Page:Anthology of Japanese Literature.pdf/372

368 pine cones was rising. I did not know who they were, but I felt drawn to them. As I walked in their direction I could see the moon shining on the sea, and Matsushima bathed in a beauty unlike that of the day. I returned to the beach and took a room in an inn. My room was on the second floor, with an open window looking out on the bay. When I lay down to sleep in the breeze and the clouds, I experienced a feeling of strange pleasure.

I lay down without composing any poem, but could not sleep. I remembered that when I left my old cottage I was presented with a poem in Chinese about Matsushima, and with a Japanese one on Matsugaura Island. I opened my knapsack and made the poems my companions for the night.

On the eleventh we visited the Zuigan Temple. This temple was founded many years ago by the thirty-second Zen abbot, when he returned to Japan after study in China. The seven halls of the temple now shine in gold and blue splendor worthy of Buddha’s own dwelhng in Paradise.

On the twelfth we set out for Hiraizumi by way of the pine of Anewa and the bridge of Odae, names familiar to me from poetry. The countryside was deserted, and the road no better than a trail that hunters or woodsmen might follow. We lost our way, and finally took entirely the wrong road, to emerge at a harbor called Ishinomaki. Far out across the water we could see Kinka Mountain “where bloom the golden flowers.” Hundreds of merchant ships were gathered in the bay. In the town the houses fought for space, and smoke rose continuously from the salt-kilns.

I thought to myself, “I never intended to come anywhere like this…” We looked for lodgings for the night, but were refused by everyone. Finally we found a miserable little hut where we passed the night. Early the next morning we set out uncertainly on another unfamiliar road. As we traveled over a long embankment we could see in the distance Sleeve-Crossing, the Colt Pastures, the Vine Fields of Mano, and other places famous in poetry. We skirted the Long Marsh, a depressing place. We stopped for the night at a town called Toima, and then went on to Hiraizumi. We had covered over forty miles, I believe.