The date of this passage is 7.12 (8.26). The difficult crossings on the journey, Oyashirazu and Koshirazu, refer to places along the coast between Niigata and Ichiburi where the mountains come right to the sea shore forming sheer cliffs. The waves wash against the base of the cliffs so the only way to get through is to wait for the moment the waves receede and make a dash for it. In this situation it is every man for himself. Parents do not have time to help their children across, nor do children have time to help their parents across. Inu modori is a place where the passage is so difficult, even the dogs give up and go back. Uma gaeshi is a passage so difficult it cannot be negotiated on horseback, so one sends the horse back and procedes on foot. The order in which Basho lists these four difficult crossings is not the order in which he would have encountered them. It is not clear why he changed the order.

The women Basho overhears at the inn were courtesans from Niigata. Since ancient times Niigata was known as a port with a prosperous and lively entertainment district. The women who worked these quarters had a new lover with each wave that washed ashore. By the same token the women too are drifters along these shores. These courtesans were bound for Ise on a pilgrimage. During the Edo period it was expected that each person would make this pilgrimage once in his life. This was a particularly popular custom in the Echigo region and, until the beginning of the Meiji period, courtesans from Niigata regularly made the trip. Also since 1689 was the year when they had a special ceremony to dedicate the rebuilding of the shrine, many more pilgrims than usual were making the trip to Ise. Indeed, Basho, himself, when he finishes this journey continued on to Ise for the dedication ceremony. Such a pilgrimage was a way of combining religious devotion and worldly pleasure, the sacred and the profane. Neither parents nor husbands were allowed to forbid a woman from making this pilgrimage. We find references to this custom in the work of Saikaku and other writers of the period. When Basho says the man would take messages back to their furusato, this is usually interpreted to mean where they lived in Niigata, not necessarily to their family homes. Since they were courtesans working for a house, their owner would want to know where they had gone and be reassured that they had not run away. The reference to the white waves pounding on the shore is an allusion to an anonymous poem in the Shinkokinshu #1701: Shiranami no/ yosuru nagisa ni/ yo wo tsukusu/ ama no ko nareba/ yado mo sadamezu. (I am a fisherman's child/ living on the shore/ the white waves lave/ and have no fixed abode.. H.H. Honda). Most commentators do not mention the explicit sexual image that this passage involves, the pounding action culminating in a burst of white froth. The imagery here is erotic and reinforces the image of the courtesans. They are referred to as Ama or Ama no ko which means "a fisherperson" and indeed these women do make their living from the sea, but instead of catching fish, they troll for men. At the same time, the word ama written with a different Chinese character means a Buddhist nun and has a sacred implication. Once again we find the sacred and the profane superimposed. The phrase Ama no ko no yo is a kakekotoba meaning ama no ko, the fisherman's child, and ko no yo, this mundane world. Ama no ko also suggests the sort of prostitutes called ama which were common to sea ports.

When the courtesans say they would like to follow Basho, they use the term miegakure which means they will remain some distance behind so that Basho and Sora will only catch glimpses of them from time to time, but that is all. This recognizes that since Basho is dressed like a priest, he would not like to be seen in the company of courtesans. Basho is not moved by this delicacy of sentiment. Basho's reply is very stern and dismissive: he says, iisutete idetsutsu. "I cast down this reply and continued walking."

Basho justifies his rejection of the women by saying that he and Sora will be stopping frequently along the way. As usual they plan to visit poetic sites, shrines and temples, and stop to compose poetry. When Basho says tada hito no yuku ni, the tada means to go earnestly and without confusion. It is reassurance for their claim of uncertainty and confusion. When he tells them to rely on the help of the gods he uses the term shinmei which is a particular reference to Amaterasu Omikami, the deity enshrined at Ise.

Sora makes no mention of this encounter at Ichiburi causing some commmentators to think it may be something Basho made up. But his earlier encounter with the farmer at Nasuno was also not mentioned by Sora. These may well have been incidents Basho recalled later, or he may, indeed, have made them up. If the encounter is made up, we have to ask what Basho's source was. Some suggest Saigyo's encounter with the courtesans at Eguchi and others have suggested the Yamauba legend.

Then POEM: The season words are hagi and tsuki indicating autumn. The term hitotsuya does not mean an isolated house apart from all other houses, but rather a single house where they both stayed. Attractive courtesans and world renouncing priests are both drifters and stay under the same roof. As usual in autumn the bush clover is blooming in profusion around the inn and high above shines the moon. The situation outside the inn is the same as the situation inside. Basho and Sora spent the night of 7.12 at Ichiburi and Sora says the weather was clear, so probably the scene he describes of moonlight on the bush clover is what they really saw. Many interpreters associate the courtesans with the bush clover and Basho with the moon. This is appropriate because the bush clover has attractive flowers like the courtesans and Basho has the aloof purity of the moon. Others, however, find it disagreeable for Basho to compare himself to the moon. They prefer to interpret the poem as Basho recognizing the contrast between is priestly self and the courtesans and noticing that there was a similar contrast between the moon and the bush clover. Indeed, the associations can also be reversed; Basho in his drab robes like the common bush clover while the gorgeous courtesans like the dazzling moon.

If Basho is developing his narrative along the lines of a linked verse sequence, he may have wanted to insert an episode dealing with love here. A linked verse sequence would be expected to have such an episode. Basho shifts his scenes from mountains to rivers to valleys to forests and we would also expect him to insert episodes dealing with love, flowers, the moon, etc. Basho describes for us a variety of natural settings and intersperses certain human encounters. At Nasuno it was a charming and innocent little girl, at Kisagata it was lady Seishi he is reminded of to enrich the mood of his narrative. It is not surprising then that along the Echigo Road he chooses to include an encounter with courtesans. The element of love is also in play here in his earlier references to Lady Seishi and then to the Tanabata festival, and now he speaks of commercial love. This is reinforced by his allusions to The Tale of Genji and to the Wakan Roei Shu and to Eguchi Yujo. Indeed, Basho seems to be parodying Saigyo's experience with the courtesans at Eguchi.

Nevertheless, the question remains whether it is really appropriate to include a purely fictional account. Even Sora could not be expected to include everything in his diary, so he may just have left this out. Also, as we have already seen, it was customary for the courtesans of Niigata to make the pilgrimage to Ise, so such an encounter was far from unlikely. In his description of hearing voices speaking in an adjoining room we are reminded of a passage from the Broom Tree chapter of The Tale of Genji where similar wording is used when Genji overhears common people in the next room.

Basho's intention was to write the truth, not just the facts. Even if this episode has no basis in fact, it is authentic in terms of Basho's experience and feelings. We also note that although Basho describes the courtesans, he does not present them as objects of pleasure the way Saikaku and other writers do. In Shokoku irori annai Saikaku describes Niigata saying, "It is a bustling and extravagant port filled with the music of singing and samisens." Basho, by contrast, expresses his sympathy for the rootless, precarious existence of the women of pleasure and reminds us that their unfortunate lives are the result of errors they had committed in an earlier life.

In his earlier work Nozarashi Kiko Basho rejects the abandoned child he discovers beside the river and here, in the same way, he rejects the courtesands' request to be allowed to accompany him. Basho was not without sympathy, but he recognized the limits of his ability to realistically help others. He is like a drifting cloud, unable to know or shape his own destiny, it would be the height of arrogance to presume to take responsibility for someone else. Basho has great sympathy for the disenfranchised people of society, but he does not believe he can do anything for them.

The whole passage at Ichiburi is much more narrative than most of Basho's passages.

Kurobegawa has its source on Washiba Toge pass which marks the border between Etchu, Hida, and Shinano. In its middle reaches the river runs through a great gorge with superb scenery. The 48 rapids are located near the mouth of the river. In those days there were no dikes and when the river was in flood, many rapids were created. The number 48 means only that there are many rapids, it is not a specific number.

Nago Bay is famous for its scenic beauty of white sand beaches and green pine trees populated with fishing villages. To the north the view looks across to the Noto Penninsula and to the south is a range of mountain peaks. Otomo Iemochi has several poems in the Manyoshu that speak of Nago. One of them, #4018 goes: Minatokaze/ samuku fukurashi/ Nago no e ni/ tsuma yobi kawashi/ tsuru sawa ni naku. (The harbor wind blows chill, on the Bay of Nago my wife calls to exchange greeting. The crane cries in the marsh.) Another goes: Ayu no kaze/ itaku fukurashi/ Nago no amano/ tsuru suru kobune/ kogi kakuru miyu. In ancient times this was the mouth of the river, but by Basho's time it was more like a lake.

At Tako there still exists a Fujinami Jinja and traces of the lake that was there in Basho's time. Since ancient times the place has been much celebrated in poetry for its wisteria flowers and even today there are some quite large wisteria there. A poem in the Manyoshu, Book XIX says: Tako no ura no/ soko sae nihou/ fujinami wo/ kazashite yukamu/ minu hito no tame.

In the phrase ashi no hitoyo, hitoyo means both "one segment" of the reed, and "one night." This double entendre is often used in poetry.

THE POEM: The season word is wase no ka which indicates autumn. Wase indicates the earliest rice to ripen, and because this is the north country much of this early ripening rice is grown in Etchu. Basho was here on 7.14 (8.28), so it was nearly time to harvest the early rice. Ariso umi was originally written with the words ara iso meaning rough coast, a coast where the waves are rough. We see this reference in a poem by Otomo Iemochi in the Manyoshu and it has often been used as a pillow word for the Etchu coast. There are many large rocks off the coast here which make the waves turbulent. Because Basho wanted to see places of poetic inspiration, he wanted to visit this place. Iemochi's poem is a lament on the death of his younger brother. Perhaps Basho is preparing us here for the death of his disciple Issho as he recounts it in the next passage on Kanazawa.

This poem pictures fields of ripening rice stretching away into the distance, and off to the right is the rough shoreline of the ocean. With this scene the poem evokes complex feelings. One is that this year's harvest will be rich. Another is a yearning for the poetic places of Tako and Arisoumi. A third is a sense of courage the poet has about the unknown road hidden by the endless rice fields.

In Sora's account for 7.14 he says, "The master does not feel well. It was very hot." Basho must have been quite weak from the heat and exhaustion, but when he looked forward to seeing the great castle town of Kanazawa, the richest domain in the country, he bucked himself up and kept going. It was with this reserve of energy that he produced this poem.

There is some question about where Basho composed this poem. In his account he says they entered the Kaga domain and then he gives the poem. Sora, too, places the poem after saying they had entered Kaga. Some, however, think the poem was written on the way to Kaga. The images of the poem are vast fields of ripening rice and a view of the sea. The only place you can see both of these is before you reach the border of Kaga, so it was probably written before they reached the border, or it may have been a recollection of the scenery they had passed through earlier.

According to Sora's diary, they left Ichiburi on 7.13 (8.26), crossed into Etchu, crossed the Kurobe River and arrived at Namerigawa around five o'clock. They spent the night there. It rained briefly in the afternoon, then cleared off and became very hot. The 14th was clear and they followed the road along the coast. They wanted to visit Tako because of its poetic associations, but were afraid to because people said it was miles away along the rough coast and there was probably no place to find lodging. Instead they pushed on to Takaoka and spent the night. They had extremely hot weather on the 13th and 14th. Again on the 15th it was the same and Basho was exhausted by heat and fatigue. Nevertheless, he recited the poem wase no ka ya as an expression of his courage and determination. Basho imagines himself making his way through endless fields and looking forward to the road ahead. In the tightened rhythm of this poem we can feel his changed mood as he enters the Kaga domain with all its wealth and splendor.