May 20, 2011

Haiku 590 Matsuo Basho haiku -Nikko


Haiku by Matsuo Basho (from the Narrow Road to the Deep North). Artwork by myself.

It was May 19 when Basho reached Nikko, where the shrine of the Tokugawa Shogunate situates, and wrote this haiku. The haiku ends with "hi no hikari" meaning "light of the sun", and this corresponds to the name of the shrine, Nikko Shrine. Nikko means light of the sun. Tokugawa Shogunate ended the long wars among local feudal lords, and brought peaceful time to the whole country of Japan. Basho wrote this haiku to praise the Tokugawa's accomplishment.

Keen eyes might have noticed in this haiga that I am using the same leaves as the one in the previous haiga, Joann Klontz's crutches one. I often use the elements of one haiga for the others. That is one good thing about using computer.

1 comment:

Devika Jyothi said...

This one reminds of lines from Tagore - evocative haiga, Kuni-san...and nice to see how an image works for two distinctly different haiku :)

wishes,
devika