One Hundred Poets on Mount Ogura, One Poem Each

朝に夕
眺めし小倉の
山にきて
幼き頃の
山路楽しむ

To Ogura I have come,
the hill I have looked at
every morning and eve:
enjoying again it’s mountain paths
I once walked as a child

(Yoshihiro Tsuchida from the collection One Hundred Poets on Mount Ogura, One Poem Each)

In a previous post I wrote about the environmental action group P.T.O. (People Together for Mt. Ogura) and the fine conservation work they are doing  in rural Sagano, cleaning up Mt. Ogura and preserving it’s forests. Mt. Ogura is of course most famous as the place where Fujiwara Teika compiled the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. But it is also famous for its associations with a number of other poets including Saigyō, who built his first hermitage there and Matsuo Bashō who wrote his Saga Diary there. Despite this long literary history, the Poets’ Mountain has been neglected and abused in recent years: for decades people have been dumping their trash in its forests; JR railways did enormous damage when they built a tunnel through the mountain in the 1980s; and in recent years Pine Wilt disease has taken an enormous toll on efforts at reafforestation. For the last three years or so the volunteers of P.T.O have been gamely battling all these problems, but much still remains to be done. Now it seems a new generation of poets has arisen to help them and come to the aid of this beautiful mountain.

One Hundred Poets on Mount Ogura, One Poem Each is a wonderful collection of contemporary poems, compiled to raise money and awareness for Mount Ogura’s plight. Including both haiku and tanka, the book is a bilingual mix of poems composed in either Japanese or English by men and women whose ages range from seven years old to eighty-nine.

Unlike the nobles who composed the poems of the Hyakunin Isshu, these contemporary poets represent a more egalitarian demographic of “university students, housewives, civil servants, businessmen and resident foreigners”. Some are established poets of repute whereas others are local people who were simply asked to write something after visiting the mountain.

Each poem is presented in both languages, with the language it was composed in at the top of the page*(see note below). These poems along with the bilingual explanatory notes that accompany them make up a unique and fascinating guide to Ogura-yama: its temples, shrines and saints; its landmarks and its poem stones;  its oakwoods, evergreens and bamboo groves and the variety of wildlife that inhabit them. Some of the poems describe the mountain’s environmental problems and particularly the problem of junk. David McCullough’s poem on this theme is particularly surreal:

High, high above the river
a broken television
flies into space

川の上遙か高く
壊れたテレビが宙を舞う

And Michael Jamentz’s alliterative poem depicts the perversion of natural beauty:

The Seto brook trickles…
beneath lush green muck drips
battery acid

瀬戸の源流
苔色の土に垂れている
バッテリーの酸

Other poems however, are a celebration of P.T.O.’s work. In the following poem for example, 9 year old Shou Isoda, discovers the joy of a job well done:

そうじして
きれいな道が
きもちいい

Having just been cleaned,
the mountain path –
how good it feels!

Yet others simply celebrate the location. Ei Oishi’s poem describes both the mountain’s place in literary history and it’s natural beauty:

小倉山
去来の墓の
藪椿

At the foot of Mount Ogura
Kyorai‘s gravestone surrounded –
wild camellia

While Nobuyuki Yuasa chooses a prehistoric landmark as the topic of his poem; the 龍爪岩 or Dragon Claw Rocks in Kameyama Park.

Snowflakes coming down…
on the primordial rocks
of Mount Ogura

小倉山
巨岩の上に小雪降る

This poem reminds me of a sumi-e painting, contrasting in simple brushstrokes the delicate snow and the ancient rocks…  It’s breathtaking. There are many others like this describing the natural beauty of the mountain. As a supplement to the main text, the editor Stephen Gill (under his poet’s name of Tito) has added a selection from his own “One Poet on Mount Ogura: One Hundred Verses in a Day”. I find this next poem, a simple still life in the forest, especially magical:

Green light
In the laurel wood:
Its white moon
Amanita

照葉の樹林/緑にひかりおり/白き月たるテングタケ見え

These poems call you like an invitation, to go out into nature and feel its energy. There is a long association of poetry and nature in Japanese tradition. This book reclaims that tradition for everyone and shows how both poetry and nature can enhance your life. It is impossible by the end of the book not to be tempted by Stephen Gill’s invitation on behalf of P.T.O. to join them in their work. “Let us be your guide, ” he writes. Having joined in their activities myself I recommend you do, but if you live further afield, this book as both a handsome beginner’s guide and a very fine collection of poetry is well worth the investment.

You can also order the book direct from the Hailstone Haiku Circle and read more about P.T.O.’s activities here.

*Note: If I have one tiny request for the second edition, it be that furigana be given to help read the kanji. It’s nice to be able to hear the Japanese rhythms in your head.

Of related interest:
People Together for Mt. Ogura – The Poets’ Mountain
A Hokku of Yosa Buson
Introducing Keiji Minato