Basho says they set out from Matsushima on the 12th, but Sora says it was 5.10 (6.26) .

Aneha no matsu is a pillow word as we see in section 14 of Ise Monogatari: "Kurihara no Aneha no matsu hito naraba miyako no tsuto ni iga to iwamashi wo." The sense of the poem is that if Aneha no matsu were a person, we could go together to the capital as a gift, but such is not the case. Aneha means "Elder sister's teeth" which is a curious name for a pine tree.

According to one account this tree had withered and died some 40 years before Basho's visit, so a new one had been planted and some say this was the grave mound of the elder sister of Matsuura Sayo Hime and some say it is the grave mound of the elder sister of Ono no Komachi. Yet another account says that during the reign of the Emperor Yomei (r. 585-587) a beautiful woman was called to court from an outlying area, but fell ill, died, and was buried on this spot.

Odae no hashi is also a pillow word as we see in a poem in the Goshuishu #751: Michinoku no/ Odae no hashi ya/ kore naramu/ fumini fumazumi/ kokoro madowasu. Following a conventional route, they would have come to this bridge before they reached Aneha no matsu. The term "chito suzo" is an allusion to Chinese poetry. chi = kiji = pheasant and to = usagi = rabbit, but the meaning is to the hunters who pursue these creatures. Su = those who mow grass in the pastures. Zo = those who cut wood in the forest. This is a reference to Motsu who says that the cultured ruler maintains a large estate that includes grass and wood cutters as well as pheasants and rabbits. Is Basho simply making an elegant allusion, or is he suggesting that in this wild place such civilized things do not exist?

With the term Sokotomo wakazu Basho is saying that he knows neither where he is or where he ought to be going. Ishinomaki is the port where the Kitakamigawa flows into the sea. According to a contemporary account it was a busy port comparable to Osaka, Tsuruga, Hakata, and Sakata.

Kogane hana saku to yomite is a reference to the fact that in 749 gold was first brought out of Michinoku to the court of the Emperor Shomu. When the gold was presented at court the event was celebrated by Otomo Iemochi who presented a choka to the emperor. The poem appears in Book 18 of MYS, #4097. The envoy of the poem goes: Sumerogi no/ miyo sakuemu to/ azuma naru/ michinoku yama ni/ kugane hana saku. The sense of the poem is to assert that the Emperor's reign will become increasingly prosperous as in the mountains of Michinoku in Azuma flowers of gold are blooming. This is cause for congratulation. The gold produced at that time, however, did not come from Kinkazan, but from another area where there was a Kinkazan Jinja shrine. Later legend ascribed the gold to Ishinomaki's Kinkazan and Basho believed these later legends. Gold may well have been produced here in Basho's time. Since Kinkazan cannot actually be seen from Ishinomaki, Basho may have seen some other island and mistook it.

Basho describes Ishinomaki as having many houses jammed together and the smoke from cooking fires rising ceaselessly giving a feeling of great activity and prosperity.

Sora tells us they spent the night at the place of a man named Jihei and that when they set out the follwing morning this Jihei and another man accompanied them for some distance. Although Basho says they did not know the way, this was surely not the case. Apparently Basho wants to continue the earlier mood of being lost and lonely.

The ford of Sode, Sode no watari. According to legend, when Yoshitsune was a fugitive on the run in this region he was ferried across the river here and in liu of payment he gave the boatman one sleeve (sode) of his brocaded robe, hence the name Brocade Sleeve Ford. This place name has been celebrated in poetry as we see in the poem from Shin Goshuishu: Michinoku no/ Sode no watari no/ namidagawa/ kokoro no uchi ni/ nagarete zo sumu.

Obuchi no maki is also a pillow word as we see from an anonymous poem in Gosenshu: Mutsu no/ Obuchi no koma mo/ nokau ni wa/ arare koso masare/ natsuku mono ka wa. According to Sora they climbed Hiyoriyama on the southern outskirts of Ishinomaki and from there they had a view of Watanoha and Obuchi no maki yama and far in the distance they could see Mano no Kayahara.

Mano no kayahara gets its name from Nagatamidera temple where there is a small pond outside the gate where a great many kaya reeds grow, so since ancient times this has been called mano no kayahara as we see in a MYS poem #396 by Lady Kasa: Mutsu no/ Mano no kayahara/ Tokedomo/ Omokage ni shite/ Miyu to iu mono wo. (Far off as the reed-plain of Manu/ Lies in 'Road's End'/ Yet in vision, they say/ It comes near.) There were actually a number of places in the north called Mano no kayahara and whether or not this is the one celebrated in poetry, Basho believed it to be.

Basho says they went on to Hiraizumi, but Sora says they did not go directly. According to Sora they left Matsushima on the 10th and spent that night at Ishinomaki. On the 11th they spent the night at Toima and on the 12th they spent the night at Ichinoseki arriving at Hiraizumi on the 13th.

This passage tells how they left Matsushima, went to Ishinomaki, on to Toima, and arrived at Hiraizumi. They had gone out of their way going to Ishinomaki, but they wanted to see Aneha no matsu and Odae no hashi. But they also wanted to see Ishinomaki and the poetic sites near there. Sora also lists the poetic sites near Ishinomaki including Obuchi no maki, Sode no watari, and Mano no kayahara. This makes it difficult to believe that they were lost and ended up in Ishinomaki by mistake. Indeed, from Sora's diary it is hard to suppose they were really lost. Sora says they set out from Matsushima on 5.10 and passing through Takaki mura, Kono, Yamoto Niita, and arrived at Ishinomaki without incident. He says nothing about losing their way. At the town of Yamoto Niita they felt thirsty, so they stopped at house after house begging a drink of water, but no one would give them a drink. They were at a loss for what to do when they met a 57 or 58 year old samurai carrying a sword who felt sorry for them and took them back some distance to the home of a friend where they were given tea. They were also told that they could find lodging in Ishinomaki at the home of a man named Jihei.

To be thirsty on the road and unable to find a drink, to search for a place to spend the night and not find one; these are the difficulties travellers experience and if Basho invented some of the details, he is nevertheless authentic in expressing the experience of a traveller and pilgrim.

On arriving at Ishinomaki, the first thing they did was to climb Mt. Hiyori to get a view of Obuchi no maki yama, Mano no kayahara, and Watanoha far in the distance, and on their way back to town they stopped at the Sumiyoshi Shrine and at the Ford of Sode. The following day, 5.11, they set out accompanied by Jihei and another man and followed the embankment up the east side of the Kitakamigawa to Tsujido where they crossed the river by boat.

Between Iinogawa and Yanaizu they encountered a long, marshy area. This was the old course of the Kitakamigawa. Right around 1600 Date Masamune ordered Kawamura Magobei to alter the course of the river shifting it to the west away from Yanaizu. The original riverbed became a long, low- lying marsh. In the Meiji period the river was shifted back to the original course and ironically called the "new" Kitakamigawa. This echoes Tu Fu again, here the rivers actually do dry up. At this point their travelling companions left them and Basho and Sora pushed on to Toima where they could not find lodging for the night because the people were suspicious of travellers. Eventually they were able to explain their situation and find a place to stay at the home of Hasunuma Shozaemon.

The next day, 5.12, they wet out from Toima and went as far as Ichinoseki where they spent the night. During the day it rained hard and they had to wear raincoats. Basho says they went directly from Toima to Hiraizumi, but in fact on the night of the 12th they stayed at Ichinoseki, on the 13th they did sightseeing at Hiraizumi and returned to Ichinoseki to spend the night at the home of the Kanemori family.

The great discrepancy between Basho's account and Sora's is that Sora gives us the facts of the trip, while Basho gives the impression of the trip.