Hashimoto Takako

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Hashimoto Takako 橋本多佳子

(1899-1963)
1899年（明治32年）1月15日 - 1963年（昭和38年）5月29日）



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Takako Ki 多佳子忌 (たかこき) Takako Memorial Day

kigo for early summer


. SAIJIKI
Memorial Days of Famous People 　



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She is one of the four famous T in the Haiku world, together with

Mitsuhashi Takajo 三橋鷹女
Nakamura Teijo 中村汀女
Hoshino Tatsuko 星野立子



Hashimoto Takako (* 15. Januar 1899 in Tōkyō; † 29. Mai 1963),
eigentlich Hashimoto Tama (橋本 多満), war eine japanische Haiku-Dichterin der Shōwa-Zeit.
1917 heiratete sie den vermögenden Architekten Hashimoto Toyojirō (橋本 豊次郎) und veranstaltete in dessen Wohnhaus „kulturelle Treffen“. Von Sugita Hisajo wurde sie in der Haiku-Dichtung unterwiesen und war Schülerin von Yamaguchi Seishi. Sie hinterließ viele leidenschaftliche Liebesgedichte. Auch war sie Herausgeberin der Haiku-Zeitschrift Shichiyō (七曜, „Sieben Wochentage“).

Haiku-Sammlungen (Auswahl)
Umitsubame (海燕, dt. „Seeschwalbe“), Januar 1941.
Shinano (信濃), Juni 1951.
Kōshi (紅絲, dt. „Roter Faden“), Juni 1951.
Umihiko (海彦), Februar 1957.
Myōjū (命終, dt. „Lebensende“), Mai 1965.
Hashimoto Takako Kushū (橋本多佳子句集, dt. „Hashimoto Takako – Haiku-Sammlung“), Februar 1966.
Hashimoto Takako Zenkushū (橋本多佳子全句集, dt. „Hashimoto Takako – Sämtliche Haiku“), April 1977.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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Bill Higginson about Takako:

"Many of Takako's haiku involve herself directly;
she becomes and active participant, in both her sensations and her thoughts..."
The Haiku Handbook
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ringo no ki ni/kakeshi hashigo ga/sora e nukeru

a ladder
put against an apple tree
goes through toward the sky


This haiku epitomizes Takako's personality.
She was not content with conventional wisdom or received ideas. In her own way she sought to realize freedom of poetic expression, and if possible freedom in general. For her it was not sufficient to look upon apples merely as a symbol of autumn, fecundity or beauty. A ladder connotes ascent, but ascent to where? The top of a ladder is usually where ordinary people reach their limit. Not so with Takako.



kishi kishi to/obi o maki-ori/karuru naka

amid the withered world,
I wind my obi sash round me;
swish, swish...

Like her teacher, Hisajo Sugita, Takako made the most of her being a woman in her haiku writing. In those days, most Japanese women wore kimono, which is more in tune with the spirit of haiku than, say, blue jeans. Putting the obi sash on or unwinding it from the body spoke volumes about what was going on, especially in terms of feminine beauty and sexuality.


. Takako Hashimoto
Haiku translated by Susumu Takiguchi



cho hachi no/goto sekkei ni/shinaba to omou

like butterflies and wasps
I hope I would die
in the snowy valley


Takako was unusually conscious of death and wrote many haiku talking about her own dying. Snow for her was something sacred and pure where love, beauty and peace could all be sublimated into a true "singularity."

. Death Poems by Takako Hashimoto 　
Susumu Takiguchi


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Here are some more of Takako's "snow" haiku:
Compiled by Larry Bole, Translating Haiku Forum


箸とるときはたとひとりや雪ふり来る
hashi toru toki hata ya yuki furi furu

taking up chopsticks
I am all alone--
it snows and snows
Tr. Ueda



雪はげし夫の手のほか知らず死ぬ
yuki hageshi tsuma no te no hoka shirazu shinu

the fierce snowfall--
I'll die having known no hands
other than my husband's
Tr. Ueda

blizzard
I'm to die not knowing any hands
besides my husband's
Tr. Yachimoto

it snows hard...
I will be dying without knowing
other hands than my husband's
Tr. Takiguchi

. . . . .

setsugen no kururu ni hi naki sori ni iru

Well, here I am, on the sleigh without
light
stuck in a snow covered field

Hung up in a snowfield,
I on the sleigh, lamenting
the need of light
Tr. Debra Woolard Bender, both versions


. . . . .

雪はげし抱かれて息のつまりしこと
yuki hageshi dakarete ikino tsumarishi koto

Gasping for life, choked by his
embrace
as it happened...the storming snow
Tr. Eiko Yachimoto

it snows hard...
being held tight I feel as if
I were choking
Tr. Susumu Takiguchi

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雪はげし書き残すこと何ぞ多き
yuki hageshi kaki nokosu koto nanzo ooki

it snows hard...
how could it be enormous what I must
write before dying?
Tr. Takiguchi

Fierce snow
So many the words
I leave behind
Tr. Beichman


. . . . .

ikiru wa yoshi shizuka naru yuki isogu yuki

it's good
to be alive; quiet snow
and hasty snow...
Tr. Susumu Takiguchi

good to be alive -
snow falls so quietly
snow falls fast
Tr. Gabi Greve


. . . . . ikiru wa yoshi

わが息のかすかに白く生きるはよし
waga iki no kasuka ni shiroku ikiru wa yoshi

my own breath
is slightly white -
good to be alive

Yamaguchi Seishi 山口誓子
Tr. Gabi Greve


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雪の日の浴身一指一趾愛（いと）し
yuki no hi no yokushin isshi isshi itoshi
yuki no hi no yokushin isshi isshi ai-shi


on a snowy day
my bathed body, a finger
a toe--I love all of it!
Tr. Makoto Ueda

A snowy day
a bath in my body
each finger each toe dear
Tr. Janine Beichman

bathing as snow falls
how I caress
each finger, each toe
Tr. Eiko Yachimoto

snowy day...
my bathing body, I love
each finger, each foot
Tr. Susumu Takiguchi


More about this discussion
source : Translating Haiku Forum


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白桃に入れし刃先の種を割る
shira momo ni ireshi hasaki no tane o waru

Splitting open
The stone of a white peach
With the edge of the blade.
Tr. Blyth

Inserted in a white peach,
the edge of the knife divided the seed.

Slipped into
a white peach, the knife's edge
splits the pip.
Tr. Debi Bender, both versions



硯洗ふ墨あをあをと流れけり
suzuri arau sumi ao ao to nagare keri

Washing the ink-stone,
The Indian ink flows away
Blue, blue.
Tr. Blyth

washing an inkstone
sumi flows out
black, blue, blue
Tr. Yachimoto



utsumuku toki ono ga iki no ka yukino nite

looking downwards
the smell of my own breath
in the snowy field
Tr. Ueda


蜥蜴食ひ猫ねんごろに身を舐める
tokage kui neko nengoro ni mi o nameru

having eaten a lizard
how carefully the cat
licks its own body!
Tr. Ueda

. . . . .


Ezo Tanpopo 蝦夷たんぽぽ Ezo Dandelion
Taraxacum hondoense

たんぽぽの花大いさよ蝦夷の夏
tanpopo no hana ooisa yo Ezo no natsu

Such great big dandelion flowers
crowding Ezo in the summer!

dandelion
flowers -- so many huge!
Summer at Ezo.
Tr. Bender, both versions

Yachimoto's comment:
'hana ooisa yo' is rather a strange phrasing. If Takako wanted simply to indicate 'many' she could have written 'hana ichimen no' or 'hana no oosa yo'. 'Ooisa' may be the equivalent of the modern usage: 'ookisa', a noun contrived from adjective, 'ookii'. 'Ooshi' means both plentiful and large.
The 'tanpopo' (dandelion) haiku was composed in 1927 when Takako accompanied her husband on a trip to Karafuto, the northernmost islands of pre-WWII Japan. Sakhalin, as the island is now called, is a long island (north to south) to the direct north of Hokkaido, and is a Russian territory. Japanese people in Edo period used the word 'Ezo' to mean Karafuto Island, Chishima archipelago and Hokkaido Island all included.
In older times, the word referred to thoe people who did not obey the emperor's rule. Some scholars believe 'Ezo' to be an old name for the 'Ainu'. They once were widespread, living in the north of present day Tokyo, but as Japanese history rolled on, they were pushed further northward. Japan has not yet concluded a peace treaty with Russia and a part of Chishima archipelago (the four northern islands located to the north east of Hokkaido) has been Japan's territory issue for more than fifty years now.
[end of Yachimoto's comment]

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螢籠昏ければ揺り炎えたゝす
hotaru kago kurakereba yuri moetatasu

Firefly cage: when they flicker,
I shake 'em up to set 'em ablaze.

Shaking the firefly cage
I set them ablaze
because they've gone dark.
Tr. Bender, both versions



芥子ひらく髪の先まで寂しきとき
keshi hiraku kami no saki made sabishiki toki

Poppies spread wide-open,
loneliness reaches each tip of my hair.

Poppies open,
loneliness stretches to the tips
of my hair
Tr. Bender, both versions



紫蘇しぼりしぼりて母の恋ひしかり
shiso shibori shiborite haha no koishikari

crushing shiso leaves
the more red juice
the more deeply I miss my mom
Tr. Yachimoto

Yachimoto's comment:
The repetition of shi makes this the most musical of Takako's haiku.
Shiso juice is used to pickle plums, the essential food called umeboshi which all Japanese mothers make.



八方へゆきたし青田の中に立つ
happoo e yukitashi aota no naka ni tatsu

this desire to go...all directions
..........standing...in green paddies
Tr. Yachimoto



ryuutoo ni kotoba takushite tsuki hanatsu

Burning lanterns set afloat,
I push them away with my words,
released...

Floating lanterns
pushed adrift, my words
set free...
Tr. Bender, both versions

Compiled by Larry Bole


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entrusting words
to a floating lantern
I push it adrift
Tr. Bill Higginson


I entrust my words
to the floating lanterns
and let it go
Tr. Gabi Greve





流灯を流すはかなきことを見る
ryuutoo o nagasu hakanaki koto o miru

I let the lanterns float away -
I see all these fleeting things
Tr. Gabi Greve
(Letting lanterns float in memory of the dead during the O-Bon ceremonies in August.)

. WKD : ryuutoo　流燈 floating lanterns

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愛されずして油虫ひかり翔つ　　
aisarezu shite aburamushi hikari tatsu

it is not loved -
the cocroach sparkles
and takes off


. Cockroach (gokiburi) and Haiku 　


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Takako about her husband Toyojiro


月光にいのち死にゆくひとと寝る
gekkoo ni inochi shi ni yuku hito to neru

in pale moonlight
I lie beside a man
whose life is vanishing

. Death Poems 　



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uta karuta hitotsu no uta ga waga me hiku

half-poems spread on tatami --
of one-hundred cards
one attracts my eyes
Tr. Eiko Yachimoto


. Uta Karuta 歌留多 Flower Trump Games 　



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The Illustrated Haiku of Hashimoto Takako

The Green Leaf Gallery


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夫恋へば吾に死ねよと青葉木菟
tsuma koeba ware ni shineyo to aobazuku

I long for my husband -
"You should die!"
orders the owl in the leaves


. konohazuku 木の葉菟 Otus scops japonicus
aobazuku is The Brown Hawk-Owl
Ninox scutulata


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Japanese Reference

橋本多佳子


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Related words

***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　




. SAIJIKI
Memorial Days of Famous People 　

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