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- Horse-repelling
- The Hokuriku Road here follows precipitous cliffs with the ceaseless waves
pounding at the foot of them. The passage is so tricky and treacherous that
each traveller had to look out for himself, even to the point where parents
cannot look back to see how their children are doing, nor can children pay any
attention to the progress oftheir elderly parents. The way is so difficult
that even horses and dogs turn back, unable to traverse it.
- Niigata
- Concubines is perhaps misleading here. These are women of pleasure. In olden
times Niigata was particularly well kown for its pleasure quarters.
- Ise Shrine
- In those days it was the belief and custom that every person should make
a pilgrimage to Ise at least once in his life. This custom was so strongly
felt that even if one took off without the consent and approval of husband
or master, one would not be punished or rebuked for it. Such a pilgrimage
is a way of combining religious devotion and pleasure. When the old man
goes back with a note, perhaps it is to their master, telling whewre they
have gone.
- nature
- The sea ports were known for their pleasure quarters and the women who
worked those quarters had a new lover with each wave that washed ashore. By
the same token, the women themselves were drifters along these shores as
they moved from place to place. The image here is erotic and reinforces our
image of these women. They are referred to as 'Ama' or 'Amanoko' which
means 'fisher person' and indeed these women make their living from the sea;
instead of being fishers of fish, they are fishers of men. The term 'ama'
also means a Buddhist nun and has a sacred implication, so here we find the
sacred and the profane superimposed. The statement that each time they prove
their sinful nature is suitably ambiguous - either they are condemned to this
sort of life because of sins in an earlier life, or because of their sinful
lives now, they will not attain Buddhahoon in the next life.
Allusion is made to the poem:
Shiranami no/ yosuru nagisa ni/ yo wo
sugusu/ ama no ko nareba/ yado mo sadamezu.
This is from the Wakan Roeishu
in the section on courtesans and the Shin Kokinshu #1701:
I am a
fisherman's child/ Living on the shore/ The white waves lave/ And have no
fixed abode. H.H. Honda
- thought
- Basho's line here is "iisutete idetsutsu." Having tossed off his reply, he set out.
- Tako
- In the Manyoshu XVII a reference is made to the bay at Nago in a poem by
Otomo no Iemochi, #4018:
Minato kaze/ samuku fukunarashi/ Nago no e ni/
tsuma yobi kawashi/ tsusa wa ni naku
(The harbor wind blows chill/ On the
bay of Nago/ My wife calls to exchange greeting/ The crane cries in the
swamp.)
- Angry Sea
- Perhaps this poem can be seen as a greeting upon Basho's arrival in Kaga, the
wealthiest of all domains in Tokugawa Japan. The 'Arisoumi' refers to the
whole coastline of Etchu and is used as a makura kotoba. Originally it was
"ara iso" or rough shore.
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