Daishoji was a castle town with a stipend of 70,000 koku and was a branch fief of the Maeda family. The Zenshoji Temple belongs to the Soto Zen sect. This was the family temple of the Izumiya family of Yamanaka and the resident priest was an uncle of young Toyo, the master of the Izumiya who had become a disciple of Basho's. Both Basho and Sora stayed here on the strength of recommendations from the Izumiya family. The temple has a wooden statue of Basho that was carved by Sanpu.

On 8.5 (9.18) Sora left Yamanaka and went to Zenshoji where he spent the night and then stayed over on 8.6 on account of rain. He left there on 8.7. If we trust Basho's account on the matter he left Komatsu and came to Zenshoji on the night of 8.7. The sentiment that being separated by one day is the same as a thousand miles is often found in both Chinese and Japanese poetry. Zen temples had dormitories where worshippers from all over could stay when they visited the temple.

THE POEM: Yomosugara...(All night long). The season word is aki kaze indicating autumn. There is a small hill covered with deciduous trees behind the temple and the wind blew noisily across it. Sora has parted from his master and is spending the night alone at this temple. Even though he goes to bed, he cannot sleep and lies awake listening to the autumn wind blowing mournfully through the bare trees on the hillside behind the temple. One critic says this is an allusion to a poem by Tu Fu which says: ________________________. Sora's poem is not particularly artful, but it expresses his true feelings and does a good job of using the season word, aki kaze. This is a good piece of work for Sora. The melancholy sound of the autumn wind expresses the melancholy he feels at being separated from his travelling companion.

THE POEM: Niwa haiite... (I hope to have gathered). The season word is chiru yanagi indicating autumn. Even today there is a rather large willow tree in front of the priest's dormitory at Zenshoji although it surely is not the one that was there in Basho's time. Zen temples make a big deal of their daily cleaning and sweeping routines and it is customary for guests to clean up their own sleeping area including the adjacent garden. Some early commentators say this was a custom imported from temple life in China, others say that cleaning or sweeping is one of the five virtues of the Buddhist household. The tone here is light as the poet acknowledges the rituals of the Zen temple and pauses to sweep even though he is in a hurry. This poem is a form of greeting to the temple's people. In China there is a custom of giving a willow branch to one who is leaving because a homonym for 'willow' means 'to stay.'

Basho does a good job of conveying his sense of urgency to be on his way and yet he pauses at least long enough to pay lip service to the Zen custom.

Basho's account says he stayed at Daishoji the night after Sora had been there, i.e., 8.7, but this is not necessarily the case. Basho had backtracked to Komatsu to see Ikoma Manji and another poet to whom he had taken the trouble to write from Yamanaka, so Basho may well have lingered several days in Komatsu. Consequently it could have been 8.9 or 8.10 when he was at Zenshoji. Also, he says he only stayed one night at the temple, but since it was the family temple of the Izumiya family, he may have spent a couple of days there. The problem is that after 8.6 we no longer have Sora's diary to check on Basho's movments.

There is a sense of urgency in Basho's poem as he hurries down the steps to be on his way. He is eager to overtake Sora. Autumn is falling fast and he is anxious to be done with his trip, etc., so he is in a hurry. He does not pause long enough to sweep the garden, only long enough to dash off a poem without even stopping to take off his shoes. After scribbling the poem, the throws it at the priest and hurries on his way. When Basho describes the circumstances under which he wrote the poem, he uses the term kakisutetsu which does not mean that he wrote the poem and threw it away, but that he wrote it hastily and without much thought. The idea is the same as in English where we would say it was a throw-away poem.

Yoshizaki irie is a lake today, but in ancient times it was an inlet. Shiogoshi no matsu are wonderfully shaped pines on a promentory across from Yoshizaki. Most of the pines here today are dead and fallen, but it must once have been a scene of great natural beauty. According to a book published in 1685 there was something like 100 pines here with names like Goshomatsu, Neagarimatsu, Hizatsukimatsu, Midarematsu, etc. The book also says that there were countless varieties of trees here and that since ancient times people have made poems about them.

The sense of Saigyo's poem is that the wind blows all night long and the waves beat against the Shiogoshi pines. As a consequence, the sea water drips from the pine branches. When the moonlight strikes them, it looks as though the moon is suspended from the pine boughs. Although this poem is said to have been written by Saigyo, it is not found in Sankashu or other major collections of his work. Sugagomosho says this poem was written by Rengyo Shonin, a priest who is said to have built a residence at Yoshizaki in 1471 and to have lived there for three years, so this may indeed be his poem. Likely Basho was told that this was Saigyo's poem and he wrote it down that way. The poem itself works on the contrast between this 'one' poem and the 'inexhaustible' sights of Shiogoshi. In any case Basho uses the excuse of the poem he attributes to Saigyo for not writing one of his own.

The allusion to the uselessness of the extra finger is a reference to Chuang-tzu.