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- hot springs
- In Basho's account he says they stopped at Natadera on the way to
yamanaka hot spring, but according to Sora's diary they went straight
through to Yamanaka, then back tracked to Nata.
- Mount Shirane
- This is Mount Hakusan which stands on the border between Kaga and Hida.
Since ancient times it has been regarded along with Fuji and Tateyama as
one of the three great mountains of Japan.
- Emperor Kazan
- The Emperor Kazan (r. 984-986). In the year 986 at the age of 19 he
abdicated the throne and became a Buddhist priest.
- temples
- The pilgrimage to the 33 sacred sites of the west country begins with
Nachi in Kii and ends with Tanigumi in Mino. These are all shrines to
the goddess Kannon. Legend has it that this pilgrimage was first made
by the Emperor Kazan, though some scholars doubt this. After completing
the pilgrimage, Kazan came here to the grotto at Natadera to install a
figure of the Kannon as a kind of recapitulation of all 33 sites he
had visited.
- blows
- The rocks here are whiter than the rocks at Ishiyamadera in Omi.
Some read Ishiyama as a generic rather than a specific name.
- Ariake
- There is no record of a hot spring named Ariake and many commentators
think this is a mistake for Arima, the famous hot springs north of Kobe.
Sora writes Arima.
- chrysanthemums
- This poem might more accurately read: Yamanaka! The crysanthemums
never fall, fragrance of the hot springs.
- Kumenosuke
- His real name was Izumiya Matahei and Kumenosuke was a childhood name.
He was 14 years old at the time of Basho's visit. He was given the pen
name of Toyo by Basho. He died at the age of 76.
- Ise
- Sora's diary shows that he had been suffering stomach problems since
the time they were in Kanazawa. As a youth he had been in the service
of the Nagashima domain and he still had an uncle living there.
- bush clovers
- This may be an allusion to a poem by Saigyo who speaks of walking on
till he drops. Here Sora is declaring that he will walk on till he
collapses, but if he falls in a field of flowering bush clover, he
will be satisfied with the beauty of it. His personal loss of self
is of no great significance in the face of the enduring beauty of
nature. This is the point of Saigyo's poem as well: Izuku ni ka/
nemuri nemurite/ tafurefusan to/ omou kanashiki/ michikusa no
tsuyu. (Sankashu).
- clouds
- Basho makes an allusion here to two Chinese friends who parted and
expressed their grief. Basho knows the kanashimi of one who goes
and the urami of one who stays behind and is wrapped in a cloud of
confusion.
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