Anthony Wood

Young Buson and Hokuju rōsen o itamu

Since his death, Yosa Buson has been famous as a painter. With the criticism of Masaoka

Shiki, his haikai poetry also came to prominence. Though these are the main modes through

which Buson expressed himself throughout his life, there are other examples of work by Buson

that tend to get less attention, especially in English scholarship. One example is his unique long

form poem Hokuju rōsen o itamu. Besides occupying a couple pages in Donald Keene’s World

Within Walls, Ueda Makoto’s The Path of Flowering Thorn, and being the subject of a

dissertation by Eri Yasuhara, it has not received much attention in English scholarship. Keene

and Ueda made known the uniqueness of this poem in the context of Japanese poetry, and Ueda

points out its biographical significance. In Yasuhara’s dissertation she puts this and two other

haishi (hybrid haikai and Chinese poems) by Buson in the context of poetic experimentation with

free verse that was happening in mid-18th century Edo. Though Cheryl Crowley does not

mention this poem in her book Buson, the Bunjin, and the Basho Revival, she does mention three

aspects in Buson’s early poetry, “first, a stance critical of the haidan, second, a strong tendency

to create fictional worlds, and third, frequent allusions to Bashō and his work” (60). Though

written in the same period as Buson’s other early poetry, Hokuju rōsen o itamu breaks with these

last two aspects and becomes a deeply emotional and personal poem, adding another dimension

to the early life of Yosa Buson, showing that his early style was more expansive than scholars

have led us to believe.

The early period of Buson’s poetry is 1739-1751. During this time Buson first went to

Edo and began learning from Hayano Hajin. There are eight hokku that remain from this time.

When Hayano died in 1742, Buson left for Yūki, in present day Ibaraki prefecture, and then
travelled northern Tōhoku, like Bashō and Saigyō before him. From this time there are seven

hokku that remain. After this Buson traveled and then settled in Kyoto in 1751. Besides the 8

hokku written in Edo and the 7 during Buson’s time in the north, there were also 8 more written

during this time period at unknown dates. These poems form the basis for Crowley’s analysis of

Buson’s early style.

Important to this argument is the date when Hokuju Rōsen wo Itamu was first written.

There have been two theories proposed. The first is that it was written in 17771 on the 33rd year

anniversary of Shinga’s2 death (Yasuhara 123-126). The other is that it was written close to the

time of Shinga’s death in 1745, when Buson was 29 (Yasuhara 123-126, Ueda 21). The earliest

copy of this poem was published in 1793, 9 years after Buson’s death, by Shinga’s son

Momohiko with a note “I have reproduced the above just as it was found in the storehouse”

(Buson zenshū vol. 4 26). This publication and note show little evidence as to when the poem

was written, so it is not certain. On one side it is thought that because of the maturity of the verse

that it was written in 1777 on the 33rd anniversary of Shinga’s death. On the other side Ueda

argues that this does not take into account how the poem could have travelled to Yūki, a place

where Buson never returned to. The emotional nature of the poem, which will be discussed

below, might also be reason to believe that it was written in 1745. Though it is uncertain whether

the title is something that Buson wrote or something put on after, it has been there since the

earliest copy of the poem. The word itamu, to mourn, in the title suggests that the sorrow is still

fresh. In addition, the opening line of the poem says that Shinga died this morning. All these

1
An argument originally made by Andō Tsuguo in Yosa Buson p. 63-66
2
Shinga is the real name of Hokuju Rōsen. Hokuju is his retired name and Rōsen is a title of respect that Buson
used for him.
reasons make it seem more likely that this poem was written in 1745 or soon after Shinga’s

death, as opposed to later.

The first point where the poem diverges from the aspects Crowley brought up is that the

personal nature of the poem created through familiar settings contrasts with his other poetry’s

tendency to focus on fictional worlds. This grounded nature of his poem will be explored through

understanding common interpretations.

The interpretation for the first part of the poem is fairly standard. The whole poem is

written in first person with the speaker addressing his passed friend. He begins by mourning the

speakers passing that morning and asking “nanzo haruka naru,” “why are you so far”. He then

explains how he goes to a hill and expresses how the spring flowers there bring him sorrow

without his friend. He then hears the cry of a pheasant, a common image of bereaving the loss of

a loved one. It is at this point that interpretations start to vary based on two problems. The first is

the shift in the speaker in line eight and the other is the use of the unknown word hege in line

nine. (Yasuhara 116-117).

Though this interpretation is not accepted by all, Tomotsugu Muramatsu’s interpretation3

that from lines nine to twelve the speaker is shifted is known well enough to merit mention as a

possible one. The shift to the pheasant becoming the speaker occurs right after the first speaker

mentions that he hears the cry of a pheasant. The pheasant as the speaker is then talking about a

friend that he had. In line five the pheasant says, “I, too, had a friend who lived across the river”

(Yasuhara 120). In the next line, entering into the mind of the pheasant the word hege no keburi,

smoke from a matchlock (which will be discussed below), is interpreted as smoke from a gun

3
Yosa Buson
that killed the pheasant’s friend. The now wounded pheasant seeks cover, but is unable to find

any “among the reeds and grasses” (Yasuhara 112). In line twelve the perspective returns to the

first speaker again as he reflects, “I, too, had a friend who lived across the river” and adds that

today he does not hear the cry.

In addition to the shift in speaker, the other problem is that there are four different

possible meanings that have been proposed for hege. The first is that it is an old word for

kitchen4. Another, that it is used as it was in The Tale of Genji and in The Confessions of Lady

Nijo referring to cremation. A third, that it is a word meaning wood chips5. A fourth, and by far

the most common, is that it is the word henge6, meaning mysterious. The fifth, is that it is a word

referring to a matchlock on a hunter’s rifle7. This first translation would make the smoke be

coming from a house contrasting the warmth of a home with the death of a loved one. The

second would make it be the smoke from the cremation of his recently passed friend. The third

opens it up to include either the first or second interpretation. The fourth would not account for

the origin of the smoke but would allude to the Buddha and the shortness of life. The last would

assume an interpretation where the narrator was shifted to the pheasant and that the smoke came

from the hunter’s rifle that killed the pheasant’s friend. Out of all these interpretations, the first

two and the fourth seem the most plausible, whereas the third seems not to change anything from

the first two, and the fifth becomes quite a stretch to imagine. It is important to make note that,

so far, each of these themes remain closely tied to Buson’s personal experience without creating

a fictional world.

4
Ebara Tazō, Busonzenshū
5
Kuriyama Riichi, Busonshū Issashū
6
Shimizu Takayuki, Yosa Busonshū
7
Muramatsu Tomotsugu, Buson no Tegami
 In the last seven lines of the poem the interpretation remains fairly agreed upon. In line

twelve the word kyō, today, indicates that the poet comes again another day and the lack of the

pheasant makes him think of his departed friend. The refrain from the beginning of the poem

then repeats. He then says he returns to his hut and, without making offerings, looks at the statue

of Amida, melding the image of his passing friend and the Buddha together in his mind. (Ueda

20-21, Yasuhara 117-118).

Opposed to Buson’s other poems of the time, this poem is grounded in a close personal

experience rather than alluding to a classical past or an idealized China. In addition to the

personal nature of the poem, the images in the poem—the hill, the flowers, the pheasant, the

smoke, and the statue of Amida Buddha—are all common things. They seem to point to the

world which Buson lived in and experienced more than they do classical Japan or China.

Besides its interpretation, the emotional nature of the poem also shows that it was far

more a part of Buson’s personal experience rather than a fictional creation. In the poem the

repeating words like “nanzo haruka naru,” “why so far”, and “kokoro chijini” “heart in a

thousand,” images like smoke from a crematory and the cry of a pheasant, the contrast made

with his departed friend, and the beauties of spring give the poem a mournful tone. A tone that

reflects the emotions of loosing a loved one.

The second point where Buson’s poetry diverges from the aspects Crowley mentions are

how his poem uses a new style and lacks allusion to Bashō’s poetry. This poem is often

classified as a haishi, along with Buson’s two other irregular poems, Shunpū batei no kyoku and

Denga no uta. Opposed to these other two though, the language used is more native than the

mixture of Chinese and Japanese used in the other two poems. It is typically seen as something

that is new and a precursor to the development of free verse in the Meiji Period (Keene 384,
Ueda 21). However, Yasuhara puts Buson’s haishi within the larger movement of other

experimentations with free verse that were also taking place within Edo in the mid-18th century

(Yasuhara xi). She also argues that it is possible that Buson could have come in contact with

some of these experimental poets while he was in Edo (Yasuhara 21-22). This poem is made up

of 258 mora and is typically set in 18 uneven lines based on the lineation of the earliest copy.

This is in stark contrast with both the short 5-7-5 mora form of hokku and with the standard 5-7

mora structure of Japanese poetry. This departure from the traditional 5-7 mora structure is not

because of how the lines are set either, but because the words Buson used cannot be fit naturally

into that 5-7 mora structure. All these variations go to show a break from the tradition of Bashō,

his poetic forbearer.

Another way in which this poem breaks from Bashō, contrary to the stylistic aspects

Crowley describes, is Buson’s lack of allusion to Bashō’s poetry in his diction. The words and

phrases used by Buson in this poem were rarely used by Bashō. In the first lines there is nothing

unique which could allude to Bashō. In the third line there is the word oka, hill, which was used

by Bashō in one of his renku sequences, but none of his hokku. The use of the word is not

distinctive enough to be specifically alluding to one of these passages. In the 5th line the flower

tanpopo, dandelion, is not used in any of Bashō’s renku, and nazuna, Shepard’s purse, is used in

4 of Bashō’s hokku. In each case, it is used in a different way than it is by Buson. In the 7th line

the word kigisu, Pheasant, is not found in Bashō poetry. In line 9, the word nishifukukaze, west

wind, is not used by Bashō. In line 10, ozasahara, small bamboo field, is also not used by Bashō.

In the rest of the poem there is nothing used in a way that would set it apart from its typical

usage by other poets. All this shows the lack of probability that Buson alluded to Bashō.
 Taken all together, the different interpretations, the new style, and the lack of allusion to

Bashō show a divergence from the picture Crowley presents of Buson’s early poetry. This could

mean that Buson’s early life, and his approach to poetry, is more complicated than we initially

thought. In this context, a reevaluation of Buson’s early poetry might shed more light on the

diversity of Buson’s early approach to poetry.

 Works Cited

Ando, Tsuguo. Yosa Buson. Kodansha, Tokyo, 1970.

Crowley, Cheryl A. Haikai Poet Yosa Buson and the Basho. Brill, Leiden, 2006

Ebara, Taizo. Buson zen shu. Yuhodoshoten, Tsukuba, 1925.

Keene, Donald. World within Walls. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1976.

Kuriyama, Riichi. Nihon no Koten Kanyaku 58 Buson shu Issa shu. Shogakukan, Tokyo,

1983.

Muramatsu, Tomotsugu. Buson no Tegami. Taishukanshoten, Tokyo, 1990.

Shimizu,Takayuki. Yosa Buson Shu. Shinchosha, Tokyo, 1979.

Tanichi, Yoshikazu. Yosa Buson. Perikansha, Tokyo, 1990.

Ueda, Makoto. The Path of Flowering Thorn. Stanford University Press, Stanford, Calif.,

1998.

Yasuhara, Eri. Buson and Haishi: A Study of Free-Form Haikai Poetry in Eighteenth

Century Japan. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of California, Los Angeles, 1982.

Yosa, Buson. Buson Zenshū. Edited by Tsutomu Ogata. Kōdansha, Tōkyō, 2009.