Poetic Musings: Kasane Tanka by Matsuo Basho

Spring passes by

again and again in layers

of blossom kimono

may you see wrinkles

come with old age

Iku haru o/ kasane gasane no/ hana-goromo/ shiwa yoru made no/ oi mo miru beku

Matsuo Basho

trans. by Jeff Robbins and Sakata Shoko

Commentary: A "blossom kimono" is an exquisite robe worn just once a year to view cherry blossoms, then folded up and stored away until the next cherry blossom celebration. The spatial and temporal meanings of Kasaneru overlap in a web of blessing and hope for Kasane and all female children. "Layers of kimono" can refer to the two-layered kimono over an inner robe; the succession of blossom kimono one woman wears from bright to sedate as she ages; and the passing of the kimono to her daughter, who is the next layer of herself. Both the kimono and her face also have "wrinkles." By encapsulating the existence of one woman from newborn to wrinkles, the tanka is an ode to life.

-- excerpted from Jeff Robbins and Sakata Shoko's "Two Tanka by Basho," Ribbons, 9:1, Spring/Summer 2013

Only a few comprehensive Basho anthologies, such as  Nihon Koten Bungaku Zenshu volume 71 (p. 284-85), include Basho’s tanka above. Written in 1690, this poem is the concluding tanka of Basho's haikai prose , entitled Blessings unto Kasane.

During my pilgrimage to the Deep North,

in one of the villages was a little girl

who looked no more than five years old.

She was so small and indescribably charming

that I asked her name, and she said “Kasane”.

What an interesting name!

In Kyoto rarely is it heard

so I wonder how has it has passed down

and what is that “layers, again and again”?

“If I had a child this name she would receive,”

I remember saying in jest to my traveling companion

and now, unexpectedly, through an acquaintance

I have been called on to be Name-giving Parent.

Spring passes by

Again and again in layers

Of blossom-kimono

May you see wrinkles

Come with old age

Matsuo Basho

(translated by Jeff Robbins. For more information about this poem, see A Message of Hope For Women and Girls: Matsuo Basho‘s Blessings unto Kasane, Translations and Commentary by Jeff Robbins with assistance from Sakata Shoko)

The story described in the opening lines is recorded in Basho’s famous travel writing, The Narrow Road to the Deep North:

I knew someone in a place called Kurobane in Nasu, and I decided to take a short cut from Nikko straight across the broad plain. We happened to notice a village in the distance as rain began to fall and the sun set. Lodging for a night at a farmer’s house, at daybreak we headed off again over the plain. A horse stood grazing in a field. We sought assistance from a man cutting grass and though he was a rustic, he was not without compassion. “Hmm, let’s see here. The plain is criss-crossed with trails and somebody unfamiliar with the right way is bound to get lost -- that’s a real problem -- say, why don’t you take this horse as far as he’ll go and just send him back,” and he lent us the horse. Two children came running along behind the horse. One was little girl named Kasane, a truly elegant name I’d never heard before.

“Kasane”--

must be a name for

a double-petalled pink

kasane to wa / yaenadeshiko no / na narubeshi (Sora)

Soon we made it to a village, and tying some money to the saddle, I sent the horse back.

(trans. by David Landis Barnhill, see Basho’s Journey: The Literary Prose of Matsuo Basho, Translated with an Introduction by David Landis Barnhill, p. 52)

According to Basho’s account above, the little girl’s name, “Kasane,” inspired Sora to write the haiku above. Nadeshiko is a small plant known as pink, usually associated with little girls. As kasane means “layers” or “double,” Sora made a wordplay by adding a prefix “yae-“ (literally “eightfold”) to nadeshiko. But, there is no such flower called (Double Pink).