Although Basho says they climbed Gassan on the 8th, Sora says it was 6.6 (7.22). One interpretation for this confusion of dates is that the moon would have been fuller on the 8th, so Basho used the date to harmonize with the name of the mountain which means moon mountain. The most likely explanation, however, is that he simply mistook the date. According to Sora the weather was clear that day. They left Minamidani, passed through Hirashimizu, Takashimizu, Mitagahara, and arrived at the summit around four o'clock. The sacred rope Basho hung around his neck is one used by all pilgrims to this sacred place. It is supposed to drive away all impurities while one is on the sacred mountain. The hood is made of a white strip of cotton cloth wrapped around the head and hanging loose in warm weather or tucked into the collar like a scarf in cold weather. This is a standard garment for pilgrims to wear when they climb this mountain.

When Basho says they climbed over snow, he may be exaggerating, but Gassan has snow on it all year round, so it is possible that he may have run into it on the climb.

As he reaches the top, the image Basho creates is that of a barrier formed by the clouds and creating a path for the sun and moon to follow across the sky. This image is a natural one brought to mind by the name Gassan. This also puts the pilgrim into a realm detached, physically, from worldliness. This echos his experience at Matsushima and again at Dewagoe where he found himself wrapped in the swirling clouds. Basho says he feels as though he had actually climbed into the sky where the sun and moon follow their courses.

By the time he reached the summit, Basho's body was numb from cold and fatigue. According to Sora, once they reached the top, they worshipped at the shrine dedicated to the moon deity, Tsukiyomi no mikoto. The moon was in an early phase at that point, so it rose early in the evening. Sora says the clouds disappeared and it was night in the east while light still lingered in the west. Basho suggests that they slept in the open, but Sora says there was a rude shelter for the use of priests practicing austerities. It was almost the same as sleeping in the open. Basho is at one with the cosmos here with the sun going down on one side and the moon coming up on the other. In this state he goes beyond Buddhism to some sort of pre-Buddhist mountain worship. Here his night in the clouds echoes his experiences at Matsushima and at the mountain pass; in each case it is the same sort of experience, but the quality of the experience is different. They are all uncomfortable, sleepless nights, but one deals with beauty, one deals with discomfort, and one deals with religious solemnity.

On his way down the mountain Basho saw a smithy. According to a contemporary work, no one was making swords there at that time and the place was used by priests as a place to sleep. The originator of sword making on this mountain was Tamaomaru in the 1140s. The most famous sword maker was Kenkyu in the 1180s and his son Gassan in the 1220s. There were actually a number of swordsmiths who used the name Gassan and it is not known for sure which one (s) used this forge. Basho speaks of the miraculous power of the pure water, but some commentators say there is no natural source of water near the summit and that what Basho saw was snow melt. A short distance further down the mountain, however, is a spring where pure water does emerge. In the end, questions remain about the location of the forge in relation to the pure, miraculous water.

Ryosen is a place in south China where they use the water to make swords. This place is mentioned in the Shih Chi.

Kansho and Bakuya were a husband and wife who were Chinese swordsmiths who made a pair of male and female (yin and yang) swords. These swords were so finely crafted the Chinese emperor demanded them as tribute, but the male sword was hidden and only the female sword was given. When the swords were first being made and before the metal had yet melted, the husband and wife threw in locks of their hair and parings from their nails. As soon as the metal melted, they qucikly made the swords. The male sword had a tortoise shell pattern and the female sword had a random pattern. The dynastic histories tell the story in detail, but this story has nothing to do with Ryusen Spring since that is not where Kansho and Bakuya made their swords. The story of Kansho and Bakuya is told in chapter 13 of Taiheiki.

Having given the examples of the Chinese swordsmiths, Basho speaks of a yearning for the past and in this case it is the smithy on the slopes of Mt. Gassan that reminds him of an ideal age like that of Kansho and Bakuya when fine swords were being forged. Basho raises the examples of Gassan's swords, Ryusen Spring, and Kansho and Bakuya to say that such devotion to one's art is rare and should be remembered and celebrated.

Having spoken of human dedication and creation, Basho turns to the natural example of the stunted cherry tree just as he contrasted the natural and the man-made with the mayuhaki at Obanazawa. According to one commentator there is one variety of dwarf cherry that grows on the slopes of Mt. Gassan that is late in blooming and would likely have been in flower when Basho was there. Basho's meaning, however, is to celebrate the indomitable courage and life force of this small tree as we see in the line hana no kokoro warinashi. This cherry tree also disorients Basho in both time and space. The cherries had been in bloom when he had left Edo, but that was many months and many miles ago and yet here the cherry is just coming into bloom.

The plum that blossoms in the heat of summer (enten no baika) is an image used in Zen Buddhism for those phenomena which one will not see with one's eyes, but which one can imagine with one's mind. Perhaps it is the sort of thing one sees with one's third eye. A poem in Chinese links a painting by Makitsu of a banana plant under the snow with a poem by T'an Sai which speaks of plum blossoms in the heat of summer. Makitsu was a painter contemporaneous with Tu Fu while T'an Sai was a politician and poet of the Sung. The verse in question is found in the collection T'an Sai Shi Shu.

Contemplating the cherry tree brings to Basho's mind a poem by Gyoson, a priest of the late Heian period. He was elevated to the high rank of Sojo in 1125 and died in 1135 at the age of 79. He was a dedicated poet and his work is included in several anthologies including Senzaishu and Shin Kokinshu. Gyoson was also an important figure in the development of ascetic religious practices and is said to have gone into the mountains to practice austerities at the age of 17. He is even said to have come to Mt. Haguro. Basho's reference is to Gyoson's famous poem in the Kinyoshu #556: Morotomo ni/ aware to omohe/ yamazakura/ hana yori hoka ni/ shirubito mo nashi. The headnote to the poem says: "Unexpectedly on a mountain peak I saw a flowering cherry and composed this poem." The sense of the poem is that there is a cherry flowering deep in the mountains and he feels sympathy with it because he too is all alone in this remote place. In such a place he has no friends but the flowering cherry. Originally aware meant to find something moving; to be moved by admiration, love of parents, sympathy for others, or pathos.

The phrase nao masarite oboyou, means that after all the examples he gives, he finds the cherry even more impressive than he had first realized, and more impressive than any of his examples. There are several ways to interpret this. 1) He compares the cherry in Gyoson's poem with the one in front of him and finds the one before him even more pathetic than the poetic one. 2) Gyoson's poem is fine, but seeing this cherry Basho comes to a deeper understanding of the poem and realizes that the poem is even finer than he had first thought. 3) The cherry before him has reminded him of Gyoson's poem which makes the encounter with the cherry even more meaningful. It is typical of Basho when he encounters something to be reminded of an incident from the past or an old poem, and that recollection deepens his appreciation for what he is encountering. This is his way of making an argument for the enduring and enriching power of poetry. Basho is not making a comparison between this cherry and Gyoson's cherry, nor is he even making a comparison with Gyoson's poem. Rather, this is the recollection of Gyoson's poem that enriches his encounter with the cherry.

There are secret rituals that protect religious ascetics from the hardships they have to endure and Basho is not allowed to reveal these secrets to others. Even today the pilgrims on this mountain are required to change clothes and leave behind all money and other objects from the secular world when they enter here. Naturally photographs are firbidden.

Sora says that in the evening they returned to Minamidani extremely fatigued. On the 8th and 9th Egaku came to visit Basho at his quarters and Basho wrote out a number of poems on formal sheets of paper for him. According to Sora they climbed Gassan on the 6th and Yudono on the 7th making separate trips.

THE POEM: Suzushisa ya... The season word is suzushi indicating summer. Other versions of this poem begin with the line Suzukaze ya.

There is some question about when and where this poem was composed. It is thought by some that this poem was written on the 8th or 9th at the request of Egaku, but since it makes reference to the moon of the third day, it may have been written earlier. On 6.3 Basho arrived at the home of Zushi Sakichi as we have already seen, and he may have written this that evening as they made their way to Minamidani. On the other hand, he may have written it after arriving at Minamidani as he gazed at the new moon through the branches of the cedar trees which would have felt refreshingly cool. The line honomikatsuki means both 1) honoka ni mieru, to be able to see something dimly, and 2) mikatsuki, the new or third day moon. Although this sacred mountain retreat is called Hagurosan, for this poem it sounds better to read it Haguroyama. For one thing it helps to bring out the image of the dark mountain shrouded by the night. This image of the dark mountain lying there in the gathering dark with the new moon rising above it creates a curiously fresh image. It suggests the word suzushisa and makes it appropriate here. This word means not only refreshingly cool, but suggests also a kind of refreshing spiritual cleansing and purity. We can read the images as contrasting the darkness of Mt. Haguro with the faint light of the moon, or we can see the faint light of the moon which emphasizes the chilliness of the scene.

THE POEM: Kumo no mine... The season word is kumo no mine indicating summer. The image here is that the summer clouds build up in peak-like formations. In English translation it is hard to see how this poem works. Instead of columns of clouds, Basho's words are kumo no mine which makes a contrast with tsuki no yama. Thus we have the contrasts of day and night, cloud and moon, peak and mountain, and all based on the idea of Mt. Gassan as tsuki no yama. Which of these combinations is real? yume ka utsutsu ka? All day long the clouds have threatened to ruin his moonviewing, but at night they clear and he sees the mountain as it should be seen. This is a Buddhist metaphor too. There are two main interpretations based on the poem's two images; the cloud peaks, and the mountain bathed in moonlight (i.e., Gassan). 1) The main image is the peaks of clouds. Here the meaning is that if a number of cloud formations will break up and dissipate, the mountain will be bathed in moonlight. Mt. Gassan stands there hidden while countless cloud formations billow up to obscure it, but when the clouds eventually disappear, the mountain still remains. Substance and fluff, delusion and reality. In this version the poem is about the cloud formations rather than the moon-drenched mountain. 2) The main image is the mountain bathed in moonlight. After the cloud formations dissipate, the moon-lit mountain emerges. The cloud formations rise up like mountain peaks, but these are delusions and they break up one after the other until, as night falls, all the clouds are gone and the moon-lit mountain appears. This celebrates the name Gassan. This mountain is used for the worship of the moon deity, Tsukiyomi no mikoto and here is located a temple called Gekkoji. This sets up a contrast with Nikko which is dedicated to the sun. This knowledge enhances our image of the mountain bathed in moonlight.

Yet even if we read this image as showing a mountain bathed in moonlight (Gekko), the question of perspective remains. Is he looking at the mountain from a distance, or is he on top of the mountain looking out and down? Basho has described for us his ascent of the cloud-shrouded mountain and speaks of entering the cloud-lined paths of the sun and moon. He tells us that when he reached the top, the sun went down and the moon rose, so surely he watched the cloud formations break up and the moonlit mountain emerge as seen from the summit. From this perspective the poem is a good expression of Basho's experience and feelings.

But Sora says they sought refuge in a hut on the peak and that the clouds never cleared off enough so they could see the moon. If that was the case, then the perspective is not from the mountain top, but rather the mountain as seen from a distance. Here we see the whole mountain in the moonlight after the clouds have gone and night has fallen.

THE POEM: Katararenu... This poem deals with a place name and does not have a season word, though one critic has pointed out that since the time of the Teimon School of haikai it was customary to make a pilgrimage to Mt. Yudono in summer, so Yudono acts as a season word.

In his text Basho explains that he is forbidden by the rules for pilgrims to speak of the details of this mountain. Nurasu means to wet his sleeves with tears and is used as an engo for Yudono. The mountain is covered with hot springs and steam vents, so the idea of having one's sleeves drenched is not unnatural. In one sense they are drenched by the steam emitted by the mountain.

Yudono is a mysterious mountain and visitors are not permitted to speak of what they see here. So however moved one may be by this place, one keeps it to oneself and in a sense this enables one to feel more gratitude for the experience. Probably only a person who has been there can know this feeling. Basho, being a religious sort of person, surely felt this very powerfully. This poem suggests something else as well. Words like katararenu and nurasu sode hint of a secret love affair and the sorrow that accompanies it. This suggestion is made more possible when we know that another name of Mt. Yudono is Koi no yama, mountain of love. We have no way to know if Basho was aware of this nickname for the mountain but it certainly adds a dimension to the possibilities for interpreting the poem.

THE POEM: Yudonoyama... Again we have to consider the pilgrimage to Yudono as a season word for summer. According to Sugagomosho, "one of the rules for visiting this mountain is that pilgrims not pick up anything from the ground. The reason is that coins scattered by worshippers cover the ground like gravel and are ground into the dirt and people walk over them." There are shrines on the mountain, but not of the conventional sort, rather, they are sacred natural forms located near the hot springs and steam vents. Consequently many coins are scattered in those places as offerings. Naturally no one picks up these coins. This scattering of coins is also symbolic of rejecting worldly wealth. In Sora's collected poetry we see other versions of this poem which were evidently early drafts. Basho may have had a hand in the final version we see here. The money cast away here by pilgrims was not just small coins, but even pieces of gold. Eventually some people began to pilfer the money, so in the 1660s a decree forbidding taking the coins was issued and was strictly enforced.

In this passage we have four poems in a row dealing with Basho's visit to the three sacred mountains. The sequence begins with Basho's Suzushi poem and ends with Sora's Yudonoyama poem. The poems are presented in descending order of excellence.

In the first poem we see a skillful use of kakekotoba and the use of a proper name in a way that allows the poet to use the name as a descriptive noun. But the poem's technical virtuosity is not an end in itself. The overlapping use of honomiyuru and honomikatsuki not only expands the meaning of the poem, but elaborates and enhances the mood as well. Meaning and mood come together to make the poem work. The name Haguroyama is skillfully used in the poem to create the image of a darkening mountain. The dark mountain and the new moon create a contrast and a sense of mystery.

The second poem, Kumo no mine, also uses a proper name, Gassan, and expands it to create the image of the mountain drenched in moonlight. This poem is quite successful in exploiting this technique. Compared to the previous poem, however, one can sense a touch of artifice here. We get a clear sense of the passage of time, yet somehow the scene fails to really come alive.

The third poem, Katararenu, also shows a skillful use of engo and kakekotoba, but here the artifice is too conspicuous. There is no question of the piety of the poet with regard to the secret mysteries of this mountain, but the name Yudonoyama suggests the vulgarity of Yudono, the bathroom, and this violates the dignity of the poem. It runs the risk of suggesting inappropriate associations. The poem is too self-conscious and lacking in true feeling.

Sora's poem is even more generalized than the others and does not produce much poetic feeling.

In Basho's text he writes that they climbed the mountain on 6.8, but Sora says they climbed it on 6.6 (7.22). On that day the weather was fine. They left their quarters at Minamidani, passed through several places and reached the summit of Gassan around four o'clock. They wore sacred stoles around their necks and hoods over their heads and were guided by a stalwart man as they climbed over the snow and ice through the clouds and fog. The distance was not far, but the track was steep and they were exhausted by the time they reached the top. The slopes fell away sharply, especially in the direction of Kutani, so it felt as though they were following the track of the sun and moon through the portals of the clouds. At the top they worshipped at the shrine and passed the night in a hut they found there. They did not actually sleep in the open, but they did use leaves for bedding and pillows.

On 6.7 they left the hut and headed down toward Mt. Yudono. On the way they passed the remains of a famous smithy and saw a flowering cherry reminiscent of Gyoson's poem. At Yudonoyama they did not find conventional shrines, but stones and mineral formations in weird shapes and producing rusty water. Basho and Sora were both moved to tears at Yudono, but finally retraced their steps to Minamidani where they spent the night. Sora notes in his diary that they were exhausted as well they should have been, but they had fulfilled Basho's long cherished wish to make a pilgrimage to these three sacred mountains.

On the morning of 6.8 it rained until about noon when it cleared off. The venerable priest Egaku came to their lodgings. Perhaps they were still exhausted from their climb on 6.9 because they did not feel like eating breakfast and only had some noodles. Egaku came to visit again that day and they completed their poetry sequence that begins with the verse Arigata ya. On 6.10 they were invited to the priest's quarters where they were entertained with noodles, sake, and tea and Basho expressed his thanks for the priest's warm hospitality. After that they set out from Mt. Haguro and headed toward Tsuruoka.