Old Pond Comics

Chiyo-ni (1703-1775)

Most famous haiku:Chiyo-ni and the well tangled by morning glory

morning glory -
the well-bucket entangled
I ask for water

- Chiyo-ni

 

Haiku-comics:

Morning glory - the well-bucket entangled I ask for water. (A haiku by Chiyoni illustrated by Old Pond Comics).

 

 

comic

All I pick up

At the ebb-tide

Is alive!

- Chiyo-ni (Haiku, R.H. Blyth, Hokuseido Press, paperback 2nd printing, 1984)

 

 

 

comic

 

Autumn's bright moon,

However far I walked, still afar off

In an unknown sky.

- Chiyo-ni (Haiku, R. H. Blyth, Hokuseido Press, 1984, p. 934)

 

comic

The summer moon

Is touched by the line

Of the fishing-rod.

- Chiyo-ni (From: Haiku, R.H. Blyth, Hokuseido Press, paperback 2nd printing, 1984, p. 681)

 

 

comic

The dew of the rouge-flower,

When it is spilled

Is simply water.

- Chiyo-ni

 

 

 

 

 

Bio:

Chiyo-jo was born in the small town of Matto in the Kaga region. Her family ran a scroll-making business. She excelled in poetry, calligraphy and painting. She was born 9 years after Basho died and two of his disciples became Chiyo's teacher.

Chiyo-ni was a rare woman haiku poet in a time where haiku were dominated by men. She was twenty-four when she composed her famous gourd haiku ("a hundred gourds / from the heart / of the vine")

She became a nun at age fifty-two ("putting up my hair / no more / my hands in the kotatsu"). Her status as a nun allowed her to travel and meet with other haiku poets.

Haiku by Chiyo-ni:

a hundred gourds
from the heart
of the vine

rouge lips
forgotten -
clear springwater

Other names:

Chiyo ("a thousand years"), Chiyo-jo, Chiyo-ni, Kaga no Chiyo (Chiyo of Kaga Province), Mattto no Chiyo.

 

Death poem:

I also saw the moon
as for this world -
ah - goodbye

Bibliography:

Chiyo-ni: woman haiku master, Patricia Donegan and Yoshie Ishibashi (Turtle Publishing)à

 

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