Monthly Archives: July 2026

Kinkai wakashū

Kinkai wakashū 700

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On seeing the salt fires of fisherfolk, when I had gone out to the beach.

いつもかくさびしきものかあしのやに焼きすさびたるあまのもしほ火

itsumo kaku
sabishiki mono ka
ashi no ya ni
keburi susabitaru
ama no moshiobi		Are they always such
Lonely things?
Above the roofs of reeds
Thin trails of smoke
From fishers’ seaweed salt fires…[i]

700

[i] See: いつもかくさびしきものかつの国のあし屋の里の秋の夕暮 itsumo kaku / sabishiki mono ka / tsu no kuni no / ashiya no sato no / aki no yūgure ‘Are they always such / Lonely things? / In the land of Tsu, / Reed-roofed villages / On an autumn evening…’ Ietaka (Rōnyaku gojusshu uta’awase 497)

Kinkai wakashū

Kinkai wakashū 699

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Composed on seeing smoke rising from the kilns of the common folk.[i]

みちのくにここにやいづくしほがまの浦とはなしに煙たつみゆ

michinoku ni
koko ni ya izuku
shiogama no
ura to wa nashi ni
keburi tatsu miyu		Where in Michinoku
Might this be?
For Shiogama
Bay ‘tis not but
I see the smoke arising.[ii]

699

[i] Sanetomo is consciously echoing the following poem here: On receiving tribute and seeing the richness of his land. たかきやにのぼりて見ればけぶりたつたみのかまどはにぎはひにけり takaki ya ni / noborite mireba / keburi tatsu / tami no kamado wa / nigiwainikeri ‘To my palace heights / I climb and when I gaze across / Smoke rises— / The homes of my people / Are rich, indeed.’ Emperor Nintoku (Shinkokinshū VII: 707)

[ii] See: Kokinshū XX: 1088.

Kinkai wakashū

Kinkai wakashū 698

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A poem composed on seeing the lake at Hakone when I had made a pilgrimage to the twin shrines[i] the following year.[ii]

玉くしげはこねのみ海けけれあれやふたくにかけてなかにたゆたふ

tamakushige
hakone no miumi
kekere are ya
futakuni kakete
naka ni tayutou		A jewelled comb,
The fair waters of Hakone,
Must have a heart, indeed, to
Lie between two provinces,
There adrift…[iii]

698

[i] Hakone and Izu Shrines.

[ii] The reference here is obscure, but may refer to Sanetomo’s third pilgrimage to these shrines, which took place in the First Month, Kenryaku 3 [late January 1213] (Higuchi 2016, 182).

[iii] See: A song from Kai. かひがねをさやにも見しがけけれなくよこほりふせるさやの中山 kai ga ne o / saya ni mo mishi ga / kekerenaku / yokohori fuseru / saya no nakayama ‘The peaks of Kai / Clearly I would behold, but / Heartless, / You lie in my way, / O, Saya-no-Nakayama!’ Anonymous (Kokinshū XX: 1097)

Kinkai wakashū

Kinkai wakashū 695

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Composed on seeing an aged pine on the rocky shore while on the road to a place called Misaki.[i]

いその松いくひささにか成りぬらんいたく木高き風のおとかな

iso no matsu
ikuhisasa ni ka
narinuran
itaku kodakaki
kaze no oto kana		The pine tree on the rocky shore
Has for how many eternities
Endured?
The tree, so very high, as is
The sound of the wind!

695

[i] Misaki 三崎 lies on the Miura Peninsula 三浦半島 on the far eastern side of Sagami Bay. Sanetomo is known to have visited Misaki in the Third Month, Kenryaku 2 [April 1212] and this poem was probably composed then.

Kinkai wakashū

Kinkai wakashū 694

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For a painting on a folding screen of a woman with a torn robe passing by a spot on the plains with three aged pines.

おのづから我をたづぬる人もあらば野中の松よみきとかたるな

onozukara
ware o tazunuru
hito mo araba
nonaka no matsu yo
miki to kataru na		If, from time to time,
Enquiring after me
A man should come,
O, pines upon the plains,
Say not that you’ve seen me![i]

694

[i] See: Topic unknown. それをだに思ふ事とてわがやどを見きとないひそ人のきかくに sore o dani / omou koto tote / wa ga yado o / miki to na ii so / hito no kikaku ni  ‘Simply on those times / Do my thoughts dwell, so / That my house / You’ve seen, say not! / Lest others hear of it…’ Anonymous (Kokinshū XV: 811)

Kinkai wakashū

Kinkai wakashū 692

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Poems for folding screens.

とよ国のきくのそままつおいにけりしらずいく代の年かへにけむ

toyokuni no
kiku no somamatsu
oinikeri
shirazu ikuyo no
toshi ka henikemu		In the land of Toyo
The timber pines at Kiku
Have grown old;
I know not how many ages and
Years they have passed through…[i]

692

[i] See: 豊洲　聞浜松　心裳　何妹　相云始 toyokuni no / kiku no hamamatsu / nemokoro ni / nani shika imo ni / ai’iisomekemu ‘As in the land of Toyo / At Kiku the beach-pines, / Sweetly, / Why has my darling / Begun to meet and talk with me?’ Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection (Man’yōshū XII: 3130)

Rōnyaku gojusshu uta'awase

Rōnyaku gojusshu uta’awase 249

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Left (Tie)

いつもかくさびしきものかつの国のあし屋の里の秋の夕暮

itsumo kaku
sabishiki mono ka
tsu no kuni no
ashiya no sato no
aki no yūgure		Are they always such
Lonely things?
In the land of Tsu,
Reed-roofed villages
On an autumn evening…

Ietaka
497

Right

千代までや松をばともにおもふらんなほすゑ遠き君がよはひを

chiyo made ya
matsu oba tomo ni
omouran
nao suedōki
kimi ga yowai o
Until a thousand ages pass
Will you be together with the pine
I wonder, for
Even further into the future
Stretches your age…

Kunaikyō
498