Following in Bashō's Footsteps

shimajima ya / chiji ni kudakite / natsu no umi

Islands and islands

A thousand pieces shattered

on the summer sea

Matsuo Bashō, Summer, 1689 Matsushima (translated by Andrew Fitzsimons in Bashō - The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Bashō).

Train, ferry, feet - today we started our walk in the footsteps of the Matsuo Bashō. Setting off from Sendai, we made our way by train to Kokufu Taga-jo, then walked 10km or so to Shiogama where we hopped on a ferry bound for Matsushima. The trip to Matsushima Bay was littered with many of the same islands Bashō wrote of when he visited the area more than 300 years ago.

On our walk to Shiogama, we passed the remains of a Nara-era fortified town (remains that pre-dated Bashō by almost 1,000 years), and two beautiful (and important) Shinto shrines.