rakushisha

Rakushisha cottage is one hundred yards down the hillside from the Jojakkoji temple. Admission is 200 Yen, which includes an explanatory brochure in either Japanese or English. The English brochure has the following text:

1. Rakushisha is the cottage of the Genroku poet Mukai Kyorai. Kyorai was one of the ten disciples of the famous haiku poet Matsuo Basho. Basho once referred to Kyorai in this way. "In Kyoto there is Kyorai, who is in charge of haikai in Western Japan." Kyorai was the most important poet to continue Basho's authentic style after the master died.

2. Rakushisha is shown in Shui Miyako Meisho Zue (Map of Famous Places in Kyoto), "at the foot of Ogurayama and behind Hinoyashiro in Yamamoto-cho." The Hinoyahiro is now the tomb of Uchiko Naishin'no, the sixth daughter of Emperor Saga.

3. In the garden we have a poem stone which was made Inoue Juko, a relative of Kyorai and a disciple of a haiku poet named Chomu in the autumn of 1772 with this poem:

Kakinushi ya
kozue wa chikaki
Arashiyama

master of persimmons
treetops are close to
Stormy Mountain

As the story goes, Kyorai had about forty persimmon trees in the garden of his hut in Saga. One autumn when they were heavy with fruit, he had arranged to sell the persimmons. But the night before they were to be picked a great storm arose. The next morning not a single persimmon was left on the trees. Kyorai was enlightened by this experience, and from then on called the hut "Rakushisha" (the cottage of the fallen persimmons).

There was not a great storm this year. On December 18th, the persimmon trees in the neighborhood surrounding Rakushisha were heavy with fruit.



The cottage has been restored to the appearance it was believed to have had in the 1680s, when Kyorai lived there.



Inside the cottage, strings of dried persimmons hang in front of a lattice screen of rice paper.



There is a bamboo water balance in the garden. Water drips from a small bamboo downspout into a larger bamboo receptacle. The receptacle pivots on a balance. Over the course of six minutes, the receptacle fills with water. When it is nearly full, the receptacle tips over and the water spills into a stone basin. The receptacle then swings back to its upright position, making a single hollow thunk as the back of the bamboo tube strikes a supporting stone. The noise resonates in the still air.



Beneath the water balance, a small pool is carved into the stone.



Snow filled the cracks on the cobbled lane up the slope from Rakushisa.

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