Carpe Diem #1162 Ueno Iga Province, birthplace of Basho

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have to apologize for being two days off-line, there were other circumstances that needed my attention, so I am sorry that I couldn't publish.
Today we will visit the region in which Matsuo Basho, my haiku master, and the most famous haiku poet ever was born. Basho was born in Iga Province near (nowadays) Ueno. Basho's birth-place is now in Mie Prefecture.

Here at CDHK we have read a lot about Basho, because of the fact that I see him as my haiku master. His famous "frog pond" haiku was the first ever haiku I read and I immediately fell in love  with this little poem and the beauty of Basho's haiku. This all took place in the late eighties, so I am a haiku poet for almost thirty years.

I love to visit his birth ground together with you here at CDHK. So let us first take a look at the impressive nature of this Prefecture

Rice terraces Mie Prefecture

Maybe Basho wrote the following haiku as he saw these wonderful rice fields:

these fireflies,
like the moon
in all the rice paddies

the scent of early rice - 
cutting through the fields, on the right,
the Rough Shore Sea.

© Matsuo Basho (Tr. Barnhill)

Another nice view of Mie Prefecture we have seen here earlier. And Basho created haiku about it too. These are the so called "Wedded Rocks":

Wedded Rocks

a clam

torn from its shell

departing autumn

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

To explain why this haiku points to the "wedded rocks" we need the Romaji translation of it. I will give it here:

hamaguri no   futami ni wakare   yuku aki zo

"futami" is the name of a port in Mie Prefecture were you can find the above "Wedded Rocks", it's a sacred place for Shintoism.

And to conclude tthis episode about the beauty of Basho's place of birth another wonderful image from one of the bays of Mie Prefecture.

Mie Prefecture coast line

And maybe Basho saw the beauty of this bay and worshiped it as a true haiku poet through the following haiku:

doubt it not:

the blossoms of the tide also show

spring upon this bay

© Basho (Tr. Barnhill)

What to say more ... Basho's birth-place is truly wonderful. How can I ever catch that beauty in my haiku? Well .... I have given it a try:

while the sun descends
the silvery moon ascends the black sky
listen ... a Nightingale

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope you did like this episode and I hope I have inspired you to create haiku or tanka. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 2nd at noon (CET). I hope to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

PS.: Remember our "Cherry Blossom" kukai runs until March 4th 10.00 PM (CET)
PPS.: Maybe you have seen it already, but I have published our prompt-list for March, it is still under construction, but you can already read what is coming up next month.
PPS 2.: There will be no new Universal Jane or Namaste this week. I hope to share those features next month starting March 3rd with a new episode of Namasté.