Issa Poetry Walk

Behind the Yudanaka onsen is a poetry trail celebrating the work of the haiku poet Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828, wikilink) who was a native of Nagano prefecture and apparently often stayed at this onsen.   'Issa' (一茶) was his pen-name and means 'one [cup of] tea'.

Issa is regarded as one of the four great haiku masters in Japan, along with Bashō, Buson and Shiki.   He was very prolific, leaving over 20,000 haiku in his journals.   See this website for a selection in English and this website for a searchable archive of 10,000 Issa haiku with translations.

Issa was a lay Buddhist priest of the Jodo Shinshu sect, and buddhist ideas are often clear in his poetry.   He also frequently wrote affectionately about lowly animals and insects (90 haiku on the cicada:...).  And his poems often have an appealing earthiness and simplicity. 

Sometimes all at once.  For example

鶯や尿しながらもほつけ経
uguisu ya shito shi nagara mo hokkekyô
nightingale, even while pooping, sings Lotus Sutra

The Issa promenade winds along the wooded hillside behind the onsen village. We walked it backwards, starting at the Heiwa Kannon Statue at the DaihiDen Temple.    Every 50m or so is a post with a haiku.

夕月や大肌ぬいでかたつぶり
yûzuki ya ôhada nuide katatsuburi
in evening moonlight, going bare-chested, snail

Issa suffered much unhappiness in his life : he lost his mother at aged 3, then had a bad relationship with his step-mother, fought with his family over his fathers estate, lost 3 beloved children and his first wife wife to illness, house burnt down, remarried twice etc.   So many poems are about sadness and loneliness:

生き残り生き残りたる寒さかな
Ikinokori ikinokoritaru samusa kana
Outliving them, outliving them all, ah, the cold!

露の世は露の世ながらさりながら
Tsuyu no yo wa tsuyu no yo nagara sari nagara
This dewdrop world, is a dewdrop world, and yet, and yet . . .

Uguisu yasabuku ame o abite naku
Nightingale song this morning, soaked with rain

Issa died on November 19, 1827, in his native village. His death poem was:  "A bath when you're born, a bath when you die, how stupid".

大仏の鼻から出たる乙鳥哉
daibutsu no hana kara detaru tsubame kana
from the great bronze Buddha's nose...  a swallow!

I texted this seasonal Issa poem to my friend May the calligrapher:

ともかくもあなたまかせの年の暮
tomokaku mo anata makase no toshi no kure
Trusting the Buddha (Amida), good and bad, I bid farewell, to the departing year.

蝉鳴や天にひつつく築摩川
semi naku ya ten ni hittsuku chikuma-gawa
cicadas chirr, sticking to the heavens, Chikuma River
(note:  the Chikuma River is nearby in Nagano prefecture)

The trail ended (or began) at a small temple with a statue of Issa.

Yuagari ya, hadashi de modoru, yuki no ue
After the bath, barefoot on the snow.


After the trail we caught the train back to Nagano and Tokyo.  Lovely views of bare apple trees in the winter sun.

Later Minimi choose these as his favorite Issa poems:

寝て起て大欠して猫の恋
nete okite ôakubi shite neko no koi
having slept the cat gets up, yawns, goes out to make love

恋猫の源氏めかする垣根哉
koi neko no genji mekasuru kakine kana
the lover cat, dandied up like Genji, at the fence

恋猫のぬからぬ顔でもどりけり
koi neko no nukaranu kao de modori keri
the lover cat, his face so innocent, comes home

.猫塚に正月させるごまめ哉
neko tsuka [ni] shôgatsu saseru gomame kana
on the cat's grave, in First Month... dried sardines

(which Minimi says nicely expresses the human slave's devotion to its master)