Bashō monuments in the Tsuru area

4. The back road

If you come out of the museum and walk a little further away from the station you will very soon find yourself on Route 139 again, which you will remember as the road you started on after coming out of Tōka Ichiba Station. Take some time to get your bearings. You are standing about 80 meters away from Yamura Station. Route 139 is also known as Fujimichi or the Fuji Road. As mentioned earlier, although it is extremely narrow with little space for pedestrians, it remains a National Road with considerable traffic so please be very careful.

We are going to find a much nicer parallel path to walk along but, if you wish, turn left on to Route 139 and walk a little, around one hundred meters. You will find the Hassaku Festival Exhibition Hall on your left and the Tsuru Merchant Museum on your right. Three stalls that appear around the town during the Hassaku Festival held every year on September 1st are on display. If you are lucky enough to find the Merchant Museum open, the staff will kindly tell you about the history of textiles in the area. Both of these places are free of charge.

Instead of, or in addition to visiting the Merchant Museum, you may prefer to backtrack to the place where you just got on to the Fuji Road from Yamura Station, turn left again but this time take the immediate right, after 30 to 40 meters. You will now find yourself on an extremely pleasant and atmospheric little path running parallel to the Fuji Road. Turn left on to this path and walk a little way with the mountains on your right. Very soon, you will come to Chōanji, or the Chōan Temple. The Merchant Museum is now about one hundred meters ahead of you to the left. The main hall of the Chōan temple, built in the tenth year of Kyōhō (1725), is rather fine. There may even be lucky enough to find some rather wonderful flowers on display on the day of your visit.

After wandering around a little, and soaking up the atmosphere, walk a little further along the road in front of Chōan Temple, with the mountains on your right of course, and you will see the Tsuru Community Development Center Building in front of them on your right. This is situated within the municipal library. As you turn right towards the Center, you will come to a little lane on your left that will take you to the vicinity of the Tsuru City Furusato Kaikan (hometown hall). You will also see a number of two-tone green-colored signs in Japanese that read 芭蕉翁寓居桃林軒 which translates roughly as Bashō’s residence in the peach forest. You will not be surprised to learn that these two-toned green signs will point you to another Bashō monument. This is actually the area that the poet is believed to have stayed on Biji’s property. The charming one-storey structure that you will find there is a recent reconstruction of this. There are actually two monuments in these gardens. First:

夏(か)馬(ば)の遅(ち)行(かう)我を繪に看る心哉  芭蕉

horses of summer
slowly making some progress
is how I see us

Bashō

(This is, of course, a reworking of the earlier verses at Rakuyama Park.)

The answer of the disciple Biji, who seems to feel he is failing in his responsibility as a host, is thus:

変手ぬるゝ瀧凋ム瀧  糜塒

we each take our turn
the falls recede tepidly
and cannot cool us

Biji

(On this hot summer day, the level of the waterfall is dropping and is not cool enough.)

Behind this, we see Bashō’s response:

深川の松も泣くらむ雪の梅

fukagawa’s pines
are also weeping for me
like the plums in snow

(Back in Bashō’s home, Fukagawa, the poet is being missed by his disciples and others.)

Nearby, you will find the Pure Fuji building. To the left of the main entrance, you will see another splendid monument with the following inscription:

山賤のおとがい閉るむぐらかな

even mountain men
keep their mouths closed to greetings
like the sullen weeds

(Even in the mountains where you are unlikely to meet many people, habitual workers are not quick to greet strangers.)

Go a little further along the mountain road and you will see Entsūin Temple on your right. The temple is famous for the Edo period stone bridge restored on its garden’s pond. Behind this pond, in front of the bell tower with its also famous temple bell, there is a small box-like structure with a roof, bearing the name 芭蕉堂, Bashō Dō, literally “Bashō Shrine.” If you peer inside the latticed door, you will see a small engraved monument. On it, you will read:

旅人と我(わが)名よばれん初時雨(しぐれ)

call me Traveler
I want a suitable name
now the first rain comes

If you keep going along this mountain road, you will come to a dead end. Go sharp left, walk on a little, and you will see Tōzenji Temple immediately on your right. This temple belongs to the Nichiren sect and was built with the purpose of offering prayers for peasants who died in the uprisings that took place towards the end of the Edo period. Fascinating though that may be, after entering the gate, head directly to the monument nestled in trees on the left.

松風の落葉か水の音涼し

wind in the pine trees
perhaps the falling leaves or
cooling water sounds

Bashō

(It is not clear what is having a cooling effect. It may be the leaves falling from the pine trees. It may be the sound of water.)

人は寝て心ぞ夜は秋の昏

people fall asleep
but Autumn nights stir my heart
I will not drop off

Biji

(Other people may sleep but I intend to stay awake and fully experience the Autumn evening.)

You will notice the gravestones on the hill slope at the back of this temple. Climbing these into the mountain and looking straight back up the Fuji Road, the red brick buildings of Tsuru University become visible. If the weather is good, you are likely to see Mount Fuji peeping over the hills that stand between it and the university. In fact, you do not really have to make this effort because you can see Mount Fuji from the slope as you look back after passing by Entsūin Temple.

Actually, it is not always easy to see Mount Fuji from the Tsuru area because the Tsuru hills get in the way. At this proximity to Mount Fuji, you often have to move away from it in order to see it, which may be fun. In fact, Bashō claimed in some of his most famous lines, that it is sometimes interesting not to be able to see Mount Fuji:

雰しぐれ富士をみぬ日ぞ面白き

hidden in the mist
invisible Fuji days
are really quite fun

In any case, our tour ends here with this partial vision of the sacred mountain. A short walk back up Fuji Road will take you to the Naraya home-made sweets shop (right on the corner where you made your sharp left a little earlier) for some chou-cream or the Sugaya confectionary shop (a little further back up the road) for Karintō steamed buns, perhaps. Alternatively, you can keep walking north from Tōzenji Temple and you will be at Tsuru City Station on the Fujikyūkō line in about five minutes.