For a painting of foot-travellers crossing a bridge.

かち人のわたればゆるぐかつしかのままのつぎはし朽ちやしぬらん

kachibito no watareba yurugu katsushika no mama no tsugihashi kuchi ya shinuran

On foot travellers Cross and shake, In Katsushika, Mama’s[i] clapper bridge:[ii] I wonder, has it rotted all away?[iii]

703

---

[i] Mama 真間 was an utamakura in Shimōsa, around where Ichikawa 市川 is now located in Chiba prefecture to the east of Tokyo. Its most common usage, as here, was in the compound phrase katsushika no mama no 葛飾の真間の (where Katsushika was the name of the wider region), and it was particularly associated with the legend of the maid, Tegona, who committed suicide, unable to decide between two suitors. See McAuley (2020, 362–363) for more details and example poems.

[ii] A tsugihashi 継橋, which I translate here as ‘clapper bridge’ was a bridge constructed by sinking posts into the ground and laying boards on top, between them. As such, they were not particularly stable constructions and were prone to collapse or being washed away.

[iii] See: A poem from Hitachi. 安能於登世受　由可牟古馬母我　可豆思加乃　麻末乃都芸波思　夜麻受可欲波牟 a no oto sezu / yukamu koma moga / katsushika no / mama no tsugihashi / yamazu kayowamu ‘A silent-footed / Colt I’d have: / In Kashitsuka, / The clapper bridge at Mama / To ceaselessly traverse!’ (Man’yōshū XIV: 3387)