Haiku by Matsuo Basho. Artwork by myself.
Basho's journey in the norther Japan goes on. Sora and he have departed Kisakata and is now traveling along the coast of Niigata, viewing Japan Sea on the way. He wrote several haiku then. This haiku here is one of them. He wrote about the eve of Tanabata Festival, July 7, which in present calendar is the middle of August.
The Island of Sado comes into the view, and write another famous haiku.
Billow-crested seas !
flowing toward Sado Isle
heaven's Milky Way
Then he meets two prostitues and stays a night under the same roof.
Beneath this same roof
prostitutes were sleeping too -
clover and the moon
The map shows the coast line of Niigata. Basho wrote Sado Isles haiku around Kashiwazaki. In present day Kashiwazaki, there is a big nuke power plant. The electricity generated there is all sent to Tokyo area. There was a rather big earthquake in the area several years ago. Luckily there was no tsunami and just a little damage to the facilities.
Oyashirazu is the roughest part of the path, high cliff and narrow road. Around there, Basho wrote the prostitutes haiku.
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