tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9571307.post5173596476439177564..comments2023-05-08T02:46:42.330-07:00Comments on SAIJIKI FOR KENYA AND TROPICAL REGIONS: Beggar, beggarsGabi Grevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362456518166174106noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9571307.post-72652359767997902622021-04-28T17:44:37.417-07:002021-04-28T17:44:37.417-07:00Legend from Atsuta Shrine, Nagoya
n 1838, a pair ...<b> Legend from Atsuta Shrine, Nagoya </b><br />n 1838, a pair of brothers had the dead body of their father pass though 一の鳥居 the first Torii gate of 熱田神社 the Atsuta Shrine.<br />They were banned from the town. The home of the brothers fell into decay and they both became kojiki 乞食 beggars. <br />.<br />https://japanshrinestemples.blogspot.com/2020/03/atsuta-shrine-legends-nagoya.html<br />.Gabi Grevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16362456518166174106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9571307.post-33839073928467328682020-10-21T21:44:06.341-07:002020-10-21T21:44:06.341-07:00Legend from Kagoshima about a Kojiki
徳之島与論町 Tokun...<b> Legend from Kagoshima about a Kojiki </b><br />徳之島与論町 Tokunoshima Yoroncho city<br /><br />If a kojiki 乞食 begging monk came asking for water and did not get any, there would be an outbreak of an epidemic in the family.<br />Begging monks should be treated with respect! <br />.<br />https://heianperiodjapan.blogspot.com/2020/02/hayariyamai-epidemic-legends.html<br />.Gabi Grevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16362456518166174106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9571307.post-41577695674861442792019-08-02T21:39:21.725-07:002019-08-02T21:39:21.725-07:00Legend from Shinjuku about . kojiki 乞食 beggar .
....<b> Legend from Shinjuku about . kojiki 乞食 beggar . </b><br />. datsueba 奪衣婆 / ダツエバ the Hag of Hell .<br />She sits near the river crossing to Hell and takes the cloths of people who can not pay properly for the crossing.<br />On a cold evening<br />a begger came to the Buddha Hall where a statue of Datsueba was kept and stole a cushion to sleep warm in a different place.<br />In his dream, Datsueba appeared and said "The cushion you stole must be quite warm!"<br />The beggar woke up, regretted his deed and brought the cushion back the next day. <br />.<br />https://edoflourishing.blogspot.com/2018/11/shinjuku-ward-legends.html<br />.Gabi Grevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16362456518166174106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9571307.post-87112445497998188492015-12-22T12:50:26.382-08:002015-12-22T12:50:26.382-08:00Kobayashi Issa
this peaceful realm --
even at beg...Kobayashi Issa<br /><br />this peaceful realm --<br />even at beggar houses<br />Children's Day banners<br /> <br />kimi ga yo wa kojiki no ie mo nobori kana<br /><br /> I did use the current name of the 5/5 festival, Children's Day. I realize it's not perfect, but I used it because I thought things would get too complicated if I mentioned all the various customs related to the Tango no Sekku festival complex. I also wanted to avoid the misleading term Boy's Festival, which is commonly encountered, since the Tango festival was traditionally not just for boys, except perhaps within the warrior class. Among commoners, especially in rural areas, the village young men's and young women's associations usually held celebrations, 5/5 was often considered "women's house day," and the placement of sweet flag leaves on roofs and sweet-flag baths were both for girls as well as boys. This is presumably why the Japanese government now uses the term Children's Day -- since in the Edo period the 3/3 Doll festival was held for purification and not just for girls and the 5/5 Tango festival was mainly for maintaining good health and protection against summer diseases and not just for boys. Therefore I was using Children's Day descriptively, not as a name used in Issa's time. I agree that Children's Day is a little confusing, just as the historical reality is a bit confusing. <br />.<br />CHRIS DRAKE<br />.Gabi Grevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16362456518166174106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9571307.post-37670383908786839332014-10-25T21:47:24.573-07:002014-10-25T21:47:24.573-07:00Kobayashi Issa
隙人やだらつきあきてわか葉陰
himajin ya daratsuk...Kobayashi Issa<br /><br />隙人やだらつきあきてわか葉陰<br />himajin ya daratsuki akite wakaba kage<br /><br />in the shade<br />of new leaves a loafer<br />tired of his leisure <br /><br />In this hokku Issa seems to be referring to a man who gets along by doing as little work as possible but ends up finding himself in a psychological bind. Uninterested in working regularly in a rice field or at a local job, he seems to be resting by himself in the shade of trees which are now putting out fresh new leaves, yet he has so much free time he paradoxically feels tired (-akite). He may have a worried look on his face or just look unhappy. Issa says the person has grown tired of his slow-moving leisurely lifestyle, so perhaps he envies people he sees moving around energetically nearby and envies even the fresh new leaves that are energetically appearing on the limbs of the trees. Issa doesn't indicate the precise reason for his weariness, but a guess would be that it is related to being isolated from the rhythms of ordinary social life. He doesn't seem to be a Daoist who delights in outwitting utilitarian and narrowly rationalistic thinking and thereby spontaneously communes with the Way of the universe. Rather, his tiredness, ennui, and preference for shadows may be the result of growing lethargy and literally not knowing what to do with his time. <br /><br />Two hokku before the above hokku in Issa's diary is a hokku that uses a word that is similar to hima-jin in the sense of loafer or idler:<br /><br />an idle man changes<br />into summer robes<br />just to kill time<br /><br />muda-bito ya hima ni agunde koromo-gae<br /><br />The word muda-bito in the first line literally means 'useless or unemployed person' and referred both to the idle rich and to people who lived off others without working or who did nothing with their lives. In the hokku Issa implies that the person has separated himself from the ordinary rhythms of society and so when lunar summer arrives he (or she) feels nothing special about changing into summer robes, an important moment in the daily lives of most people. He doesn't know what to do with all his free time, and he seems to lose his sensitivity to many of the subtle changes in nature and society that constantly appear as time flows onward.<br /><br />Both of these third-person hokku seem to be objective. If Issa is referring to himself here, he must be using a lot of irony, especially since he never got seriously weary or tired of his life's work -- writing haikai. Issa sometimes used hyperbole and referred to himself as a beggar, especially while he was living mostly at other people's houses in Edo and on travels, and later in life he was well aware that many people in his hometown thought he was strange for not becoming a farmer and working in the rice fields he inherited from his father. At the same time, Issa did not consider writing haikai to be a useless activity or or a form of being unemployed. He worked exceeding hard, especially after returning to his hometown, to support himself as a haikai teacher while creating a network of what he considered progressive haikai poets in the mountainous region in which he lived. He tirelessly traveled around teaching, encouraging, editing anthologies, and writing renku with local haikai poets even in the winter months. Issa was not an artless nightingale warbling in the wilds but an energetic and intense poet who never tired of experimenting and writing large numbers of hokku while enthusiastically reading the work of his contemporaries along with works of classical Japanese poetry and prose.<br /><br />Chris Drake<br />.Gabi Grevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16362456518166174106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9571307.post-37163142131438463232014-01-24T13:25:48.104-08:002014-01-24T13:25:48.104-08:00乞食の角力にさへも贔屓かな
kotsujiki no sumoo ni sae mo hiiki k...乞食の角力にさへも贔屓かな<br />kotsujiki no sumoo ni sae mo hiiki kana<br /><br />the beggar<br />gives money even <br />to his favorite wrestler<br /><br />This hokku was written in the eighth month (September) of 1821, when Issa was in and around his hometown. Most beggars in Issa's time were no doubt fans of various kinds of performers, but Issa is amazed by one beggar, who seems to be doing extremely well: he is a patron and supporter of even a sumo wrestler. This means he meets the wrestler and gives him money and valuable presents. In some cases Japanese patrons also became part-time lovers of their favorite performers. Issa stresses "even," so the beggar also seems to be a patron of one or more other performers, such as his favorite Kabuki actor, storyteller, or musician. In Issa's home province of Shinano, sumo had been very popular since ancient times, when it seems to have begun as a shamanic fortune-telling ritual held to estimate the size of the fall harvest. In Issa's time, there were many tournaments in Shinano between sumo wrestlers at the big Suwa Shrine and by visiting groups of wrestlers who performed at local Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. It wasn't easy to become a patron of a famous wrestler, so the beggar must be giving him a fair amount of money. I wonder if there might not be the further suggestion that the beggar was once a performer himself who still has his communication skills and enough presence to persuade many passersby to contribute to his cause.<br /> <br />Chris Drake<br />.Isshttp://edoflourishing.blogspot.jp/2013/02/kobayashi-issa.htmlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9571307.post-65257328664687434902013-08-31T17:47:10.162-07:002013-08-31T17:47:10.162-07:00Kobayashi Issa
七夕やよい子持たる乞食村
tanabata ya yoi ko mo...Kobayashi Issa<br /><br />七夕やよい子持たる乞食村<br />tanabata ya yoi ko mottaru kojiki-mura<br /><br />star festival --<br />in the beggar village<br />they're all good kids<br /><br />Tr. Chris Drake <br /><br />Read the discussion about hinin <br />.Gabi Greve - Issahttp://darumamuseumgallery.blogspot.jp/2010/04/eta-and-burakumin.htmlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9571307.post-85834894069669949462012-12-26T13:34:01.369-08:002012-12-26T13:34:01.369-08:00first snow --
beggar at the door early
calls me &...first snow -- <br />beggar at the door early<br />calls me "God Ebisu"<br /> <br /> <br />hatsu-yuki ya asa-ebisu suru kado kojiki<br /><br /><br />Kobayashi Issa<br /><br />comment by Chris Drake is HERE<br />http://groups.yahoo.com/group/translatinghaiku/message/3840Gabi Greve - Issahttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/translatinghaiku/message/3840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9571307.post-9655844466805522312012-04-02T19:13:33.350-07:002012-04-02T19:13:33.350-07:00spring rain ...
a homeless man by the roadside
and...<b><br />spring rain ...<br />a homeless man by the roadside<br />and wildflowers<br /></b><br />Sandip Sital Chauhan<br />(Joys of Japan)Gabi Grevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16362456518166174106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9571307.post-67275975659244242322010-10-13T14:44:03.392-07:002010-10-13T14:44:03.392-07:00homeless . . .
a plastic bag drifts
across the sid...homeless . . .<br />a plastic bag drifts<br />across the sidewalk<br /><br />Dietmar Tauchner<br /><br />http://tinywords.com/2010/10/13/4237/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com