Ume ga ka ni - 3 Haiku

Here are 3 translations of #haiku on the #ume ga ka ni theme.

#Basho

Ume ga ka ni notto hi no deru yamaji

 Plum blossom fragrance
Suddenly the sun rising
On a mountain path

You can smell the fragrance  KA before you see it.

Basho or Yaba his pupil

Ume ga ka ni mukashi ichiji aware nari

Plum blossom fragrance
Just the character mukashi
invokes nostalgia

#Mukashi means once upon a time or formerly or long ago and can be written as one KANJI

The phrase ume ga ka ni was first used in Japanese poetry by the Heian waka writers.

Finally a haiku by #Buson who was also a noted painter

Ume ga ka ni yuugure hayaki fumoto kana

Plum blossom fragrance Early Twilight on the foothills

Fumoto can be either the foothills or lower slopes of mountains.

All of these haiku have linked art on my #patreon   JVartndesign 

in the $1 $5 and open to all tiers

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SHIBA STORY - SAILS AND SHORELINES

#shiba #tokyo #ukiyo-e #japaneseprints

SHIBA STORY

SAILS AND SHORELINES

I've mentioned before that the Eight views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers a traditional subject for Chinese painting was adopted by Japanese painters and poets. However in Japan the Konoe family promoted an Omi Hakkei, a set of 8 views of scenic spots near Lake Biwa and Otsu, and this in turn led to other sets of views, extending to sets of 8 Views of Edo, and later sets of 36 or 100.

Now the Edo Hakkei substituted local scenes and in this print the Sails Returning to Yabase theme has become Sails returning to Shiba. Shiba is now INLAND and that entire shore line replaced by landfill and artificial islands apart from one section to the north adjacent to two famous gardens ad thats fronted by embankments.

Its very Ukiyo-e that the boats are mainly cargo ships The print by the way is by Eisen!

I doubt you could see Fuji from Shiba or even out in Tokyo bay nowadays as clearly as this so not only is it a beautiful landscape print but also a useful historical record of Tokyo's changed shorelines and an image of older style shipping and how wooden sail ships worked so there's a good view of the rudder and rigging. 

ENJOY 

Sails returning

The scenes of lonely fishermen or tiny riverside hamlets found in Chinese art and poetry influenced various reactions in Japan such as the paintings of imagined landscapes by artists of several schools, Kano, Rimpa, and Nanga, but the Ukiyo-e artists supported the Eight Views of Omi and sometimes parodies of them.

There is an implied critique even a subversive of formal Kano aesthetics in this scene.
These are real boats and the sails dominate the composition as much as the mountains and water and the vastness of the lake is a place of significant human activity fishing and trading boats.

Next time more Hakkei ...

Basho's ume ga ka ni ...

#Basho #haiku #ume

One of Basho's final haiku is the opening poem in a short renga done with his student Shida Yaba


Ume ga ka ni 

Noto hi no deru 

Yamaji kana 

I translate this as The fragrance of plum blossom Suddenly the sun rising On a Mountain path

Word for word in Japanese its plum fragrance at on place time marker suddenly sun of the rising (on) a mountain path.

Seems almost too simple

Ume can grow at quite high altitudes and think about the sequence of images

the fragrance of plums not the sight of pale flowers then suddenly the sun rising on a mountain path

the path winding up slope  through or past plum trees in the pre dawn gloaming barely visible invisible maybe and then the sunlight reaches the path ...

This haiku will be one of the themes for works shared on Patreon and DeviantArt  and other social media this month

Haiga coming soon!

... oh some thing else special about this month it can be written and read entirely with kana.

Japanese Fisherfolk in Art

Whereas the Chinese show solitary fisherman Japanese art tends to prefer showing small groups of fisherfolk or men ferrying people in boats.

Here are 3 examples.