Asagao ni (With Morning Glories), haiku poem and painting (replica)

Hanabusa Itcho, painting; Matsuo Basho, calligraphy

Tenna period (17^th century)

(Original: Tenri Central Library, Tenri University)

This work is an example of a gasan, which refers to a painting in which calligraphy or a poem is directly inscribed.

The painting on this scroll is the work of Hanabusa Itcho, an Edo-period painter who enjoyed widespread popularity during the late 17^th and early 18^th centuries. In the painting, a morning glory vine droops gracefully from a bamboo flower vase, and overlapping this tendril in the center of the painting is a small piece of paper containing a haiku poem written and signed by Basho himself.

asagao ni / ware wa meshi ku / otoko kana

with morning glories / a man eats breakfast / – that is what I am*

This poem, which evokes the image of a plain man of unassuming habits enjoying a view of morning glories as he sits down to his early breakfast, was written as a rebuke to the “firefly poem” composed by Basho’s disciple Kikaku: kusa no to ni / ware wa tade ku / hotaru kana (within the grassy gate / a firefly eats nettles / – that is what I am*). In contrast to Kikaku’s poem, which expresses his fondness for composing poems and frolicking night after night like a firefly, Basho’s haiku shows his appreciation for the simple and humble life.

*translations: Makoto Ueda