Basho has seen all the wonders of nature expressed in contrasting pairs; rivers (Mogamigawa) and mountains (Hagurosan), and oceans (Matsushima) and land (Nasu Plain).

At the time of Basho's journey Kisagata was a bay filled with many small islands covered with pine trees. It was conventionally compared to Matsushima. Since ancient times the name has sometimes been written with the character for elephant which reflects the shape of the lagoon, or with the character for a kind of shellfish which is found in abundance here. In 1804, however, there was an earthquake which raised the floor of the lagoon so that now it is mostly dry fields. What once were islands remain as small hummocks covered with pine trees, so we can somewhat imagine what it was like in Basho's time.

Again making his contrasts Basho says they made their way over the mountains and along the sandy shore. This area, along with Tottori and Ibaraki, is one of the three sand dune areas of Japan On the way to Kisagata they encountered severe rain storms according to Sora; especially between Fukuura and Kisagata. They stopped at the place of a man named Sasaki Magozaemon and tried to dry out their clothes before pushing on to Kisagata where at evening they watched the rain continue.

Mt. Chokai rises 2237 meters and is a dormant volcano. In shape it resembles Mt. Fuji and is often called Dewa Fuji.

As Basho gropes his way through the obscuring rain and blowing sand, he is preparing for his poem about Lady Seishi. He does this by making an allusion to the work of the priest Sakugen of the Tenryuji Temple. He was a priest who had spent time in China and when he went to visit the famous Western Lake, arrived at night and could see none of its beauties, so he consoled himself by recalling poetry that claimed the lake was beautiful under all circumstances and contented himself with merely imagining its beauty. The view Basho imagines is quite as good as the actual view could be.

Also, in the next line where Basho says there is such beauty even in the rain, his phrases make an allusion to a poem by Su T'ung-p'o who says: "The light reflecting on the surface of the lake wavers gently and the view on a clear day is magnificient. Yet on a day when the wind-blown rain obscures the mountains, the scene also has charm. If the Western Lake were compared to the beauty of Lady Seishi; it would be just like the fact that Seishi is beautiful with light makeup or heavy makeup and in the same way it does not matter whether you see the Western Lake on a rainy day or a fair one." In contrasting Matsushima and Kisagata, we may also be reminded of the contrast between the proud beauty of Lady Rokujo and the pensive beauty of Lady Yugao. This whole passage is filled with references and allusions to S'u T'ung-p'o poem on the Western Lake where he says it has a mysterious charm in the rain and is lovely when the weather is clear. This contrast between rain and clear is complemented with a contrast of night and day during their visit. Although they actually toured the lagoon on a boat in the evening, Basho makes it happen in the morning when the weather is clear in order to contrast day and night. This contrast between rain and clear is carried over into the two poems Basho appends to the end of this passage; one of them speaks of the rain and the other of a clear day.

When Basho takes refuge in a rough fisherman's hut he makes an allusion to a poem by Noin from Goshuishu , #519: Yo no naka wa/ kakutemo hekeri/ Kisagata no en no kuya wo/ waga yado ni shite where he says that to hide himself from the world he takes refuge in a rough fisherman's hut at Kisagata. For Basho the hut is so cramped he has to bend his knees and crawl to get inside. Sora says that as they approached the Muyamuya barrier, the rain came down hard and they were drenched and sought refuge for a time in a boat shed. He also tells us that they stopped to dry out at the home of Magozaemon which was a reasonably well to do home.

Basho transformed the boat house and Sasaki's house into a rude fisherman's hut in order to make the allusion to Noin's poem.

The next morning, following the rain storm, was 6.17. Sora says that after breakfast they went to worship at Kanmanjuji and after supper took a boat to Kisagata. According to Sora's diary they set out for Kisagata in a boat after eating their evening meal. A man named Kahei provided them with tea, sake, and cakes. Sora puts the expedition at evening rather than in the morning as Basho does. It showered during the morning, but cleared off around noon. Thus Sora's account is quite different from Basho's. The 18th was clear. Evidently Basho simply transposed the days including when they visited what since he puts their visit to Noin's island before their visit to Kanmanjuji.

Noinjima is a small island lying south of Kanmanjuji; it is one of the 99 islands of Kisagata Bay. Basho says that Noin secluded himself here for three years, but this is only a legend. Noin does have a poem in Goshuishu: #519: Yo no naka wa/ kakute mohekeri/ Kisagata ya/ ama no tomaya wo/ waga yado ni shite. A headnote says, "This poem was composed while at Kisagata in Dewa." The sense of the poem is that he has secluded himself from the world using a fisherman's shack for his lodging. From this we can assume that Noin came here, but it seems unlikely that he stayed for three years. As usual Basho draws the local legend into his account.

When Basho speaks of the far shore, he means the facing island where the Kanmanjuji Temple is located. There is a boat landing stone there next to the Saigyozakura cherry tree. It is said that while visiting this place Saigyo composed the poem: Kisagata no/ sakura wa nami ni/ hozumorete/ hana no ue goku/ ama no tsuribune. The sense of the poem is that Kisagata's cherry blossoms have scattered over the waves and the fishermen row their boats over the carpet of petals. The contrast is made between natural beauty and rustic endeavor. Man's life is enriched and ennobled by the beauty of the sacred Japanese landscape. Several works attribute this poem to Saigyo, but it is not found in Sankashu, the main collection of Saigyo's verse. It cannot be proved to be Saigyo's poem, nor can it be proven that Saigyo actually visited this place. Like the notion that Noin spent three years in seclusion here, this is a local legend.

Empress Jingu was the wife of the Emperor Chuai (r. 192-200) and the mother of the Emperor Ojin (r. 270-310). She herself served as regent from 201-269. Her real name was Okinaga Terashihime. She set out with her husband Chuai to subdue the barbarian Kumaso in Kyushu, but after Chuai died, she organized and led an assault on the kingdoms of Korea. According to one account, on her way back from Korea she stopped at Kisagata and the Hachiman Shrine was built to commemorate that visit. Here she dedicated two stones, the kanju and the manju. One makes the tide come in and the other makes the tide go out. By praying to these stones, one can control the tides. From this the temple came to be called Kanmanjuji. But due to the presence of a large number of shellfish called Kisa which also can be read Kan, the name of the temple is written with the character Kisa. If the Empress' grave is located here, it is not clear where it is. Basho ends up feeling doubtful about the accuracy of this. Conventional histories make no mention of Empress Jingu coming here, yet here is the Kanmanjuji Temple and a place said to be her grave, so Basho wonders about the historical truth of the matter.

As Basho sits in the temple with the screens rolled up, he is making an allusion to a famous poem by P'o Chu-i which speaks of having the blinds rolled up in order to see the snowy peak. This notion has become conventional in Chinese poetry.

Basho uses this opportunity to gaze at the view in all four directions. As usual he has his contrasts; Mt. Chokai in one direction and Kisagata Bay in the other direction. The barrier or blocked road is on one side and on the other is a road stretching away into the distance. Notice also that he prefers to see the rippled reflection of Mt. Chokai on the water rather than look directly at the mountain.

According to Aso, when Basho characterizes Kisagata as being uramu , it means to be gloomy and sad, but also has the overtones of bitter, rancourous, and afflicted. There is not just sadness here, but an undertone of suppressed anger. It is like a beautiful woman with a troubled (angry) heart.. The contrasts are Pacific coast - Japan Sea coast, dark and light, and the weather was clear - rainy. According to size, Matsushima is larger and male, while Kisagata is smaller and female. The gloominess of the place is humanized and given expression as the melancholy beauty of Lady Seishi.

THE POEM: Kisagata ya... The season word is nefu no hana which indicates summer. Nemu no ki is a silk tree. At night its leaves fold up and droop. In June and July it produces pale, red blossoms. Lady Seishi was a famous Chinese beauty. When her king was defeated by a neighboring king, she was given to the new king as tribute. The new king became so infatuated with her, his country declined. Su T'ung-po has a poem comparing Lady Seishi with the Western Lake and says that Seishi is beautiful whether she wears a little makeup or a lot. Basho makes a variation on this by comparing Seishi to Kisagata in his poem. The sad, lonely nature of Kisagata reminds him of the beautiful Seishi given to a foreign despot and sunk in melancholy thoughts. The flower of the silk tree is both melancholy and lovely. The silk tree blossom is not a conventional image for haiku, so it has an air of freshness. Nefu here means that the leaves are closed in the rain, but it also suggests Lady Seifu sleeping, though not really asleep, her eyes are half closed and she is sunk in grief and sadness. Nebu no hana is written with characters which suggest enjoying shared pleasures, so the poem is not entirely melancholy.

As Basho looks out over Kisagata Bay smoldering in the rain he experiences the anguish of one who feels pathos. Nearby a silk tree was in bloom with its blossoms nearly closed because of the rain which reminds him of Lady Seishi with her eyes half closed and sunk in thought and memory.

The dim, mist-shrouded view of Kisagata in the rain is compared to the melancholy Lady Seishi. This beautiful, melancholy woman is given concrete expression by the flowering blossoms of the silk tree. Even though the blossoms are small, they leave a vivid impression. They become emblematic of Kisagata. There are many silk trees in the area, so Basho must have actually seen them in bloom. The shape of the blossom reminds us of a beautiful woman's eyelashes. With the rain on them they appear like a woman's tear-filled eyes.

So Basho speaks of the sad pathos of the scene he describes and deepens this impression with the silk tree blossoms and Lady Seishi.

THE POEM: Shiogoshi ya... The season word is suzushi which indicates summer. Shiogoshi is the name of that opening where the sea water enters Kisagata Bay. There are several explanations for the term Tsuruhagi . 1) Basho and Sora are standing in the water with their kimonos tucked up and their spindly legs exposed. 2) That it actually refers to heron's legs. This view is reinforced by a formal copy of this poem with a headnote which says it describes herons standing in the shallow water.

The scene is of herons standing in the water at Shiogoshi as the tide comes in. Their legs get wet and the seascape around them appears cool and refreshing. Shiogoshi is a place name, but also a description of the scene. Similarly, the legs may be either those of the heron or of the poet, or both.

THE POEM: Kisagata ya... The season word is kami matsuri indicating summer. This summer festival is held at the Kumano Gongen at Shiogoshi for three days on 6.15-17. In his journal Sora says they arrived at Shiogoshi around noon, visited the home of Sasaki Magozaemon and rested. They changed clothes and hung their wet ones out to dry, then ate some noodles at the festival. The sense of the poem is to wonder what sort of special festival food they serve in a remote country place like this. Since this is the only thing the poem speaks of, it is very simple and commentators have tried to read various meanings into it. We know that Sora was deeply interested in Shinto, so he was delighted to encounter a festival in this remote place and wondered what sort of food they ate to celebrate.

THE POEM: Ama no ka ya... The season word is Yusuzumi which indicates summer. This poem describes the simple pleasures of the rustic life. It is not a great poem, but a refreshingly simple one. There are other, earlier versions of this poem which Basho evidently polished for inclusion here. The Mino merchant Teiji was named Miyabe Yasaburo and as a poet he had been a disciple of Gonsui. It is thought that he had accompanied Basho in the previous summer when he had gone to see the comorant fishing at the Nagaragawa in Mino. His commercial enterprises were evidently widepread. At many of the places where Basho stayed along the Hokuriku highway he had introductions from this man. Neither Sora nor Teiji's poems seem to have anything to do with the theme Basho has developed in this passage.

THE POEM: Nami koenu... The season word is masago no su which indicates summer. The osprey is a large bird which lives by the water; it swoops down to catch fish. Its habit is to leave the remains of fish in clefts in the rocks. The Chinese classic of poetry, Shih Ching, tells us that the osprey and its mate make a happy couple. The idea is that their pledge is one that will not be swamped by the waves. This is reinforced by the image of the rock against which the waves break. Their nest is on the rock and therefore safe from the waves just as their vows are safe.

Basho's text makes it sound as though they set out from Sakata and arrived in Kisagata that same evening. According to Sora, however, they spent a night along the way at Fukuura. They set out from Sakata on 6.15 (7.31) and arrived at Fukuura around noon. What had been a light rain in the morning became a downpour, so they decided to stop for the day at Fukuura. On the 16th they set out again and arrived at Shiogoshi around noon where they visited the home of Sasaki Magozaemon. This day, too, the rain continued to fall and was pelting down by the time they reached the village at the barrier gate, so they took refuge in a boathouse. They borrowed fresh clothes from the Sasaki family and had their own clothes dried out. There was a festival in progress that day at the Kumano Jinja and because Sasaki's place was crowded with women guests, Basho and Sora took lodging across the street. On the 17th it rained lightly in the morning, then around noon the sun came out. After breakfast they went to Kanmanjuji and then went to worship at the Kumano Gongen and to see the festival dancing. After dinner they set out by boat from Kisagata. On the way a man named Kahei provided them with tea, sake, and cakes. On the 16th Teiji came along with them and on the 17th he also accompanied Basho. The 18th dawned clear and in the early morning they went to Kisagata Bridge and saw a view of Mt. Chokai. After breakfast they set out from Kisagata and returned that evening to Sakata.

The above is a full scale account of what Basho did at Kisagata which, along with Matsushima, was the most important objective of his trip. The experience Basho describes is one of great hardship compounded by the pouring rain, yet rather than focus on hardship, his emphasis is on the brave, undaunted poet making his way over the mountains and along the shore. Through all the dark turbulence of wind and rain he retained a hope that the weather would clear and the magnificient view would present itself. With this hope he took refuge in a rude fisherman's hut to wait for the rain to lift. Behind his descriptions we can feel the strain and tension Basho was experiencing, but he never allows these to detract or distract from his work.

In one part of the passage he tells us how they set out in a boat for Kisagata, visited Noin's Island, Saigyo's cherry tree, and the Kanmanjuji Temple. Here he is both narrative and descriptive and we do not find the tension of the earlier passage. When he sits at the temple and views the surrounding panorama, the mood is merely grand.

After he tells us the bay is a mile across, he devotes himself to a description of Kisagata and a comparison with Matsushima. His characterization of Matsushima as smiling and of Kisagata as pensive is appropriate. In some ways he is very restrained in his description and yet this passage ranks with his depiction of Matsushima as one of the masterpieces of the diary. Particularly outstanding is the poem: Kisagata ya/ ame ni Seishi ga/ nefu no hana. There are several earlier versions of this poem, but this version creates the imagined image of Lady Seishi sunk in pensive thought and memory on a rainy day, and it is the present image of the rain- closed flowers of the silk tree. Technically this is an excellent poem. The line nefu no hana is a kakekotoba linking the lady and the flowers and it leads naturally to the allusion to Su T'ung-po's poem. And yet all this technical virtuosity and the classical allusions are not obvious or intrusive in the overall statement of the poem. By linking Lady Seishi and the silk tree flowers he gives us a complete picture of Kisagata. When we compare this poem to the ones that follow by Sora and Teiji, we can appreciate Basho's greatness as a poet.