FLOWER OF RAKUSHISHA, haibun

Dimitar Anakiev
FLOWER OF RAKUSHISHA, haibun


After I had made the decision to leave my job in which I had invested considerable time, I was aware that I was beginning to resemble a rotten fruit fallen from a tree. At that time I was not yet familiar with Kyorai’s story of fallen persimmons, which his hut was named after.
Kyorai’s "Rakushisha" (House of Fallen Persimmons) - located in the part of Kyoto called Saga-Arashiyama - is itself a metaphor for an ideal of a self-imposed exile from society. Gathering in and around the hut were rotten windfalls, poets, entertainers and the occasional Buddhist monk.

Living in a hut,
I am but a firefly feeding
on smartweeds
- - - Kyorai

Besides Kyorai another rotten windfall, was Bashô, a poet teacher of many fallen fruits. Bashô lived the life of a windfall, travelling constantly. He stopped by Rakushisha twice: the first time in May, 1691, when he stayed for 16 days and wrote the Saga Diary.

Long summer rains--
poetry cards now peeled off,
traces on the wall
- - - Bashô

A short time before his death, Basho revisited one of his favourite disciple Kyorai at Rakushisha. This time he sojourned for three weeks.

River Katsura
no dust in the ripples
summer moon
- - - Bashô


Now I sit in the backyard of Rakushisha, my thoughts swarming. Here the past and the present meet. In front of Rakushisha is the former rice field, and above it, on Mt. Ogura. Between Ogura and Arashiyama runs the Katsura river, which in the mountains ran under a different name – the Hozu. Human spirituality has been rooted in this region since ancient times, and whether by chance or not, it is precisely here that, our small society of fallen fruits had gathered.

Before closing time of this famous hut, tourists have left Rakushisha, and suddenly I am left to its peacefulness.

Flower of Rakushisha:
shishi-odoshi's sudden
sound, silence again.




03rd April, 2020 Kyoto/Groznatovci

(Translated from Serbian by Branko Manojlović, Stephen Gill and Dimitar Anakiev)