{"id":298,"date":"2021-08-29T17:14:19","date_gmt":"2021-08-29T17:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/narrowroadsouth\/?p=298"},"modified":"2021-08-29T17:15:47","modified_gmt":"2021-08-29T17:15:47","slug":"letters-2-basho-1690","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/narrowroadsouth\/2021\/08\/29\/letters-2-basho-1690\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters 2: Bash\u00f4 1690"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

Part of my occasional Letters series. This one is from Bash\u00f4 to his disciple Uk\u00f4 \u7fbd\u7d05, who was married to one of his most famous disciples, Bonch\u00f4 \u51e1\u5146. One of the things that’s immediately striking about this letter is that it’s written largely in kana (syllabary) in deference to Uk\u00f4 being female. There are some other interesting points, but read on.<\/p>\n

To: Madame Otome
\nFrom: Bash\u00f4<\/p>\n

PS Please take good care of Miss Sai. I also send my appreciationr to Yoshi for her kindness over the years.<\/p>\n

The other day Kaseir\u00f4 \u52a0\u751f\u8001 and Kyorai stopped by for a visit, and while it was a great effort for them do so, I was sorry they had to leave, feeling unbounded happiness. I am spending the winter hidden away deep in the mountains. When spring comes, I hope I may come to visit you again. It is difficult to express in words the unforgettable kindness you have long shown to me. The clothes were well-made; I am sure I will never be cold. Please do not worry about me. Please look forward to the spring in good health.<\/p>\n

surely you keep
\nthe kettle boiling for tea
\nnight after night —
\nhow I miss our three pillows
\nside by side in the sleeping room!<\/p>\n

\u3088\u3072\u3088\u3072\u306f\u304b\u307e\u305f\u304e\u308b\u3089\u3093\u306d\u6240\u306e\u307f\u3064\u306e\u6795\u3082\u3053\u3072\u3057\u304b\u308a\u3051\u308a
\n\u5bb5\u3005\u306f\u91dc\u305f\u304e\u308b\u3089\u3093\u5bdd\u6240\u306e\u4e09\u3064\u306e\u6795\u3082\u604b\u3057\u304b\u308a\u3051\u308a<\/p>\n

\n

Interesting:
\n1) In premodern Japan, women made the clothes their husbands and children wore. From this letter, we learn that that Bash\u00f4 (who did not marry) had clothes made for him by the women in his male disciple’s families.
\n2) Bash\u00f4 is famous for his hokku, but here he expresses his appreciation in a waka. Like the kana, I presume this is a courtesy to his female recipient.
\n3) The print version of the letter I am using, \u6ce8\u89e3\u82ad\u8549\u66f8\u7c21\u96c6 (Annotated Bash\u00f4 Letters Anthology) by Abe Kimio \u963f\u90e8\u559c\u4e09\u7537\u00a0 (1952) uses the fabulous ligature for “mairase sourou” (I go), see below. I don’t think there is Unicode for this character.<\/p>\n

\"Ligature<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Tricky epistolary forms:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u5c1a\u303b(\u5c1a\u5c1a) PS
\n\u5fa1\u307f\u307e\u3072 (they) came for a visit
\n\u5fa1\u5927\u5100 an inconvenience (for them)
\n\u305e\u3093\u3058\u307e\u3044\u3089\u305b\u5019 (I) thought\/felt
\n\u5fa1\u3081\u306b\u304b\u304b\u308a\u7533\u3059\u3079\u304f\u5019 (I) intend to meet (you)
\n\u7533\u3057\u3064\u304f\u3057\u304c\u305f\u304d\u5019\u00a0 it is difficult to exhaust (my) expression (to you)
\n\u5fa1\u3053\u3057\u3089\u3078 (you) made
\n\u5fa1\u5ea7\u3042\u308b\u307e\u3058\u304f\u5019 (I think) it will probably not exist…
\n\u5fa1\u304d\u3065\u304b\u3044\u88ab\u6210\u307e\u3058\u304f\u5019\u00a0 (if you) please do not worry about (me)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part of my occasional Letters series. This one is from Bash\u00f4 to his disciple Uk\u00f4 \u7fbd\u7d05, who was married to one of his most famous disciples, Bonch\u00f4 \u51e1\u5146. One of the things that’s immediately striking about this letter is that it’s written largely in kana (syllabary) in deference to Uk\u00f4 being female. There are some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3358,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25,12,2,13,26,11],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cac","tag-basho","tag-epistolary-style","tag-haikai","tag-letter","tag-women-haikai-poets","tag-11"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/narrowroadsouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/narrowroadsouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/narrowroadsouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/narrowroadsouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3358"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/narrowroadsouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/narrowroadsouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/narrowroadsouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions\/310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/narrowroadsouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/narrowroadsouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/narrowroadsouth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}