10 haiku out of 9486
year unknown
.鳥の巣も鬼門に立つや日枝の山
tori no su mo kimon ni tatsu ya hie no yama
the bird's nest, too
in the unlucky direction...
Mount Hie
In an earlier version of this haiku (1821), Issa begins with "the black kite" (tobi). The "unlucky direction" (kimon) is the northeast.
year unknown
.梅の木や庵の鬼門に咲給ふ
ume no ki ya io no kimon ni saki tamau
plum tree--
on my hut's unlucky side
blooming!
The tree is located in the unlucky quarter (the northeast), yet it blooms.
year unknown
.かき立って履見せる灯籠哉
kaki tatte hakimono miseru tôro kana
stoking it
to find my shoes...
lantern for the dead
The Bon Festival of the Dead takes place in Eighth Month in the old lunar calendar. At this time, people light lanterns to guide their ancestors' spirits back home. In this comic haiku, Issa finds a less than pious use for the lantern's light.
This undated rewrite has an earlier version (1822) that begins with the phrase, "at times [I use it]" (aru toki wa).
1818
.梅の花庵の鬼門に立りけり
ume no hana io no kimon ni tatari keri
blooming plum tree
in the hut's
unlucky direction
This is Issa's first haiku of the 15th year of Bunka (1818). The tree is located in the unlucky quarter (the northeast), yet it blooms. This haiku has the prescript, Turtle Well (kame ido). The editors of Issa zenshû say that Issa is actually referring to a place in the Kôtô Ward of Edo (today's Tokyo); (Nagano: Shinano Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1976-79, 3.519, note 2). The very next haiku in the journal, on the topic of a courtier riding a horse (eboshi kita umakata dono...), is copied into other texts with the notes, "Tenman Shrine's Turtle Well" and "Tenjin Shrine"--indicating that Issa set both haiku in the same locale. There are thousands of Tenman or Tenjin shrines built in honor of Sugawara no Michizare, a courtier of the Heian period, but Issa is alluding specifically to the Kameido Tenjin (or Tenman) Shrine in the Koto Ward of Tokyo.
In a similar, undated haiku, he writes:
ume no ki ya io no kimon ni saki tamau
plum tree--
on my hut's unlucky side
blooming!
1818
.明星や庵の鬼門の梅の花
myôjô ya io no kimon no ume [no] hana
morning star--
on my hut's unlucky side
plum blossoms
The tree is located in the unlucky quarter (the northeast), yet it deigns to bloom. The morning star is the planet Venus.
Sakuo Nakamura sees the morning star as a symbol of "hope for the future." The second phrase of the haiku alludes to the fact that Issa and his family has been unlucky, but the plum blossoms portend "good fortune" to come.
1821
.春立や庵の鬼門の一り塚
haru tatsu ya io no kimon no hitori tsuka
spring begins--
on the hut's unlucky side
a grave
The unlucky quarter (kimon) is the northeast.
1821
.鳶の巣も鬼門に持や日枝の山
tobi no su mo kimon ni motsu ya hie [no] yama
the black kite's nest, too
in the unlucky direction...
Mount Hie
The "black kite" in the scene (tobi) is a bird, not the paper kind. The "unlucky direction" (kimon) is the northeast.
1822
.蝶とぶや石の上なる笠着物
chô tobu ya ishi no ue naru kasa kimono
a butterfly flits--
an umbrella-hat and kimono
on the rock
1822
.ある時は履見せる灯籠哉
aru toki wa hakimono miseru tôro kana
at times I use it
to find my shoes...
lantern for the dead
The Bon Festival of the Dead takes place in Eighth Month in the old lunar calendar. At this time, people light lanterns to guide their ancestors' spirits back home. In this comic haiku, Issa finds a less than pious use for the lantern's light.
In an undated rewrite, he starts with the phrase, "stoking it" (kaki tatte).
1822
.履の用心がてら灯籠かな
hakimono no yôjin ga tera tôro kana
the shoes guarded
by the temple's lantern...
for the dead
The Bon Festival of the Dead takes place in Eighth Month in the old lunar calendar. At this time, people light lanterns to guide their ancestors' spirits back home. In this haiku, the footwear left outside of the Buddhist temple is guarded by a Bon lantern--not exactly its intended use.