Asamayama fumoto no ishi 浅間山ふもとの石

FSC-GR-780.95

Commentary by Suzuki Jun

Posted June 2, 2017

Original unedited text in Japanese follows

The editor of this volume of kyōka poems, Shibanoya Sanyō (Sanyōdō), was a judge of the Yomo poetry group (Yomo-gawa 四方側). The poetry master Yomo no Utagaki (Shikatsube no Magao) wrote a preface dated to Kyōwa 1 (1801) with a slightly different form for the title (浅間やまふもとの石). Sanyōdō also contributed a prefatory text, which explains the inspiration behind the book’s publication:

This year, en route to taking a cure at the hot springs along the Shinano Road recited in the “Misuzukaru no Shinano” [1], I travelled along the highway Nakasendō on the way to Mount Asama. The hospitality there was friendly, and, because I was unable to leave my happiness at this entirely behind, I ground my ink stick on a rock at the foot of the mountain and attempted to leave a record by writing things down in a notebook.

This passage tells us that Sanyōdō took the Nakasendō highway to a hot springs in Shinano. Along the way he received a warm welcome, and he exchanged kyōka verse with members of the school; Asamayama fumoto no ishi (The rock at the foot of Mount Asama)is a collection of those poetry exchanges. The kyōshi—a type of often humorous Japanese poetry written in Chinese characters—by Sanyōdō toward end of the volume reads:

Stopping to rest my horse, I proceeded on foot to visit the ancient castle. Some fellow poets nearby joined me, and, bringing their refined taste and breaking up the tedium of the journey, we washed the dirt from our ears by soaking in the hot springs.

This book is a sequel to a volume about the Suruga Road entitled Kasagumo shū 笠雲集, and as might be expected for an editor who studied poetry under Ōta Nanpo 大田南畝(1749–1823), several of his kyōka are also in this volume.

The three illustrations in this volume are “Kusatsu Hot Springs” (Kusatsu onsen 草津温泉) by Magaki Masazumi from Matsumoto, Shinano province; “Mizuumi, Shinyō” (Shinyō Mizuumi 信陽鵞湖) by Tawaraya Sōri (Katsushika Hokusai); and “A View from Usui Ridge towards Sakamoto Station at Mount Hakuun” (Usuine yori Sakamoto eki Hakuunsan wo chōbō suru zu 碓氷嶺より坂本駅白雲山を眺望する図) by Kubo Shunman. In Hokusai’s contribution, the soaring tower of Takashima Castle is visible to the right, while Mount Fuji stands tall in the distance beyond a frozen Lake Suwa (i.e., Mizuumi). On this image Sanyōdō has included a text comprising eight lines of five characters each; this is very rare.

書名浅間山ふもとの石
執筆者鈴木淳

芝の屋山陽（山陽堂）編、曲木正墨・俵屋宗理・窪俊満画の絵入り狂歌本。墨摺り。題名は、享和元年季冬、四方歌垣の序文中に「浅間やまふもとのいし」とあり。山陽堂の序に、「ことし又御篠かる信濃路にゆあみがてら、中の山道わけのほりしか、浅間山の浅からずもてはやされしよろこはしさ、やらんかたなくふもとの石にすりて命長うせんとす」（今年、御篶刈信濃と歌われた信濃路の温泉に湯治のついで、中山道を通って行ったところ、浅間山までの途次で親しくもてなしを受け、その喜びをうち捨てておくこともできずに、麓の硯で墨を磨って、冊子にして書き残そうとしたのである）とあり、[1] 四方側の判者である山陽堂が、中山道を通って信濃国に温泉旅行に赴き、所々で歓待を受けた際、門人らと詠み交わした狂歌を収めたもの。巻末の編者の狂詩にも「留馬徘徊尋古城、朋友並軒憐草枕、風流洗耳浴湯桁」（馬を停め古城を歩き訪ねると、軒を連ねる狂歌仲間が旅の無聊を哀れんで、催してくれた風流によって、耳の垢を取り、湯桁に浸かることができた）などとある。さきに編んだ駿河路の『笠雲集』に続くもので、大田南畝について詩を学んだ編者らしく狂歌数首を含む。絵は信濃松本の正墨の「草津温泉」図、宗理の「信陽鵞湖」図、俊満の「碓氷嶺より坂本駅白雲山を眺望する図」の三図。宗理の絵は、天守閣の聳える高島城を右手に、凍り付いた諏訪湖（鵞湖）の向こうに富士を遠望する図取りで、画讃に編者が五言絶句を添える。伝来、稀。

Selected readings:

Suga Chikuho菅竹浦, ed., Kyōka shomoku shūsei 『狂歌書目集成』(Nagoya: Hoshino Shoten, 1936; repr., Kyoto: Rinsen Shoten, 1977).

[1] The termmisuzu in the expression misuzu karu, literally, “where misuzu is gathered,” refers to variety of bamboo that grows in Japan’s Central Alps region. Misuzu karu (no) Shinano (御篶刈信濃) was a poetic epithet, a connotation of barrenness, for Shinano; it first appeared in the seventh-century poetry anthology Man’yōshū. See Harold Bolitho, Bereavement and Consolation: Testimonies from Tokugawa Japan (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003), 199.