Wandering Spirit - dizasutaa (disaster)

As the years passed I became more and more intrigued with my dad's grocery shop. He taught me how to sell and how to approach our customers. I know that all our customers were happy to see me and they bought almost all something from our grocery shop. They loved me, because I was always happy and honest.
One day a lone monk visited our grocery shop. He needed some fruits and vegetables, but couldn't pay for it. So he offered me to teach me how to write waka and he even recited a few beauties. One of those waka was written by Saigyo and I immediately fell in love with this waka:

along the way
where water is running
in the willow shade
I have stopped to rest
for a little while

At that time I couldn't dream that I would meet one of the best Japanese haiku poets ever, but that's for another part of my story.

I had a nice life with my dad. We often visited the garden of my mother especially when the Wisterias were in full bloom. After 17 years I stilled missed her, but I had learned to cope with it and so was my dad. 
Of course I visited my samourai-master, Hoshina Masayuki, as often as I could. We still were lovers after I returned to my dad. I don't have sad feelings to the time with Hoshina, of course I first was anxious, but Hoshina was always very loving and caring as we slept together. Yes he was a great teacher and a wonderful lover. 

The Great Fire of Edo (Meireki no Taika)

One day, I just had returned from one of my visits to Hoshina, a great disaster had taken place. As I approached Edo I saw that the city was on fire. Everywhere I saw people running, screaming and crying with all black smudges all over their faces. "Don't go into the city", one man said to me, but I had to, because I was anxious for what had happened to my dad. The man tried to hold me, but I pulled back. "I have to go into the city!" I screamed. "My dad ..." 
As I ran into the city almost everyone who I passed yelled at me that I had to go back. Than ... "No!" My dad's grocery was on fire too, but I couldn't see my dad. "Dad! Dad!" I tried to enter the grocery, but the flames were to hot and to big. I felt to the ground and hit the ground with my fists. "Dad! Dad!" 
I don't know how long I had sat there on the ground screaming and crying. I had no feeling of time and wasn't in the present time anymore ... I don't know how long I sat there, but finally I stood up and walked into the still smoldering ashes of my dad's grocery. And than I saw him ... at least what once was my father. I recognized him, because he wore a necklace with an engraving of a blooming Wisteria. A necklace he had made himself to honor my mother to hold her close to his heart. I took the necklace from his skeleton and I put it on. That day I left my city carrying a little urn with the ashes of my dad ... I now was an orphan ... I became a wandering spirit on the age of 17 and a beggar.

Small Wooden Shinto Shrine

Several months later I learned what had been the cause of the Great Fire of Edo. The fire was said to have been started accidentally by a priest who was cremating an allegedly cursed kimono. The kimono had been owned in succession by three teenage girls who all died before ever being able to wear it. When the garment was being burned, a large gust of wind fanned the flames causing the wooden temple to ignite.

カースト・カモーナ バーﾝド・ザ・ホール・スィッティー・ダウﾝ ア・ガスト・アヴ・ワイﾝド

kaasuto kamoona baando za hooru sittii daun a gasuto avu waindo

cursed kimono
burned the whole city down
a gust of wind

© Yozakura (ヨザックラ)

To be continued