| NOTA |
(★)(Translator : David Burleigh／ Illustrator : Hashizume Manpu／ Nagano-ken Regional Awareness Support Project／ It was about 160 years ago, at the time of the Tokugawa shoogun, when the Black Ships came from America, forcing Japan to open up to trade with other countries. There came to Ina the travelling figure of a samurai with a deep straw hat covering his face. Where he had come from, and why he had come, he told no-one, only that his name was ´Seigetsu´ - Seigetsu. This man was Inoue Seigetsu, who from then on lived a wandering life under the sky of the Ina Valley for thirty years, without a home of his own, or a wife, or a child. He became familiar to the people of Ina who, adding -san to his name, came to call him ´Seigetsu-san´. The Ina Valley consists of a plain squeezed between the 3,000-foot high ranges of the Central and the Southern Alps. Through the centre of it flows the Tenryuu-gawa, a river that has its sources in Lake Suwa, and into which many small streams flow, nourishing the fields and rice paddies that make this a fertile region. At the time Seigetsu arrived sericulture was flourishing, and in spring and summer, and even in some houses in the autumn, silkworms were being raised. In farming villages haiku (known as ´hokku´ at that time) were popular as well, and people enjoyed composing verses of 5-7-5. It may have been this aspect of Ina that planted a seed in the heart of Seigetsu-san, and made him want to stay.／ Almost nothing is known about Seigetsu-san´s life. Where he was born and what kind of home he was raised in, we do not know. Even when he was asked about it, he never cared to say what his background was. Even now hardly anything is known. But let us take a look at the traces of him left behind in Ina, and at the haiku he composed, and see what we can find. In a gathering of information about haiku poets who travelled around the country, there is a record of Seigetsu-san being questioned, for the first time, by Okamura Kikusoo, the chief retainer of the Takato clan : When asked where he came from, he replied that he was born in Nagaoka in Koshi, in what is part of Niigata prefecture today, but using instead the old name ´Koshi´ for the wider northern region still known as Hokuriku. Seigetsu-san was a samurai of the Echigo district Nagaoka clan, and his real name was Inoue Katsuzoo, something that was only discovered after he had passed away. But in which house was he raised? According to a survey by a local historian in Nagaoka city, all those named Inoue in the Nagaoka clan were lower-ranking bushi or samurai, so it seems likely that Seigetsu-san was not born in comfortable circumstances as had been rumoured. From the haiku that Seigetsu-san composed, and the well-formed script he wrote, we can see that he had been educated well, so it is considered probable that he had attended the clan school, Sootoku-kan. There are verses that seem to tell us what his life in Echigo must have been like.／ 雪車に乗りしこともありしを笹粽 [sori ni norishi koto mo arishi wo sasachimaki](Once upon a time／ sleigh-rides in the snow ´n´／ bamboo-leaf dumpling)／ ◆Seigetsu became known to the world following a strong commendation by the renowned novelist Akutagawa Ryuunosuke. He heard about Seigetsu from his family doctor, Shimojima Kuukoku (real name : Isamu), who came from Ina and recounted his childhood memories of the poet. Akutagawa strongly recommended the publication of the work, which came about when, with help from the doctor´s younger brother, a collection called Seigetsu kushuu [Seigetsu´s haiku] came out in 1921 (Taishoo 10). It included 1,028 haiku, as well as a biographical sketch, ´Tales of an eccentric´, letters, and ´renku´ or linked verse. Akutagawa Ryuunosuke wrote, in a note following the main text, that ´Even in the hard world of modern times, that someone like this should have existed, gives strength and courage to ordinary wretched souls like the rest of us.´ At any rate, those of us who are feeling downcast will be encouraged by this work. Later, a teacher at Ina Girls´ High School (now Ina Yayoigaoka High School), Takatsu Saijiroo, took up the task, revising and expanding the work for a new edition, published as ´Hyoohaku haijin Seigetsu zenshuu [Complete works of the wandering haiku poet Seigetsu]´ in 1930 (Shoowa 5). Coming across this book, the wandering poet Taneda Santooka was moved to exclaim, ´Aah, Seigetsu!´, and he paid a visit to Seigetsu´s grave a year before his own death. The collected volume, ´Hyoohaku haijin Seigetsu zenshuu [Complete works of the wandering haiku poet Seigetsu]´ has now been brought out in a fifth edition, revised and expanded by the Inoue Seigetsu Memorial Foundation. Seigetsu also featured in the manga, ´Joohatsu [Vanishing]´, collected in ´Munoo no hito [Good-for-nothing-man]´, by the manga artist Tsuge Yoshiharu, a French translation of which has also appeared.／ ◆Before the war, in 1938 (Shoowa 13), in what is now Ina city´s Misuzu Primary School, one of the teachers took a locally produced text called ´Seigetsu-san´ and used it as a supplementary reader for many students. A newly produced edition of this little book, drawing on later research, has been created in order to introduce to students in the upper levels of elementary school something of Seigetsu-san´s way of life through his haiku, as well as the climate of the Ina region and the history of people living there, including their occupations, all of which is woven into this throughout. Surprisingly, Seigetsu-san spent thirty years, until the end of his life, without a home of his own, staying here and there, while the people of Ina looked after him, which was indeed very admirable. It is not known clearly why Seigetsu-san chose to come to this region, and to remain there, but one important reason must surely have been the warmth and kindness of the local inhabitants. That the people all live through helping one another has been an established way of life in the climate of Ina from times gone by. Please try to understand and appreciate this aspect of the Ina region through the life of Seigetsu-san. This illustrated book has been published with the assistance of the Nagano-ken Regional Awareness Support Fund, and is the result of the cooperation of many members of the Kami-Ina Education Group. For help with both the haiku and haiku history, we would like to thank the haiku poet Itoo Inao-san of the Ina valley, as well as Oonoda Yoshiki-san and Yajima Megumi-san, for their help and cooperation. [Inoue Seigetsu Memorial Foundation, 30 November 2020]／) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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