May 7, 2012

Haiga 818 - Kobayashi Issa haiku

Haiku by Kobayashi, Issa. Artwork by myself.

I have shown you a photo of Mt. Fuji the other day. Yesterday, I shared the photo of Alps. Today, I go back to Mt. Fuji shared by famous Issa, who did an unthinkable juxtaposition of a big mountain and a tiny creature.

In olden days, Mt. Fuji could be viewed from many parts of Edo, the then capital of Japan, now Tokyo. I imagined Issa in a house there with a view of Mt. Fuji, and one day saw a snail crawling on a leaf in his little garden.
He squatted to take a close look and noticed the sight of the mountain far in the background. He then adjusted the view point so that the scene would be like the one in this haiga.
Just my imagination.

5 comments:

Asni/awalkinmyheart said...

I can just imagine a snail climbing to the top of Mt Fuji. It's such a humbling thought and my heart is touched.

kuni_san said...

Issa was an extraordinary poet indeed.

Gwil W said...

Are there really snails living up there? I suppose there must be. It's an astounding thought. How many generations it must take to get there. Maybe someone has worked it out.

kuni_san said...

No. Mt. Fuji is only a back drop in this haiga. The snail is in the ground of an ordinary household.

Anonymous said...

I climbed Mount Fuji in July 2016, a unique experience. I can assure you, there are no snails up there. But people with backpacks on the trails are like tiny, tired snails.