Willow (yanagi)

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Willow (yanagi)

***** Location: Japan, other areas
***** Season: Spring, see below
***** Category: Plant

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Explanation


Li Ch'ing-Chao, a famous Chinese poet, has this to say about the pussy willows:

Warm rain and soft breeze by turns
Have just broken
And driven away the chill.
Moist as the pussy willows,
Light as the plum blossoms,
Already I feel the heart of Spring vibrating.
©　Bopsecrets


Su Tung-p’o, the famous poet of the T'ang period, writes about the beauty of the green leaves on the willow branches in spring:

yanagi wa midori, hana wa beni

Willows stand for things green,
flowers for things red.


©　PHOTO Gabi Greve. Read more on this LINK.


The court at Kyoto during the Heian period also adored the willows and the cherry blossoms as harbingers of Spring.

Priest Saigyo, Saigyoo 西行法師　has this famous poem about the shade of a willow tree:

道のべに清水流るる柳影
しばしとてこそ立ちどまりつれ

A stream by the path
With clear clear waters.
"In the willow's shade
I'll stay just for a while", I thought
but for long couldn't move away

Saigyo, poet and monk,(1118-1190)
For details, see below.




©　Korin Ogata, 1658-1716
Artelino Gallery

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Here are some kigo with the willow tree:

willow buds, yanagi no me 柳の芽
kigo for mid-spring
..... me yanagi 芽柳（めやなぎ）
budding willows, mebari yanagi 芽ばり柳（めばりやなぎ）



willow, yanagi 柳
kigo for late spring

hanging willows, shidare yanagi 枝垂柳（しだれやなぎ）
..... ito yanagi 糸柳（いとやなぎ）,
green willows, ao yanagi 青柳（あおやなぎ）
willows along the river, kawabata yanagi 川端柳（かわばたやなぎ）, kawazoi yanagi 川添柳（かわぞいやなぎ）
pussy willows, neko yanagi 猫柳

yanagi no ito 柳の糸（やなぎのいと） taoyanagi, 嬌柳（たおやなぎ）
This discribes the delicate branches of a hanging willow, with a beauty like a fair maiden.

willow without hanging branches, yooryuu 楊柳（ようりゅう）

willow at the corner, kado yanagi 門柳（かどやなぎ）
This is already a subject of poems in the Manyo'shu collection of poetry.

far away willows, too yanagi 遠柳（とおやなぎ）
shadow of the willows, yanagi kage 柳影（やなぎかげ）


Willow Festival, yanagi matsuri やなぎまつり 柳祭
Celebrating the willow trees along the famous Ginza in Tokyo. Pines and cherries had also been planted during the Meiji period, but the other trees all failed to survive. Even the willows were lost during the great fire in the Taisho period in 1923 after the earthquake.


willow branch hair decoration, yanagi no kazura
柳の蔓
On the third day of the third month (hina matsuri), ladies would decorate the hair with willow branches in a wish for a long and healthy life. This custom came from T'ang China to Japan. Nowadays the shelf for the hina dolls is decorated with willow branches.

Doll Festival (hina matsuri) Japan Girl's Festival

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kigo for mid-autumn

leaves of the willow are falling, yanagi chiru
柳散る, chiru yanagi 散る柳（ちるやなぎ）

willow leaves getting yellow, yanagi kibamu
柳黄ばむ（やなぎきばむ）

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kigo for the New Year

new year decoration with willow branches
kake yanagi　掛柳 (かけやなぎ)
..... yanagi kakeru 柳掛くる（やなぎかくる）
binding willow branches, musubi yanagi
結柳（むすびやなぎ），むすび柳

Willow branches are hung out of a freshly cut bamboo vase in the tokonoma or over the hearth before making the first fire. The longer the branches hand down, the better. Sometimes even up to 5 meters long ! Long branches are also wound togehter to a ring, as a celebration to the sun gaining new strength for the coming year.


chopsticks made of willow wood, yanagi bashi
柳箸（やなぎばし）

The whiteness of the wood was thought of as auspicious for celebrations. They are also used for wedding ceremonies and other auspicious family events.


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Worldwide use

Germany

Weide, Weidenblüten, Weidenkätzchen



Heike Gewi, 2008

GERMAN Saijiki


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Things found on the way

Willow Dolls (yanagi ningyo　柳人形)
Also called "Kamo Dolls (kamo ningyo　加茂人形)

Kamo dolls origininated at the Kamo Shrine in Kyoto in 1736-40 by Takahashi Tadashige, a ritual object craftsman at the shrine.
He is said to have made the first Kamo ningyo from leftover willow wood. Kamo ningyo are said to be the first to use the kimekomi technique of clothing decoration. The wood is carved in such a way to represent folds in the clothing;within the crevices, slits are made and the fabric is stretched over the wood and fitted into the slits. The fabric smoothly covers the surface of the wood and requires no adhesive of any kind to hold it in place.

The willow wood provides a nice pinkish color which resembles skin tones. Kamo ningyo are usually small size dolls and like daruma ningyo types which are ball shaped without any arms or legs. Their appearance is very playful and most figures represent everyday people doing everyday things. Miniature groupings are also seen.
True old Kamo dolls are rare although there are many Meiji Period dolls that look similar but lack the playful quality of the Edo pieces.
©　The Yoshino Newsletter



©　PHOTO B & C Antiques / at Trocadero


Click HERE to look at more of these dolls !

A few more LINKS on these dolls.


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HAIKU

aoyagi ni koomori tsutau yuubae ya

Kikaku　 宝井基角

According to Shiki, this haiku comes from a 'Kuawase' that Kikaku made with Sampuu, which would be, according to my research, either "The Rustic Haiku Contest" ("Inaka no Kuawase") or "The Evergreen Haiku Contest" ("Tokiwaya no Kuawase").

Shiki considers this haiku an example of moving beyond the Danrin School, beyond "the mere play of words." Shiki says "their humour was in their taste, a high-class humour" [Translations in quotes by Blyth].

It's in Haiku, Vol 1, page 147. Blyth writes:

"Kikaku especially was given to using suitable passages and 'translating' them into haiku. An example is the following:

The bat
Flying from willow to willow
In the evening glow

This is taken from the No play called The Willow of Yugyo. Yugyo Shonin was the name given to each of the head monks of Yugyooji Temple in Kanagawa Prefecture, the main temple of the Jishu Sect. In the play, the Yugyo goes on a pilgrimage and meets an old man who directs him to the narrow road where the willow tree stands that was made famous by Saigyo's waka:

The clear water of a stream
Flows beneath the shade
Of a willow by the roadside;
It was long indeed
That I stood there.

The old man thinks that if such a saint were to lift up his voice and intone the sutra, even trees and plants would become Buddhas. He disappears and the Yugyo reads the sutras all night. Later the old man reappears in a more august form; he was really the spirit of the willow tree. He dances to express his pleasure at being able to go to Paradise and his first words are:

The windy-feather dance of the uguisu from the willow,--it calls to mind the court music called Ryukaen.

Kikaku has taken this and changed the uguisu into a bat, something less beautiful and poetic, but more odd and humorous, and therefore more significant. Humor is found in No, but seperated from the main body of the play in comic farce, interludes called Kyogen. The humor of haiku is found everywhere, even where least expected or noticed; perhaps chiefly there."

This leads me to believe a singular bat was intended. I'm still not sure about the humor, though. Is it simply because a reader would be expecting a uguisu, and got a bat instead?

Compiled by Joshua
Translating Haiku Forum

. . . . Read another possible translation of this haiku HERE !


Temple Yugyoo-Ji 遊行寺

The Ji Sect is an offshoot of the Jodo Sect, or the Pure Land Buddhism.
Priest Ippen was the patriarch of the Sect and his successors were given the title of Yugyo Shonin. (Shonin is the Japanese counterpart of the Christian saint).

The term Yugyo of Yugyoji denotes being itinerant and wayfaring for missionary work.
Today's Yugyo Shonin (73th) holds the post of Fujisawa Shonin (55th) concurrently.

Near the east entrance of the Temple facing the old Tokaido Highroad stands a stone cenotaph. It was installed in 1418 by Priest Taiku (1374-1438), the 14th Yugyo Shonin, for the solace of those who lost their lives during the Zenshu Revolt. The battle was waged between the Uesugi and Ashikaga factions and many were killed or wounded.

Thus, it was called "Cenotaph for Friends and Foes." Engraved on the cenotaph are words meaning "May god lead those men and beast that were killed under the tortures of hell to the Pure Land Paradise without discrimination."

Priest Taiku may remind noh and kabuki fans of Sanemori Saito (?-1183), a distinguished samurai in the late Heian Period (794-1185).

Please read the details HERE
Temple Yugyoji, Fujisawa


Yugyoo Yanagi, a Noh Play
遊行柳（ゆぎょうやなぎ）


Click HERE for some photos !

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Matsuo Basho writes in Sesshoseki

The willow that Priest Saigyo wrote of, "Rippling in the pure spring water," is at the village of Ashino, where it still grows on the ridge between two paddyfields. The magistrate of this area had sometimes said to me, "I wish that I could show you that willow of of Saigyo's," and I had wondered just where it might be. And today I have actually come and stood in its shade.

Planted, the single field -
All too soon I must leave the shade
Of Saigyo's willow.

©　Earl Miner, University of California, 1976

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Quote from "Some landscapes"

For landscapes in haiku, an obvious writer to consult is the poet-painter Buson (1706-83), famous for his objective style and visual imagination. For example, from 1742 this poem about a willow tree:

yanagi chiri shimizu kareishi tokorodokoro

The translation posted in several places on the web is by Robert Hass:

The willow leaves fallen
the spring gone dry
rocks here and there.

Earl Miner has translated the last two lines as ‘in fresh waters weathered stones scattered here and there.’

The poem seems to be a simple landscape, describing a scene encountered by Buson, but it is also about poetry and the passing of time. The willow tree alludes to a poem by Priest Saigyo (1118-1190) in which he lingers in the shade watching the reflection of the tree in rippling water:

Michi no be ni
Shimizu nagaruru
Yanagikage
Shibashi tote koso
Tachidomaritsure.

Buson is also referring to an encounter with the tree at Ahino by Basho (1644-94) on the Narrow Road to the Deep North. As Haruo Shirane writes, ‘Basho pauses beneath the same willow tree and before he knows it, a whole field of rice has been planted. In contrast to Basho's poem, which recaptures the past, Buson's poem is about loss and the irrevocable passage of time, about the contrast between the situation now, in autumn, when the stream has dried up and the willow leaves have fallen, and the past, in summer, when the clear stream beckoned to Saigyo and the willow tree gave him shelter from the hot summer sun.

Like many of Basho and Buson's poems, the poem is both about the present and the past, about the landscape and about other poems and poetic associations.’ For Buson (as Miner puts it in Japanese Linked Verse), ‘Saigyo and Basho are gone from the earth, remaining however in the mind as a cherished idea shrouded in the mystery of memory.’

©　Some Landscapes, by Plinius BLOG

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Issa and the Willow Haiku

振向ばはや美女過る柳哉
furimukeba haya bijo suguru yanagi kana

turning 'round
just missing a pretty woman...
willow tree



青柳の先見ゆるぞや角田川
ao yagi no mazu miyuru zo ya sumida-gawa

green willows
are the first thing seen...
Sumida River



三筋程松にかくれし柳哉
mi suji hodo matsu kakureshi yanagi kana

three strands or so
hide in the pine...
willow tree

Tr. David Lanoue.
Read more HERE !

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Matsuo Basho and Willow Haiku

A green willow,
dripping down into the mud,
at low tide.

With every gust of wind,
the butterfly changes its place
on the willow.

©　Terebess Asia Online (TAO)

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ara ao no ... how densely green,
yanagi no ito ya .... the willow boughs
mizu no nagare .... in flowing water

Uejima Onitsura (1660-1738)


chiru yanagi ... falling willow-leaves;
aruji mo ware mo ... Master and I
kane o kiku ... listen to the bell

Matsuo Bashō (1644-94)


kimi yuku ya ... you leave;
yanagi midori ni ... in the green of willows
michi nagashi ... the road is long

Yosa Buson (1716-84)


hashi ochite ... fallen bridge
ushiro samushiki ... and lonely behind
yanagi kana ... the willow

masaoka shiki (1867-1902)


hayanagi no ... down Temple-Street
teramachi suguru ... with leafy willows;
amayo kana ... rain at dusk

Kaya Shirao (1735/8-1791/2)


sukashi mite ... looking through,
hoshi ni sabishiki ... the willow is lonely
yanagi kana ... with stars

Miura Chora (1729-81)

© Tr. Michael Haldane

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雪どけの 　中にしだるる　柳かな
Akutagawa Ryuunosuke 芥川龍之介


猫柳　高嶺は雪を　あらたにす
Yamaguchi Seishi 山口誓子


猫柳 ときをりの　水のささやき　
Nakamura Teijo 中村汀女


門の灯や 　昼もそのまま　糸柳
Nagai Kafuu 永井荷風


柳の芽　雨またしろき　ものまじへ
Kubota Mantaroo 久保田万太郎


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Related words

***** Willow robes (yanagi gasane)


***** Saigyo Hooshi Memorial Day, Saigyoo-ki


***** Yugyoo-Ji Kaisan-Ki 遊行寺開山忌
Memorial Day of the Founder of Temple Yugyoo-Ji
kigo for spring

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