Wandering Spirit --- intoraddakkushan (Introduction)

Maybe you can remember me I once was your guest at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai as a ghostwriter. I told you a little bit about my life and my sensei, Matsuo Basho, whom I still miss very much. Master Basho taught me how to write soloku (or as you call it now, haiku) and I am still grateful that he accepted me as one of his disciples. Until that moment my life was a complete disaster.
I was an only child and I lived in Edo (or Kyoto) with my dad. I never had the chance to got to know my mother, because she died as she gave birth to me. My father raised me alone. He was a high ranked samurai and taught me all that I know about going to battle, but also about art and poetry.
When I was about 17 years old my dad passed away in the Great Fire of Meireki, a major city-fire in which Edo was destroyed for more than 60 %. I not only lost my dad, but also all of my family's belongings. After that major disaster I became an outcast and a wanderer under the sun, moon and stars of my beloved Japan.

Of course there is no urge to tell you about me and the life I had, but ... hidden deep inside me there is a kind of longing, a kind of hope, a kind of urge to tell you more about my life and so ... here I am again ... this is the story of my life, Yozakura, the Unknown poet.

ろーすと・あんど・あろーん・あ・わんだーいんぐ・すぴらっと・びにーす・ざ・さん
roosuto ando aroon a wandaaingu supiratto biniisu za san

lost and alone
a wandering spirit
beneath the sun

© よざくら (Yozakura)

Yozakura (1640-1716)

to be continued