hut, thatched hut

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Hut（iori) )

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Non-seasonal Topic
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation

A simple thatched hut is often the subject of Japanese poetry.




The more refined tea house evolved from the simple dwelling of the peasants of the Edo period.

an　庵 hermitage, hut
yado 宿 my home. yado is also a lodging on the road


. WKD : Living at home in all seasons .


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見渡せば花も紅葉もなかりけり
浦の苫屋の秋の夕暮れ

miwataseba hana mo momiji mo nakarikeri
ura no tomaya no aki no yugure

As I look around
cherry blossoms or crimson leaves
are not to be found -
by the rush-thatched hut along the shore
in autumn's evening dusk.

Fujiwara no Teika, Shinkokin-shu
Tr. Hayashida Hajime


. WKD : Autumn Solitude .


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- Bashō-An, Bashoo-an 芭蕉庵 Basho-An in Fukagawa　深川　-
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


芭蕉葉を柱に懸けん庵の月 　
bashooha o hashira ni kaken io no tsuki

one banana leaf
placed on the pillar -
the moon above my hut　





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発句なり松尾桃青宿の春
. hokku nari Matsuo Toosei yado no haru .
(spring). the home of Matsuo Tosei
1677

Matsuo later changed his name from Tosei "Green peach" to Basho (Banana).


. WKD : "spring in this lodge", yado no haru　宿の春 .
Kigo for the New Year

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啄木鳥も庵は破らず夏木立
kitsutsuki mo io wa yaburazu natsu kodachi

even woodpeckers
don't damage this hut:
summer grove
Tr. Barnhill


MORE about Basho haiku
translations and discussion :
. WKD : woodpecker, kitsutsuki 啄木鳥 .


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ばせを植ゑてまづ憎む荻の二葉哉
bashoo uete mazu nikumu ogi no futaba kana
. Planting the first banana tree with his disciple Rika 李下 .


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kakurega 隠れ家 hiding place, hideout, refuge

隠れ家や月と菊とに田三反
. kakurega ya tsuki to kiku to ni ta san tan .
hermitage with moon, chrysanthemums and rice paddies
for Tani Boku-In (Bokuin)


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粟稗にとぼしくもあらず草の庵　
. awa hie ni toboshiku mo arazu kusa no io .
foxtail millet (awa), barn millet (hie)


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初雪や幸ひ庵にまかりある　
hatsu yuki ya saiwai an ni makariaru

first snow -
I am lucky to be here
in my own hut
Tr. Gabi Greve


Written on the 18th day of the 12th lunar month 1686
貞亨3年12月18日, Basho age 43

This day was also considered as the 31st day of the 1st month
太陽暦で1687年1月31日
Other sources place it on the ninth day of the 12th lunar month.
12月9日

On that day he wrote about the first narcissus.

初雪や水仙の葉のたわむまで
. hatsu-yuki ya suisen no ha no tawamu made .

Basho was fond of "first snow" and made some trips to friends when he heard the good news. Now finally it has started snowing on his own home and he is happy to be there.

makari aru 罷りある an emphatic verbal prefix
shows his great joy about the snow.

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この宿は水鶏も知らぬ扉かな
kono yado wa kuina mo shiranu toboso kana

this lodging has a door
not even known
to the water rail
Tr. Gabi Greve

Most probably written when Basho visited Kosen 湖仙亭 in Otsu in 1694.
As a greeting to his host who lived so remote and lonely that
"not even the water rails come to knock at the door".
The voice of the birds sounds like someone knocking on a door,
kuina tataku 水鶏たたく.




source :　masuda-art.p1.bindsite

Waka by. Fujiwara no Teika 藤原定家.

槙の戸をたたく水鶏の曙に人やあやめの軒のうつりか

maki no to ni tataku kuina no akebono ni
hito ya ayame no noki no utsuri ka

"At dawn I heard a knock at the door,
but when I opened there was nobody,
just the voice of a water rail outside."


The "knocking of the water rail" is also mentioned in the
Murasaki Shikibu Diary Emaki 紫式部日記絵巻,
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !



. water rail, kuina 水鶏 (くいな) Rallus aquaticus .


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草臥れて宿借るころや藤の花　
くたびれて宿借るころや藤の花
kutabirete yado karu koro ya fuji no hana

just as I am so tired
and look for a lodging -
wisteria flowers
Tr. Gabi Greve


When worn out
And seeking an inn:
Wisteria flowers!
Tr. Aitken


Tired walking
stopping at an inn
wisteria
Tr. David McMurray, 2004
The master poet must have seen some purple wisteria blossoms dangling from a trellis in the evening light. There is a certain harmony between the blossoms and his tired body and soul. His poem does not evoke an image of loneliness, rather he seems to be in a contented frame of mind. He's at one with nature.
source : asahi.com/english/haiku


As I seek a bower,
Weary from travel, I find
A wisteria flower.
Tr. Yasuda


Written in 1688, at Yamato Yagi 大和八木にて
This hokku has the cut marker YA at the end of line 2.

. WKD : Wisteria (fuji 藤) .


Oi no Kobumi 笈の小文
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .

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source :　hiroko1.exblog.jp
aki yanagi 秋柳 willow in autumn


なに喰うて小家は秋の柳かな　
nani kuute ko-ie wa aki no yanagi kana

what do they eat
in this small house in autumn
below the willow tree ?
Tr. Gabi Greve


This hokku has the phrase stretched over lines 2 and 3:
aki no yanagi kana - autumn for the willow tree
and the cut marker KANA at the end of line 3.

Written in 貞亨元年, Basho age 41 or later.

There is just one small house below the willow tree and Basho wonders how its inhabitants make do with their poor life.


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西行の庵もあらん花の庭　
. Saigyō no iori mo aran hana no niwa .
Basho and Saigyo　芭蕉 - 西行


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source :www.komonjyo.net


I got some rice from friends.

世の中は稲刈るころか草の庵
yo no naka wa ine karu koro ka kusa no io

in the world it is now time
to harvest rice -
my thatched hermitage
Tr. Gabi Greve

Written around 貞亨年間, Basho age 41 - 44

The hut refers most probably to his second Basho-An in Fukagawa.
Someone of his disciples had brought him newly harvested rice to support his poor life.
Basho leads the life of an intonsha 隠遁者 a recluse and makes fun of his lifestyle.

. WKD : The Japanese Rice Culture - .



- Bashō-An 芭蕉庵 Basho-An in Fukagawa　深川　-
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


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Go-goo-An" 五合庵 Gogo-An
The hermitage of poet
. Ryokan / Ryookan 良寛 .
(1758-1831)
At Mount Yahiko in Echigo.


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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way


watamashi わたまし/ 移徙 /渡座 to move into a new dwelling



It was celebrated with a special gift of flowers
watamashi no iwai 渡座の祝


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HAIKU

. WKD : Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .

庵門に流れ入けり天の川
iokado ni nagare-irikeri Amanogawa

flowing in
through my front door --
the Milky Way
Tr. Chris Drake

This hokku was written early in the 7th month (August) of 1814, while Issa was living in his hometown and three months after he had gotten married for the first time. It comes right before a group of hokku in Issa's diary about the Tanabata star festival celebrated on 7/7, so it's obviously written with the star festival in mind. According to the legend celebrated at the festival, the Weaving Woman star (Vega) and the Oxherd star (Altair) are separated by the River of Heaven (the Milky Way) and fated to be able to meet on only one night of the year -- the night of lunar 7/7. On this night, if there are no clouds, the Weaving Woman is able to meet her lover by crossing the River of Heaven on a bridge formed by many magpies lined up side by side.

The word io literally means 'hut, hermitage,' but it was also a standard polite euphemism for one's own home. Similar humble words were also used when referring to oneself or one's family. Since the Milky Way "flows inside" the door, I take "hut" to be a reference to Issa's own house and take him to be watching the Milky Way through his front door. On one level this is a visual hokku about how the Milky Way seems to be flowing down inside Issa's house on a clear night far from city lights on which the stars seem even closer than usual.

But this is the first time Issa has celebrated the star festival with his wife, and in the previous hokku in his diary he writes about "my star," so he may be suggesting that he and his wife are like the star lovers and that this year the Milky Way is also being crossed by Issa and his wife as it flows through their house.

Chris Drake

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隠れ家は気のむいた夜が月見哉
kakurega wa ki no muita yo ga tsukimi kana

in my small home
tonight we feel like it --
moon-viewing
Tr. Chris Drake

This hokku appears along with one other hokku in a letter Issa sent on 8/16/1826 to his student and patron Shunkou (春耕), whose wife Seifu (成布) was also a hokku and renku poet. The word "hermitage; small hut" was a common humble expression to refer to one's own old or poor house, and Issa uses it in several hokku to modestly refer to his own house. In the letter, the reference is clearly to his own modest house.

It's quite normal to want to do moon-viewing, so why does Issa stress this normal feeling? There is no clear answer to this question, but it's known that in the 8th month of this year Issa married for the third time to a woman from a nearby province who worked as a maid in his hometown. The woman, Yao, was thirty-one and had a year-old child born out of wedlock, whom Issa agreed to take care of, and he must have met her at least a few times before they married, since they lived in the same town. A plausible hypothesis for Issa's great happiness at this year's ceremonies for viewing the harvest moon would be that he has either just married or is about to marry his third wife and that having a moon-viewing party with her and perhaps a few relatives in his modest home is a special joy for him at this point in his life. I take "feel like it" to be deliberately ambiguous: it can refer not only to moon-viewing but to getting married and all the things that go with that. If so, then Issa uses "my humble house" in order to stress that he is part of a family again and that watching the moon as part of a family gives him -- and no doubt Yao -- a deep joy that isn't provided at ordinary parties for viewing the moon, even the harvest moon. The translation uses "we" as the subject of the verb to express this connection between Issa's house and his new family.

The second hokku in Issa's letter is equally joyful, almost euphoric:

古壁やどの穴からも秋の月
furu-kabe ya dono ana kara mo aki no tsuki

old walls --
from every hole
autumn moonlight

Continuing the "modest little hut" image, Issa declares that on this special night even the light pouring through the holes in the old walls of his house creates a beautiful counterpoint to the moon-viewing party. The moonlight image might also be a greeting from Issa to Yao to tell her he's sure she will illuminate his old house and make it attractive again. The old walls further suggest Issa himself at sixty-three (he died two years later). He seems to feel light pouring through his life from many directions on this particular full-moon night.

Issa's letter says he plans to visit Shunkou in about three months. No doubt he explained to Shunkou at that time about his third marriage, but the two hokku in the letter may already have given Shunkou a hint about Issa's new frame of mind.

Chris Drake


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Other haiku by Issa, Tr. David Lanoue

草の庵年取餅を買にけり
kusa no io toshitori mochi o kai ni keri

thatched hut--
the year's last rice cakes
are bought

Translated by David Lanoue
More ISSA Haiku about Pounding Rice

The discussion started with another translation of this haiku

thatched hut--
the aged rice cake
is purchased

Translating Haiku Forum Nr. 853 / 855 / 858 / 864

In former times, it was customary in Japan to add one year to one's life on the first of January (toshitori). Individual birthdays were not celebrated.
to get older, toshi o toru　年を取る

thatched hut -
buying rice dumplings
to grow older another year
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

"yellowtail tuna to pass into the New Year" toshitori buri　年取鰤 is a speciality for New Year in Western Japan.


The use of IO, iori, 庵 the thatched hut
Translating Haiku Forum

o o o o o

to my hut too
New Year's arrives...
the zooni vendor


waga io ya ganjitsu mo kuru zooni uri
我庵や元日も来る雑煮売

by Issa, 1817

Zooni, glutinous rice cakes with vegetables, is enjoyed in the New Year's season.
This haiku has the prescript, "In Hatsuchoobori Beggar Quarter, I greet the spring."
Hatsuchoobori was a district of old Edo (today's Tokyo). See Maruyama Kazuhiko, Issa haiku shuu (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1990; rpt. 1993) 261, note 1394.
Shinji Ogawa offers this translation:

To my hut
even on the New Year's Day
zooni vendors come

He notes that it is a Japanese custom not to work during the first three days of the year, but in the big city of Edo, zooni vendors were busy as bees.

Tr. David Lanoue
http://cat.xula.edu/issa/

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木つ々きが目利して居る庵哉
kitsutsuki ga mekiki shite iru iori kana

woodpecker
busy appraising
the meditation hut
Tr. Chris Drake

I've translated the version that appears near the end of My Spring. In Issa's diary the first and second lines are slightly different, though the basic meaning is the same: kitsutsuki no mekiki shite miru . . .


Read the full discussion by Chris here:

. Issa and the Woodpecker .



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Related words

***** . Mochi and pounding rice .

***** . WKD : Living at home in all seasons .


. WKD - LIST of haiku topics and keywords 　


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