朝に夕
眺めし小倉の
山にきて
幼き頃の
山路楽しむ

To Ogura I have come,
the hill I have looked at
every morning and eve:
enjoying again it’s mountain paths
I once walked as a child

(Yoshihiro Tsuchida from the collection One Hundred Poets on Mount Ogura, One Poem Each)

In a previous post I wrote about the environmental action group P.T.O. (People Together for Mt. Ogura) and the fine conservation work they are doing  in rural Sagano, cleaning up Mt. Ogura and preserving it’s forests. Mt. Ogura is of course most famous as the place where Fujiwara Teika compiled the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. But it is also famous for its associations with a number of other poets including Saigyō, who built his first hermitage there and Matsuo Bashō who wrote his Saga Diary there. Despite this long literary history, the Poets’ Mountain has been neglected and abused in recent years: for decades people have been dumping their trash in its forests; JR railways did enormous damage when they built a tunnel through the mountain in the 1980s; and in recent years Pine Wilt disease has taken an enormous toll on efforts at reafforestation. For the last three years or so the volunteers of P.T.O have been gamely battling all these problems, but much still remains to be done. Now it seems a new generation of poets has arisen to help them and come to the aid of this beautiful mountain. [Read more…]

…to feel the presence of this graceful Poet’s Mount, we should go there. If possible, climb up a bit and take in the view. Listen, as the sounds of the city dwindle and those of nature take over. The trail at your feet will soon turn to earth and rock… – Stephen Gill

For the last two weekends I’ve been taking part in conservation work with the environmental action group P.T.O (People Together for Mt. Ogura). I’d heard that P.T.O together with the Hailstone Haiku Circle had brought out a book of poems to raise funds and awareness for their work. Well! Poetry and environmentalism together?! This is precisely the sort of thing I should be supporting, I thought. So I  wrote to the book’s editor, Stephen Gill, and he in turn invited me up to the mountain to help out and to get my hands dirty.

Ogura-yama in rural Sagano has for centuries been closely associated with poets and poetry.  Here Fujiwara Teika compiled the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu; Japan’s most famous anthology of classical poetry and the basis for the New Year’s karuta game. Other poets who have lived and written here are Tōru, Saigyō, Tame’ie, Bashō, Kyorai – some of the most famous names in Japanese literary history! This mountain, that has inspired so many, should certainly be considered a national treasure. I was very excited to be going up there.

I met Stephen Gill and the other volunteers at JR Saga/Arashiyama station. Stephen is himself a poet and an artist and a charming gentleman who speaks fluent Japanese. From the station he pointed out to me Ogura-yama’s beautiful dome and told me about its problems. It seems the Poets’ Mountain is neglected at best and at worst abused. [Read more…]