Futon zabuton

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Futon bedding

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Various, see below
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation

Futon is a typical Japanese way of bedding for the night.

Nowadays, the stuffed mattress (shikibuton) and the blanket (kakebuton) are together called a "futon".



The futon set can easily be stored away in a special oshiire alcove and the room used as a living room.


The people during the Edo period, especially the poor, did not use bed covers as we have them nowadays. They only had a stuffed matress shikubuton 敷き布団 or some kind of woven mats to lie down on. Sometimes the bare planks of wooden floor would have to do, maybe covered with some straw.

And they wore warm night clothes (yogi) to keep the cold out.
Poor people, especially in the colder northern regions, slept near the fire and used anything to keep them warm, even dried seaweed was put into quilts (documented from Akita in 1789, for example). Hemp and straw and hulls were also used for quilts.
Poor people even slept in straw bags, one couple in one bag.
A poor family used to sleep close toghether to use the body heat for warmth.


. . mugura 葎 (むぐら) cleavers 　 　　
Since kana mugura カナムグラ（鉄葎） Humulus japonicus is of the hemp family, it might well have been used for stuffing a quilt of the poor.

. Bedtime quilt (yogi) as KIGO 　



The shikibuton in the towns ranged from lavish ones to poor ones, called like a thin rice cracker
senbei futon 煎餅布団 "rice cracker matress"
and had only little cotton stuffing.
In Edo, futon usually ment the matress, whereas in Osaka (Kamigata)they began to use kakebuton quilted blanket covers a lot earlier.

There is a famous haiku of a disciple of Basho
Hattori Ransetsu 服部嵐雪:


ふとん着てねたる姿や東山
futon kite netaru sugata ya Higashiyama

looking like a person
covered by a quilt -
Higashiyama

. Higashiyama, District in Kyoto 　　


. Hattori Ransetsu 服部嵐雪 1654-1707 .


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kigo for all summer

natsubuton 夏蒲団 (なつぶとん) summer futon
natsubusuma 夏衾（なつぶすま）
asabuton 麻布団（あさぶとん）hemp futon


. . . CLICK here for Photos !
natsugake 夏掛（なつがけ）summer cover (blanket)
samaaketto サマーケット summer towel ket blanket
taorukake タオル掛（たおるがけ） towel cover blanket
Thin blankets like a towel, that easily soak off the sweat from the sleeper.

The summer is quite hot and humid in Japan and difficult to sleep, even now with air conditioning.


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kigo for all winter

warm bedding, futon 布団、蒲団 quilted bedding

kakebuton 掛布団（かけぶとん）futon blanket, coverlet, top quilt
shikibuton 敷蒲団（しきぶとん）futon matress, underquilt
hanebuton 羽蒲団（はねぶとん）futon with down feathers

futon hosu 蒲団干す（ふとんほす）
hanging the futon to dry, quilt airing
hoshibuton 干蒲団 (ほしぶとん) matress-drying,, matress airing, quilt-airing

shoulder cover, katabuton 肩蒲団
back cover, senabuton　背蒲団
hip cover, koshibuton 腰蒲団
bed cover with cotton layers, quilt, wataire　綿入

. futon 布団、蒲団 quilted bedding 　



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Worldwide use



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Things found on the way




Daruma zabuton　だるま座布団


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Reference : History of Futon


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HAIKU

被き伏す蒲団や寒き夜やすごき
kazuki fusu futon ya samuki yo ya sugoki

to lie down
with the futon pulled up - the cold
of this night - dreadful
Tr. Gabi Greve

Written in winter of 1688, 元禄元年冬
The wife of his disciple Rika 李下, who was also one of his haiku students, had died in the autumn of this year. This hokku is in her memory.
How lonely poor Rika must feel now on this cold night without his beloved wife.

This hokku has the cut marker YA in the middle of line 2,
and another YA in the middle of line 3.
Here the cut markers carry the feeling of "stress and continue".
It helps to emphasize the last word he uses:
sugoki, sugoi 凄い,　which is a rather strong emotion.


Rika 李下 is famous for helping Basho plant the bananas (bashoo) at the Fukagawa hermitage.


Lying down,
the futon pulled up:
cold, desolate night
Tr. Barnhill


covered I lie
the qulit: so cold
the night: so drear

Perhaps here YA can be read as the abrupt form of the plain copula rather than the end-stopping exclamatory.
Tr. John Carley



Mourning Rika's wife
even lying covered
with futon, the cold
of night -- extreme
Tr. etext virginia university



MORE - emotions expressed directly by
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .

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行く秋や身に引きまとふ三布蒲団
yuku aki ya mi ni hikimatou mino-buton

autumn comes to an end -
I wrap my body
in a narrow bedding
Tr. Gabi Greve


minobuton 三幅蒲団 - A small futon matress with a width of three NO 幅. This small matress is an expression of his poor living conditions.
lit. I wrap my body in a matress of three NO width.

Three NO of width was the smallest for a futon matress.
The cover futon was wider, about 4 NO or 5 NO.

one NO 幅 of cloth is about 36 cm wide.

Written in 1688 貞亨5年, in the 9th lunar month. Basho had finished his trip "Sarashina Kiko" and is now back in Edo in his own home.


. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


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- - - - - Yosa Buson - - - - -

あたまからふとんかぶればなまこかな　
. atama kara futon kabureba namako kana .



大兵のかり寝あはれむ蒲団哉
daihyoo no karine awaremu futon kana

The big man
suffers, napping here--
Too long for the quilt!
Tr. McAuley

The cut marker KANA is at the end of line 3.



古郷にひと夜は更るふとんかな
furusato ni


いばりせしふとんほしたり須磨の里
ibariseshi futon hoshitari sumano sato
(1777)

Urine wet futon
Hung out to dry
At a village in Suma.
Tr. Nelson/Saito

Futon, wetted at night,
Is airred out;
The village of Suma.
Tr. Shoji Kumano



皃見せやふとんをまくる東山
顔見世やふとんをまくる東山　
kaomise ya futon o makuru Higashiyama



孝行な子供等に蒲団ひとつづつ　
kookoo na kodomora ni futon hitotsuzutsu
(1768)

To all good children
A futon
One for each.
Tr. Nelson/Saito



都人にたらぬふとんや峰の寺
miyabito ni taranu futon ya mine no tera
(1778)

For the people from the capital
Futon are too thin
At the summit temple.
Tr. Nelson/Saito



嵐雪とふとん引合ふ侘寝かな
ransetsu to futon hiki-au wabine kana

sharing my futon
with Ransetsu
I sleep all alone . . .
Gabi Greve

Buson was thinking of the Poet Ransetsu. It was quite common to share a futon with another person, especially on a cold winter night, to keep warm.
. Hattori Ransetsu 服部嵐雪 1654-1707 .



筋違にふとん敷きたり宵の春
sujikai ni futon shikitari yoi no haru

The slanted way
the sleeping quilts have been placed
at dusk in spring.
Tr. Sawa/ Shiffert




虎の尾を踏みつゝ裙にふとんかな
tora no o fumitsutsu kun ni futon kana



我が骨の布団にさわる霜夜かな
waga hone no futon ni sawaru shimo yo kana

Right to my bones
Through the quilt pierces
The frost tonight.
Tr. McAuley


my bones
feel the futon -
frosty night
Tr. Haldane


My bones keep touching
against the quilts
in the frosty night!
Tr. Sawa/ Shiffert



. Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 in Edo .


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Related words


sitting cushions (zabuton　座布団)
are used to sit on in the Japanese style, kneeling in seiza 正座.


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kigo for all summer

natsu zabuton 夏座蒲団 (なつざぶとん)
summer seating cushion
square Japanese floor cushion used for sitting

asa zabuton 麻座布団（あさざぶとん）zabuton with hemp cover
izabuton 藺座布団（いざぶとん） zabuton with igusa woven straw cover





kawabuton 革蒲団 (かわぶとん)
seating cushion from leather
A rather luxury item for rich homes and expensive restaurants. It feels cool to sit on a leather cushion in summer. Even if the edges are rubbed off from long use, they are still cherished.




enza 円座 (えんざ ) round sitting cushion

Often uses outside on the veranda or for the tea ceremony.
It is used to sit on, not to kneel in Japanses seiza style.



shikigami 敷紙 ( しきがみ ) paper cushion
They are made from strong Japanese washi paper and soaked in kakishibu extract to make them stronger and resistant to lice. They can be used on tatami to keep the mats clean and hygienic.
Nowadays often vinyl is used instead.



yuton 油団 (ゆとん) "oil cushion"
They are made from strong Japanese washi paper and soaked in oil or covered with laquer. They feel very cool to the touch in summer.



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. makura 枕（まくら）
pillow for sleeping 　　
Kopfkissen



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Red plum blossoms (koobai)

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Red plum blossoms (koobai)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Early Spring
***** Category: Plant

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Explanation






koobai　紅梅 (こうばい ) red plum blossoms
mikai koo 未開紅（みかいこう）not yet open red
usukoobai 薄紅梅（うすこうばい）light red plum


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Red plum blossoms are quite wonderful in their contrast with the blue sky of spring.

Plum Park in Kume, Okayama, 2009
Photo Gabi Greve


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Michael Dickman's Poetry Month Pick, April 2, 2010


"Having Reddened the Plum Blossoms"
by Yosa Buson (1716-1783)
translated by Robert Hass

Charles Simic says that the short poem "is a match flaring up in the dark universe".

One poem that comes to my mind as a match, or even a book of matches, flaring up in the dark universe is a three-line poem by Yosa Buson:

Having reddened the plum blossoms
the sunset attacks
oaks and pines.

I think this is a small and meditative poem about summer that is also somehow a large and raucous poem about bloody desire. It is, to be sure, a poem that asks us to take in and make sense of a great deal in a very short amount of time. The poem moves slowly. But our minds have to race.
We need to make sense of, among other things, plum blossoms turning a color they don't usually take on— by what we're not sure until the second line. We find out it is due to a sunset, but a sunset that attacks, that has martial qualities, and which turns to redden the oaks and pines next.
In its way it is a very fast and violent poem, leaving the reader to wonder if there will be any end to the "reddening." The poem keeps opening out after its final period along with the sunset. Almost cinematic in its jump cuts, the images move in wide circles inside of the world. They start in the miniscule; a blossom, then move out to the grand sweeping sunset and then back to something that lives in-between the two: trees. Buson does this in three lines. Eleven words.

About the effect of images there is the famous comment made by a student of Tu Fu's: "It's like being alive twice", he said. Part of what I think the student means is that thinking in images renders us alive and present to the actual world. And reading poems like this one will leave us gasping for breath, amazed, and lit up like a match.

About Michael Dickman:

Michael Dickman is the author of The End of the West (Copper Canyon Press, 2009). He was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Field, Tin House, and Narrative Magazine, among others.

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This is not a frequently-translated poem of Buson's. Doing a quick search of various books of translation, I found it in only two places: Hass's Essential Haiku, and Blyth.

Here is Blyth's translation:

紅梅や入日の襲う松かしは
koobai ya irihi no osou matsu kashiwa

Red plum-blossoms:
The setting sun assails
Pines and oak trees.

Here is Blyth's comment:
The level rays of the sun strike on the oaks and pines above the plum-tree, and flood them with a strength and depth of colour that surpasses that of the obscurely red blossoms. There is here no attempt on the part of the poet to unite himself with nature, to live his own life into nature. Buson makes himself a 'tabula rasa' upon which to portray the scene which somehow or other disturbs him.
It is true that we can find subjective elements here, as everywhere, the contrast of the masculine pines and oaks with the feminine plum-tree, the use of the word "assail" which which really expresses the poet's own feeling of being overwhelmed by the rich colour of the rays of the setting sun.

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It appears that Hass mistakenly believes that the plum blossoms are white, and are being reddened by the setting sun, along with the pine and oak.

Larry Bole
Translating Haiku Forum




sunset and red plum blossoms

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Here is another comment based on the translation by HASS,

haiku have no verbs at all,
and so the tense is left ambiguous:

Having reddened the plum blossoms,
the sunset attacks
oaks and pines.

Here, I see a commonly used format of: "after this, this"
Still the speaking of haiku moment is occuring in the present, but directly after something else has happened.
Showing the passage of time, but still in a designated moment in present time.

My Comments copyright 4/6/1999 by Wendy C. Bialek - Shiki Workshop

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Again we are remainded of the weight a translation has for a reader who does not understand the original and is left to speculate on an English version, that might lead him/her to conclusions that are NOT implied in the Japanese at all.

Gabi Greve

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source :　www.rakanneko.jp

紅梅の落花燃らむ馬の糞
koobai no rakka moyuramu uma no fun

The red plum's fallen flowers
seem to be burning
on the horse's droppings.
Tr. Sawa and Shiffert


pink petals of the plum
lie on horse dung,
looking ready to flare up
Tr. Ueda


. WKD : Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 in Edo .


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Roja flor de ciruelo :
el sol poniente ataca
pinossss y robles.

source : Tr. Fernanso Rodriguez-Izquierdo y Gavala
Sevilla


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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way


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HAIKU




red plum blossom . . .
the little details
that catch my soul

Gabi Greve

Kume Plum Park, Spring 2010


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just one spot
of delicious RED ...
spring snow




Gabi Greve, Spring 2010


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紅梅（こうばい）　初春
Japanese Haiku Samples
http://cgi.geocities.jp/saijiki_09/kigo500a/187.html



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Related words

***** . Plum Blossoms (梅 (うめ) ume) 　



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