in your direction!