Dashing Through the Storm

鳥羽殿へ五六騎いそぐ野分哉　蕪村

Toba dono e / gorokki isogu / nowaki kana

Five or six horsemen
race to Toba Villa—
autumn tempest

(Poem by Buson, written in 1768.)

The powerful winds brought by autumn typhoons may be called nowaki, a name that literally refers to how they separate (wakeru) the fields (no), blowing apart the grass and other plants. They are said to start appearing around the 210th day after Risshun, the traditional beginning of spring, or near September 1 by modern reckoning. They have long been a literary theme. For example, in the “Nowaki” chapter of The Tale of Genji, there is a memorable scene where Yūgiri is struck by the beauty of his stepmother Murasaki when the folding screens that normally conceal her are laid flat in preparation for a coming typhoon. In The Pillow Book, Sei Shōnagon talks of how fascinating it is the day after a typhoon to see huge trees fallen in the garden, and the appearance of a lady who was unable to sleep all the night due to the wind.

Buson combines this natural force with the world of Japan’s war tales like The Tale of the Heike, imagining “Five or six samurai horsemen racing through high typhoon winds to Toba Imperial Villa.” This villa was located in Toba, to the south of Kyoto, and was built at the end of the eleventh century by Emperor Shirakawa. It later passed to Shirakawa’s grandson, who was named Emperor Toba. The twelfth century was unstable politically due to tussling for power between the emperor, aristocracy, and emergent samurai, culminating in the Genpei War and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate.

Buson does not seem to have had a specific moment of conflict in mind, but the villa’s mention summons up a tumultuous period that fits perfectly with the turbulence of the typhoon wind. The poem conveys the tension of the galloping warriors, and we seem to find ourselves in a historical tale.

(Originally published in Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)