Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #75 Poetry Archive (2) Honeysuckle

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday March 10th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation. After a busy day it's time to relax and that's were our weekends are for. This weekend I love to challenge you again to dive into your archive. This new feature is titled "Poetry Archive" and I think you all know what this feature is about? Yes ... that's correct ... I invite you to dive into your poetry archive and share haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form that mean a lot to you. Please share with us why you did made the choice and try to create a new haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form inspired on the poem you have chosen.

For this weekend I also dived into my archive(s) and I found a wonderful haiku themed "honeysuckle", as you can read in the title of this episode. Of course I have chosen this theme because I love to share a "honeysuckle-haiku".
As you know I use the haigo (pseudonym) Chèvrefeuille which is French for Honeysuckle. It's a wonderful plant, bush, that climbs towards fenches and houses and the flowers have the most sweet perfume. Of course Honeysuckle has also a deeper meaning. I have chosen a haiku in which you can find that deeper meaning.

my dreams wander
along the path of my life ...
Honeysuckle blooms

© Chèvrefeuille (2015)

And as you maybe remember the other goal is to create an all new haiku inspired on the haiku of your "archive-choice". So here is my new haiku inspired on this haiku.

in the twilight
dreams whirl through my mind
Honeysuckle perfume

© Chèvrefeuille (2019)

Well ... I hope you will find your own wonderful haiku in your archive. Ofcourse there is no need to choose a Honeysuckle haiku ... but if you have a nice Honeysuckle haiku feel free to use it.

This episode is open for your submissions next Sunday March 10th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until Sunday March 17th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new regular episode later on. For now ... have a wonderful weekend full of inspiration.

Carpe Diem #1622 Kumano Kodo ... CD Imagination ... Kumano Kodo Waterfall

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

My apologies for being late with publishing our new episode. Today I have chosen the "easy way", because of lack of time, I am on the nightshift, so I have chosen to challenge you with only an image taken somewhere along the Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage route.

I have a wonderful image for your inspiration. The image below shows you the Daimonzaka, a 600 meter section of the Kumano Kode leading to Naichi Taisha, the waterfall.

Daimonzaka ... leading to the waterfall

the sound of water
pointing the way to the Pure Land
meeting Basho

© Chèvrefeuille

You will understand why I created the above haiku. It links to Basho's famous haiku "old pond". But why ... meeting Basho? Well legend tells us that a lot of monks (not Basho by the way) jumped into the waterfall at Nachi (part of Kumano Kodo) to enter paradise ... the Pure Land.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 14th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now ... be inspired.

Carpe Diem #1621 Kumano Kodo ... Nakahechi Route: Tsugizakura-oji to Kumano Hongu Taisha

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Here at CDHK we are always on route as you all know. Every month again I try to give you a challenging route for your inspiration. We have been on several pilgrimages here already and this month we will add another beautiful pilgrimage ... the Kumano Kodo ("ancient road") once traveled by only monks and emperors, but nowadays we all can walk this ancient road ... enjoying the beauty of nature.

Yesterday we started with a part of the Nakahechi Route and today we will go on further on this route. The Nakahechi Route is one of the five routes that make the Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage ... it brings us through the wonderful Kii peninsula and I bet you all will be amazed by the beauty of the Kii peninsula.

This full-day walk is on pavement to Kobiro-toge Pass and then on unpaved mountain trail to Hosshinmon-oji. From Hosshinmon-oji to Kumano Hongu Taisha, the trail switches between forest trail and paved road through settled areas.

As I started this month on the Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage the first thing that cam in mind was Basho's own "pilgrimage" as caught in his "Narrow Road Into The Deep North" and I think this KUmano Kodo needs also a bit of Basho.

[...] "When Basho was on his 'Narrow Road to the Deep North' he visited several Temples and other great places on the Northern Island of Japan.

In summer 1689 he visited the Gyoja-do of Komyoji Temple and saw the picture of the legendary priest En no Goja wearing wooden clogs. He is believed to have started a sect of Buddhism around mountain worship in the 7th century. The saint was very strong in climbing up and down the mountains so Basho, at the beginning of his journey prays to the clogs, not the saint, to help him climb the mountain.

Komyoji Temple

The mountain stands for finding Enlightenment and Basho was strongly seeking for that. Enlightenment is his goal when he starts his Narrow Road. I think in his Narrow Road we can read his transformation to an enlightend person. His Narrow Road was tough and full of disappointment, but also full of joy and spirituality.

In his Spirit I wrote my own Narrow Road, my quest for Enlightenment. My Narrow Road is still going on, but with the International recognition I have been given in 2011, that Enlightenment is nearer than I could ever dream of."[...] (Source: Basho Revisited)

The next haiku Basho wrote when he was in the Komyoji Temple as mentioned above.

natsu yama ni   ashida o ogamu   kadode kana

a summer mountain
I pray to the wooden clogs
at departure

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

And back to my own Narrow Road, my search for Enlightenment. Basho's haiku is such a nice one and in that haiku he is so ... particularly present. Can I write a haiku in the same Spirit?

searching wisdom
I pray to Mother Earth
before leaving

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope you did like this episode on our Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage and I hope you appreciated my angle with Basho's "Narrow Road".

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 13th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1620 Kumano Kodo ... day one trip ... Takijiri-oji to Tsugizakura-oji

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

The Kumano Kodo, or "ancient road", is a pilgrimage route straight through the Kii Peninsula and was once a pilgrame route only meant for the household of the Emperor, but today it's a very popular hiking route and today I have the first day of one of the hiking routes. It's a short route and it brings us from Takijiri-oji to Tsugizakura-oji.

Here is the short description of this one-day hike along the Kumano Kodo: This one-day hike begins at the Takijiri-oji shrine beside the Tonda River and follows a mountain trail passing through Takahara and Chikatsuyu village to Tsugizakura-oji. The route has some steep inclines and downhill slopes on uneven surfaces. There are paved sections in the village of Takahara and from Chikatsuyu village to Tsugizakura-oji.

Takijiri-oji (Tanaba)

The Takijiri-oji is one of the most ancient Shinto Shrines that you can see as you walk the Kumano Kodo. And the above image shows you the ruins of this Shinto Shrine. Ofcourse this shrine is as sacred as all the other shrines along the Kumano Kodo.

broken past
nature's deities still dwelling
a silent prayer

© Chèvrefeuille

And now it is up to you to create your haiku, tanka or other form of Japanese poetry inspired on this ancient shrine.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 12th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1619 Kumano Kodo ... Nakahechi route (aka the Imperial Route)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are on our way ... yesterday we started our Kumano Kodo pilgrimage ... and I think it will be awesome. I hope you all will enjoy this pilgrimage and I hope it will bring you Inner Peace, Spritual Balance ... and maybe more.

The Kumano Kodo or "ancient road" is one of Japan's most gorgeous pilgrims routes ... it's by the way not just one pilgriage. The Kumano Kodo is a collection of five routes all through the Kii Peninsula. Let me give you some background on this.

climbing the mountain
together with the smiling Buddha
embraced by nature

© Chèvrefeuille

Kii Peninsula

One of Japan's most remote and rewarding journeys, the Kumano Kodō hiking route weaves through the mountainous Kii Peninsula, south of Osaka. Once a sacred pilgrimage reserved for emperors and samurai, the ‘Kumano Old Road’ is today open to all modern-day seekers and wanderers.

Even before organised religion existed in Japan, locals worshipped nature in the mystical landscape of the Kii Peninsula. Towering trees, the nation's tallest waterfall, and the mountains in between were themselves considered kami (gods), and a walk among them became a sacred act. Emperors and samurai kept detailed diaries of their pilgrimages here; one of the earliest was by Fujiwara-no-Munetada (1062–1141), an aristocrat who travelled to Kumano in 1109.

Over the years Buddhist temples and shrines of Shintō, Japan's native religion, were built, making the route's iconography more familiar for the common folk.

Shinto Shrine along the Kumano Kodo

The Kumano Kodō is actually not one route but a network of trails through the deeply forested mountains, with no official start and end point and no prescribed order for approaching a hike. There are moderate to strenuous hiking options lasting a few hours to several days, taking in some of Japan’s top ‘power spots’ – temples, forests and waterfalls thought to enrich the soul.

Historically, pilgrims would visit the Kumano Sanzan – the three grand shrines of Kumano – which are the cornerstones of the Nakahechi route (aka the Imperial Route), the most action-packed route through the region.

This main trail traverses the peninsula from Takijiri-ōji in the west, 38.5km east through to the first of the three grand shrines, at Hongū. Here, the trails diverge toward the other two shrines, either southeast through the mountains toward the waterfall Nachi-no-taki or eastward along the river Kumano-gawa to the town of Shingū.

five sacred routes
in praise of nature's spirits
Kumano Kodo

© Chèvrefeuille

I can imagine the beauty of nature along this "ancient route" ... and nature is (as you all know) the main theme of our wonderful haiku.

thin mountain air

surrounds this old mountain cabin -

I hear the stream

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 11th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... find your balnce and inspiration.

Carpe Diem #1618 Kumano Kodo ... on our way again

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode in our wonderful Kai. This month we will go on a journey again, not by train or plane, but on foot. We are going to walk the Kumano Kodo ("ancient road") one of the most wonderful pilgrimages of Japan.

As you all know my master, Basho, was a traveling poet as was for example Yozakura, the unknown haiku poet and apprentice of Basho. Basho undertook several journeys in the last ten years of his life and we have followed him on his journeys here at CDHK often. His travels weren't pilgrimages, but they ar now seen as pilgrims routes because of his haiku.
Here at CDHK we have walked "Santiago de Compostela" and the Shikoku pilgrimage earlier, so we are experienced pilgrims I think, but this month we will have a "tough" pilgrimage, because the Kumano Kodo goes through the wonderful Kii peninsula of Japan.

Kumano Kodo Map

Let me first tell you a little bit about the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage before we start our pilgrimage this month.

For over 1000 years people from all levels of society, including retired emperors and aristocrats, have made the arduous pilgrimage to Kumano. These pilgrims used a network of routes, now called the Kumano Kodo, which stretched across the mountainous Kii Peninsula.

The walk itself was an integral part of the pilgrimage process as they undertook rigorous religious rites of worship and purification. Walking the ancient Kumano Kodo is a fantastic way to experience the unique cultural landscape of Kumano's spiritual countryside.

In July 2004, the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage routes were registered as UNESCO World Heritage as part of the "Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range" property.

Kumano has been considered a sacred site associated with nature worship since prehistoric times. When Buddhism arrived in Japan in the 6th century this area became a site of ascetic training. As Shinto and Buddhism mixed, the belief of Kumano as a Buddhist Pure Land became prevalent. The 9th and 10th century was the formative period of the sacred sites that we know today.

Pilgrims on the Kumano Kodo

Now we know a little bit more about the Kumano Kodo route(s) ... so we can go on our way again to find inner peace through a pilgrimage straight through the Kii Peninsula. Enjoying the beauty of nature, becoming one with nature, finding our inner peace as haiku poets.

walking the path
overcoming my physical form 
finding Inner Self

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope you all will enjoy this new pilgrimage ... and I hope this pilgrimage will inspire you ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 10th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have a save trip.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #74 Renga With ... Jane Reichhold

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday March 3rd at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first weekend meditation of March and also of Spring that's why I have created a new logo for our weekend meditation. For this first weekend meditation I have chosen an episode of our special feature "Renga With ..." And this weekend I love to honor Jane Reichhold (again) by challenging you to create a Renga with Jane Reichhold.

As you all know creating a Renga With ... gives you six (6) haiku and you have to add the six (6) two lined stanza between them. Ofcourse you can choose your own "line-up" and you have to try to create a closed chain of twelve (12) stanza. Try to let your "closing verse" (ageku) and the "starting verse" (hokku) be in a kind of symbiosis.

For this Renga With Jane Reichhold I have chosen six (6) haiku from her online Saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku". Here are the haiku to work with:

beach diamonds
a new day crystallized
in sunny surf foam

white pussy willows
above a muddy swollen river
fat raindrops

light carried in my arms
apple blossoms from a neighbor
on my doorstep

Tai Chi On The Beach

Tai Chi on the beach
one gull watches
with outstretched wing

between the fields
a break in the evening mist
three lilac bushes

shades of art deco
lying on the beach
abalone shells

© Jane Reichhold (extracted from "A Dictionary of Haiku")

I think this series of haiku is really gorgeous and I think it will give you all satisfaction to work with them and honoring Jane. Take your chance to create a renga together with the best haiku poetess of modern times. Have fun!

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday March 3rd at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 10th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new (regular) episode around that same time too. For now ... have an awesome weekend.