Journey to
Mattô
From the beginning
of my study of Japanese haiku, I had wanted to do this—the
journey to Mattô, Chiyo-ni’s birthplace. As an admirer of her
philosophical insight—
indeed, I place her second only to Bashô as a poet of
philosophical haiku—and
as a student of her art, I was indeed privileged to visit Mattô
and the Chiyo Jo Museum. The occasion arose when I recently
visited Japan to see my youngest son who is studying Japanese
language at a Japanese university. I am pleased to see how
successful he has become, particularly with his study of kanji.
I was able to see first hand some of Chiyo-ni’s manuscripts,
scrolls and letters as well as to understand some of her life in
XVIII century Japan. The museum is a beautiful building and has
an associated Japanese garden. Apart from the beautiful
atmosphere of the museum, there were two discoveries which
deeply impressed me. The first was the reconstruction of the
room in which Chiyo-ni is believed to have composed many of her
hokku. It was a small room with only a single, low writing table
at the end of which were her brushes and ink. I imagined that
she spent many hours there composing, refining her work, and
waiting for inspiration. The second was the orientation of her
vertical lines on the scrolls. These were not three vertical
lines of hiragana and kanji as might have been expected, but
were split lines integrated into her painting. I brought back
reproductions of many of these scrolls. It will take some time
to research my idea, but it seems that splitting the lines into
four or five fragments might be a form of spatial punctuation
and might well influence the meaning.
Chiyo-ni was greatly admired during her lifetime and Kihaku,
Bashô’s disciple, first published a collection of her hokku,
Chiyo-ni Kushu. A further volume was published during her
lifetime. Even though she was frail and ill at that time, Buson
asked her to write the foreword to his collection of XVII and
XVIII century women poets, Tamamoshu, 1774. I do not know of any
English translation of this work nor of the modern definitive
edition of her work, Kaga no chiyo zenshû. Tamamoshu included
hokku by Sono-jo, Sute-jo, Shushiki-jo and Chigetsu-ni.
Fortunately there is a French text of Chiyo-ni’s poetry and
contemporary women poets with French translations of the romaji.
This is Kaga no Tchiyo -Jo: Une poetesse Japonaise au XVIII
siecle. Gilberte Hla-Dorge, G.P.Maisonneuve, Paris, 1936. Of
course, English language readers have the Donegan/Ishibashi
translations.
The museum leads to a beautiful Japanese garden. Walking there
was a spiritual experience. I spent many hours in that garden.
The city also has a fine hotel, the Grand Matto Hotel. My room
faced south looking over the city. It was wonderful to watch the
lights come on over the city at night, then later to watch the
sunrise over the mountains. Adjacent to the hotel was a small
park where an ancient pine, Chiyo matsu, was supported by steel
pipes. Perhaps Chiyo Jo had walked here as a girl when the pine
was a sapling. Indeed it is said that Chiyo Jo’s father had
named her from the pines.
This visit to Japan has indeed been satisfying. From Nagoya to
Mattô and return I did not meet a single Westerner so that I
relied solely on the Japanese language. As always, Tokyo is the
dramatic and vibrant city.
Now I return invigorated with new ideas and plans for further
sequences, including spiritual and philosophical haiku, and
translations of XVII and XVIII century Japanese women poets.
Hugh Bygott Cambridge England
