25. Hiraizumi, Notes 1–9
1. Three generations of the Ōshū Fujiwara—Kiyohira (1056–1128), Motohira (1105–1157), and Hidehira (1122–1187)—ruled northern Honshu from Hiraizumi. (Ōshū was another name for Mutsu Province and Oku.) Yasuhira (1155–1189), the fourth and last Fujiwara ruler, was killed when the Fujiwara lands were taken by the forces of Minamoto no Yoritomo, head of the Genji, who emerged from the Gempei War (1180–1185) as the most powerful warlord in Japan. When Bashō and Sora visited Hiraizumi five centuries after Yasuhira’s death, few traces remained of the Fujiwara capital and its magnificent temple complexes—Chūson, built by Kiyohira; Mōtsū, built by Motohira and Hidehira; and Muryōkō, built by Hidehira.
The first temple at Hiraizumi was established in 850 by Great Teacher Jikaku of the Tendai sect, who also established Zuigan Temple in Matsushima. (See “23. Matsushima,” note 6.)
2. “Traces of the Great Gate”: Nandaimon (Great Gate of the South) was the main entrance of Mōtsū Temple. The two-story gate stood at the south end of the north-south axis, with the main temple building to the north, across a pond. When Bashō visited, most of the buildings were gone. In 1226 the main hall was destroyed by fire; the Great Gate and two other buildings burned down in the sixteenth century (Nomination).
“Traces of Hidehira”: to the east of Mōtsū Temple, Hidehira built Muryōkō Temple in imitation of the Amida Hall of Byōdō Temple in Uji, near Kyōto. Destroyed by fire in the mid-thirteenth century, Muryōkō was gone when Bashō visited. Between the Muryōkō site and the west bank of the Kitakami River, in a grassy field below Takadachi, traces of the Ōshū Fujiwara residences and government offices have been excavated. The area is called Yanagi-no-gosho (Willow Palace) (Nomination).
Hidehira built a temple called Muryōkō just west of Yanagi-no-gosho. Mt. Kinkei, which, Bashō notes, was only feature of the temple that remains as it was, rises west of Muryōkō, in the direction of the setting sun and the Western Paradise.
Muryōkō Temple was aligned to the sun setting over Mt. Kinkei, a hill a third of a mile due west, in the direction of Amida’s Western Pure Land. On the peak of Mt. Kinkei (Golden Chickens), Hidehira is said to have buried a golden rooster and hen as guardians of Hiraizumi. Sutras have been found in a mound at the summit.
3. The Genji commander Minamoto no Yoshitsune is not mentioned by name in the allusive, elliptical narrative, but he is its central character. Readers would have known the story of his heroic life and tragic death because it had been told, retold, and embellished for five centuries, in legends, chronicles, romances, ballad-dances, nō dramas, and kabuki and puppet plays. (See “15. Historic Traces of Satō Shōji,” notes 4 and 6, and “22. Illustrious Deities of Shiogama,” note 3.)
Takadachi (“Fortified Residence on a Height”) was the name of Yoshitsune’s hilltop residence overlooking the Kitakami River, built for him by Hidehira.
Today, a memorial to Yoshitsune sits atop Takadachi, with a figure of the Genji commander seated inside.
Nambu refers to the domain of the Nambu clan north of Hiraizumi. The clan was originally from the “southern section” (nambu) of Kai Province, west of Edo, hence the clan’s name.
Yoshitsune fled from Yoritomo, his older-brother-turned-adversary, and took refuge in Hiraizumi under the protection of Hidehira. Hidehira died soon after Yoshitsune arrived, and Yoritomo obtained an imperial decree ordering his younger brother’s execution. Yoritomo offered Hidehira’s heir, Yasuhira, a province to capture and kill Yoshitsune. When Yasuhira received the offer and imperial decree, he began plotting against Yoshitsune (McCullough, Yoshitsune 281–282). Of Hidehira’s five sons, only the third son, Izumi no Saburō, remained true to his oath to serve and protect Yoshitsune. (See Bashō’s praise of Izumi in “22. Illustrious Deities of Shiogama,” note 3.)
The battle of Izumi’s Fort (Izumigajō) is told in “A Libretto: Izumi’s Fortress” (Araki 171–195). The fort was about a mile northwest of Takadachi, at a bend of the Koromo River that protected it on three sides. Yasuhira sent a force of three thousand to demand that Izumi commit suicide for opposing him. Realizing he was doomed, Izumi killed his two sons, then battled the warriors sent by his brother. Izumi and his wife, Fujinoe, fought bravely, but eventually took their own lives. Izumi’s wife was the younger sister of Satō Tsugunobu. (See “15. Historic Traces of Satō Shōji,” note 3.)
The Koromo Barrier and stockade, an ancient site just north of Izumi’s Fort, was no longer there when Bashō visited. The barrier is mentioned in a love poem of the Heian Period (794–1185) about a husband leaving without his wife for the Koromo Barrier in Michinoku (Sato 86, note 181). Like Shirakawa Barrier and Taga Fort, the Koromo Barrier had been constructed to protect imperial lands from the Ezo clans.
4. After Yoshitsune learned of the imperial decree ordering his execution, he withdrew into his fortified residence on Takadachi to prepare himself for death. Yasuhira sent a force of twenty or thirty thousand against Takadachi. Yoshitsune’s 10 loyal retainers fought heroically, but were slain, one after another. (Before the battle, another group of retainers had fled to save themselves.) As the last retainers held off the attackers, Yoshitsune recited a sutra, then disemboweled himself to avoid capture and beheading (McCullough, Yoshitsune 283–290). After his death, his last retainer set the residence ablaze (see note 6 below), but Yoshitsune’s body was recovered, and the severed head, preserved in saké, was sent to Yoritomo. After receiving the head, Yoritomo, who saw the Fujiwara as rivals, invaded and conquered their lands. Ironically, he had his ally Yasuhira, the last Ōshū Fujiwara ruler, killed and beheaded (McCullough, Yoshitsune 290–293).
Standing atop Takadachi, Bashō was overwhelmed with emotion realizing that he was at the very spot where Yoshitsune, along with his loyal retainers and family, was killed, and no traces were left of them in the thickets and grass.
5. Bashō quotes from a verse by Chinese poet Du Fu (712–770), then borrows its imagery for his verse.
6. Bashō’s and Sora’s verses use the nō drama convention of lamentation at an ancient battlefield to conjure up the ghosts of warriors in scenes of devastation (Shirane, Traces 239). One commentator notes, “An ancient battlefield is a sacred place where mythology, history, and literature originate”:
It is a kind of purgatory, a place where the souls of the slain soldiers, still retaining their anger and resentment utter war cries day and night. The nō drama, which often stages the sufferings of ancient warriors in beautiful poetic form, can be considered the end product of an artistic tradition that originated in the literature intended to soothe the souls that haunted the locale. (Ueda, Bashō 243)
In a bush of white fourth-moon flowers (unohana or deutzia), Sora sees the shade of white-haired Kanefusa, the guardian of Yoshitsune’s wife. As Yoshitsune lay dying, his wife ordered the aged Kanefusa to kill her and her five-year-old son and seven-day-old daughter, so the family could depart together to the afterworld. After reluctantly complying, Kanefusa set fire to the building, then went outside and killed the leader of the attacking forces and dragged the leader’s brother into the flames, where they both perished (McCullough, Yoshitsune 291–293).
Today, near the trail-head to the summit of Mt. Kinkei is a five-tiered stupa marking the graves of Yoshitsune’s wife and children. Also in Hiraizumi is the tomb of the warrior-priest Benkei, who died defending Yoshitsune at Takadachi. (On Benkei and Yoshitsune, see “15. Historic Traces of Satō Shōji,” note 6.) Below Takadachi is a memorial to Kanefusa, marked by a memorial stone (inscribed with Sora’s verse) and a tall unohana bush.
7. Kiyohira, the first Fujiwara ruler, built the Chūson Temple complex as an embodiment of Amida’s Western Pure Land. Most of the buildings were destroyed by fire in 1337, but the buildings that Bashō saw—the Sutra Repository (経蔵, Kyō-zō) and the Hall of Light (光堂, Hikari-dō) with its Outer Hall (覆堂, Ōi-dō)—were still there and have been preserved till today (Nomination).
In the wooden Sutra Repository (built in 1108 and restored in the fourteenth century) are statues of Monju Bosatsu (bodhisattva of wisdom), riding on a lion, with four attendants alongside, including the Great King Udayana and Zenzai Dōji, Monju’s student who went on a pilgrimage, achieved enlightenment, and became a bodhisattva.
The Hall of Light, also known as the Golden Hall (金色堂, Konjiki-dō), is the mausoleum of the Fujiwara. The hall is adorned with gold leaf and silver powder on black lacquer, with mother-of-pearl and lapis lazuli inlay. It houses the mummified bodies of Kiyohira, Motohira, and Hidehira, and Yasuhira’s mummified head. (Mummification was an ancient practice of the Ezo clans.) Above the caskets are three statues of buddhas—Amida Buddha flanked by Kannon, bodhisattva of compassion, and Seishi, bodhisattva of wisdom (Nomination).
Today, the Hall of Light, refurbished with gold leaf, is in a concrete, air-conditioned Outer Hall at the original site. Visitors can view it through a glass window
8. “Seven treasures”: in Buddhist tradition, the seven earthly treasures are gold, silver, lapis lazuli, crystal glass, giant clam shell, coral, and agate (Sato 86, note 188).
9. In Bashō’s verse, the summer rains represent the destructive force of time and corruption in a transient and illusory world; the gilded hall stands for Amida’s Jōdo (Pure Land), a place beyond time and change where the faithful go after death to be instructed in achieving Nirvana to escape the karmic cycles of rebirth.
In 1288, the wooden Outer Hall was built by the Kamakura Shogunate around the Hall of Light to protect it. The Outer Hall that Bashō saw was a fifteenth century reconstruction of the original; repairs were made by Date Masamune in the 1620’s (Kohl).
The wooden Outer Hall, now empty, has been moved to a site near the modern air-conditioned Outer Hall.
26. Shitomae Barrier, Notes 1–8
1. On July 1 (5.14), Bashō and Sora left the Nambu Road to get to Iwate (岩手, written 岩出山, Iwadeyama, on modern maps), a village 26 miles southwest of Ichinoseki. Iwate was a castle town of the Date clan. After being awarded the Sendai Domain by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1600, the clan moved its headquarters to Sendai and built Aoba Castle, completed in 1637.
2. After an overnight stop in Iwate, Bashō and Sora continued west along the Eai River, passing Ogura Point and Mizu Islet, which are poetic places mentioned in an anonymous poem in the tenth-century Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems (Kokinshū): “If Mizu Islet at Ogura Point were a person, I’d say let’s take her back to the capital as a gift.”
3. The Shitomae Barrier was established in 712 at Narugo, Mutsu Province, near its border with Dewa Province. “Shitomae” (尿前) means “piss in front of”; Bashō’s verse about the pissing horse alludes to the name, which is said to come from a story about Genji commander Yoshitsune: his infant son, born west of Narugo in the Kamewari Mountains, urinated at the barrier. Narugo (Child’s Cry), the nearby hot-spring town, was so named because Yoshitsune’s son cried there (Kohl).
4. Having crossed the border into Dewa Province, Bashō and Sora stopped for the night at a border guard’s house in Sakaida, six miles past the Shitomae Barrier. Today, a reconstructed house at the site on Route 47 serves as a museum commemorating Bashō’s journey.
5. Sora records that he and Bashō took lodging at the border guard’s house on July 2 (5.15); the next day was stormy; they left for Obanazawa the day after, going over Natagiri Mountain Pass (1,542 feet), with Mt. Omori (2,854 feet) to the east (Kohl).
6. For a note on grass pillows (kusa no makura), see “5. ‘Hotoke’ Gozaemon,” note 3.”
7. To suggest his sense of disorientation, Bashō borrows an image from lines in a poem by Du Fu (712–770), which Barnhill translates, “As I climb the windy stone steps, a dust storm blows from the edge of clouds” (163, note 87).
8. The Mogami Domain, ruled by the Mogami clan, once extended over most of Dewa Province. In 1622, due to inheritance issues, the Tokugawa Shogunate reduced the domain and assigned it to another family. The new domain was called Yamagata, after the town where the administrator’s castle was located.
27. Obanazawa, Notes 1–6
1. Suzuki Seifū (1651–1721) was a safflower merchant in Obanazawa (尾花沢, Pampas-Grass Marsh.) Edo Period Merchants were stereotyped as boorish money-dogs, but Seifū, whom Bashō had met in Edo, was an accomplished poet and a publisher of poetry anthologies, one of which included a poem by Bashō (Kohl).
2. Kyōto, the capital, was 450 miles from Obanazawa via river, sea, and land routes.
3. Bashō and Sora spent 10 days in Obanazawa, from July 4–14 (5.17–5.27).
4. Bashō led two sessions for composing linked verses, with Seifū participating. The lightness of the four verses in this section contrasts with the complaint verse written in the dismal mountains at Sakaida. The first verse, with “coolness” (涼しさ, suzushisa) as a summer season-word, served as the starter verse for one of the sessions. It compliments Seifū’s lodging, the coolness a welcome relief from the summer heat. A careful host might artificially evoke coolness with greenery, shade, the sound of water, wind chimes, and so on.
5. Safflower (紅花, benihana, “crimson-powder flower”) came to Japan from South or West Asia via the Silk Road and China. It was introduced to Japan by Korean monks. The petals were plucked, dried, and processed into a crimson pulp used to make cosmetics (rouge and lipstick) and cloth-dyes.
6. Sericulture was brought to Japan from China around the third century. Women in a household generally did the work of raising silkworms.
For a Google Map with the places in the narrative marked, see Bashō’s Oku no Hosomichi.
End of “Narrow Roads of the Deep North: Notes on 25. Hiraizumi, 26. Shitomae Barrier, and 27. Obanazawa”
Bashō’s Narrow Roads of the Deep North—Table of Contents
Narrative
- Bashō’s Narrow Roads of the Deep North: Edo to Nikkō
- Bashō’s Narrow Roads of the Deep North: Nasu to Shirakawa
- Bashō’s Narrow Roads of the Deep North: Sukagawa to Sendai
- Bashō’s Narrow Roads of the Deep North: Tsubo Stone Monument to Hiraizumi
- Bashō’s Narrow Roads of the Deep North: Shitomae Barrier to Kisa Lagoon
- Bashō’s Narrow Roads of the Deep North: Echigo Road to Zenshō Temple
- Bashō’s Narrow Roads of the Deep North: Shiogoshi Pines to Ōgaki; Postscript by Soryū
Notes and Sources
- Notes on 1. Before Departure, 2. Setting Out, and 3. Sōka
- Notes on 4. Muro-no-Yashima, 5. “Hotoke” Gozaemon, and 6. Nikkō
- Notes on 7. Nasu, 8. Kurobane, and 9. Ungan Temple
- Notes on 10. Sesshōseki and Ashino, 11. Shirakawa Barrier, and 12. Sukagawa
- Notes on 13. Asaka Hills, 14. Shinobu Village, and 15. Historic Traces of Satō Shōji
- Notes on 16. Iizuka, 17. Kasajima, and 18. Takekuma
- Notes on 19. Sendai, 20. Tsubo Stone Monument, and 21. Sue no Matsuyama
- Notes on 22. Illustrious Deities of Shiogama, 23. Matsushima, and 24. Ishinomaki
- Notes on 25. Hiraizumi, 26. Shitomae Barrier, 27. Obanazawa
- Notes on 28. Ryūshaku Temple, 29. Mogami River, and 30. Three Mountains of Dewa
- Notes on 31. Sakata, 32. Kisa Lagoon, and 33. Echigo Road
- Notes on 34. Ichiburi, 35. Kurobe, and 36. Kanazawa
- Notes on 37. Tada Shrine, 38. Nata, and 39. Yamanaka
- Notes on 40. Zenshō Temple, 41. Shiokoshi Pines, and 42. Fukui
- Notes on 43. Tsuruga, 44. Iro Beach, and 45. Ōgaki
- Sources
Background and Contexts
- Bashō’s Life
- Literary Traditions (Renga and Haikai; Renga Composition; Travel Writing; Haibun, or Haikai Prose; Kigo and the Poetry of Seasons; Poetry of Place)
- Religious Contexts
- Geography and Roads (Edo Roads, Post Towns, Barrier Gates and Checkpoints, Transportation, A Pilgrim’s Outfit and Gear)
- Lunar Calendar and Annual Festivals (Lunar Calendar and the Four Seasons, Moon Phases and Dates, Five Annual Festivals)
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