Poetry on Poverty from Japan

The Japanese have contributed much to our world's culture. The cherry trees which fill our nation's capital are a sign of friendship between our two countries and were a gift from Japan. (By the by, the Japanese name for their country is: Nihon or Nippon.)

For the Japanese, their most revered holiday is the New Year. On December 31, 1975, I had the pleasure of witnessing a portion of the Buddhist's New Year's Eve ceremonies at the Daibutsu, the Great Buddha, in Kamakura which is not far from Tokyo. Actually, there were hundreds of thousands of people present, so I did not witness the ceremony, could not get close to the monks, only the pageantry of the celebrants in their holiday best kimonos. Imagine, if you will, a sea of brightly colored kimonos. It inspired me to write this Haiku many years later:

Michigan Sunset Praise
(Daibutsu New Year’s Parade – déjà vu)

Flush spring tree blossoms
Sunset spotlight, blacken’d sky
God’s kimonos praise.

The Japanese have a long tradition and appreciation of poetry. The feudal lords of that country often employed a court poet, perhaps something like our poet laureate.

One such poet was Matsuo Basho who lived from 1644-1694. On-line, I have read that Basho is a sobriquet (kind of like Mark Twain.) The name Basho means banana tree.

In his poetry, Basho-san explored many human feelings including compassion for the problems of the poor:

Poverty's child -
he starts to grind the rice,
and gazes at the moon.