When I had made a pilgrimage to the twin shrines.[i]
ちはやぶるいづのお山の玉椿やほよろづ代も色はかはらじ
| chihayaburu izu no oyama no tamatsubaki yaoyorozu yo mo iro wa kawaraji | At the mighty Mount of sacred Izu Gemlike, the camelia trees Through eight million ages Will ne’er change their hues. |
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[i] A reference to Hakone and Izu shrines.
When I made a pilgrimage to Hashiriyu Mountain.[i]
わたつ海のなかにむかひていづるゆのいづのお山とむべもいひけり
| watatsumi no naka ni mukaite izuru yu no izu no oyama to mube mo iikeri | To the broad sea sweep’s Heart turning, where Hot waters gush on The mount of Izu— Indeed they do![ii] |
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[i] Hashiriyu Mountain (hashiriyusan 走湯山), which literally means the ‘mountain where hot water runs’, was a sobriquet applied to Izusan Shrine (Izusan jinja 伊豆山神社) in Izu province (modern Shizuoka). The shrine had a close relationship with the Kamakura shogunate, as Minamoto no Yoritomo 源頼朝 (1147-1199), the first shogun, prayed there for the revival of the clan’s fortunes.
[ii] Sanetomo builds his poem around a play on words which is impossible to replicate in translation, in that izu(ru) 出づ（る） (‘gush (out)’) echoes the place name Izu 伊豆, so a closer paraphrase of the poem’s meaning is ‘Hot water gushes out [izu] at the mountain called “gushes” [izu], which is no surprise, is it!’
When I had gone out to view Mount Hakone, there were islets with waves breaking over them. When I asked my companions if they knew the name of the sea there, and the answer came back that it was the Izu sea.
はこねぢをわがこえくれば伊豆の海やおきのこじまに浪のよるみゆ
| hakoneji o wa ga koekureba izu no umi ya oki no kojima ni nami no yoru miyu | When Hakone’s trails I have passed across, The sea at Izu, filled With islets in the offing’s Breaking waves, I see. |
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