Seashore Snow Tanzaku

 

Seashore Snow Tanzaku

海己雪
たちかえり　なにはすが々さ　きてもミん
雪おもしろき　あはちしま山

蓮月

umi yuki

tachikaeri/naniwa sugagasa/kite momin/yuki omoshiroku/awajima yama          Rengetsu

Seashore Snow

Returning home
In my Naniwa straw hat
I gaze upon the
Snow white face of
Awajima mountain.

Rengetsu

Naniwa is an old name for the Osaka area. Naniwa straw is a famous product of that district, and Rengetsu picked up a Naniwa straw hat  to protect her from the snow on her way home.   Awajima is a large  island in the Inland Sea. The highest peak on Awajima is Mt. Yuzuruwa.  Omoshiroku means both “white face” and  “delightful” so the one word has the sense of the mountain being both “pure white and perfectly delightful.”

The poem (#207 in Ama no Karumo)  is brushed on a tanzaku strip of colored paper. The brushwork is elegant, bold, and confident, expertly placed within the confines of the space.