Kaori Kubo's Home Page

Let me introduce myself. My name is Kaori Kubo. I was born in kawanoe City Ehime Prefecture, Japan in June 20, 1983.

I am a first year student at Kagawa Junior College. My major is Infant Education.

My hobbies are listening to musix, using my mobile phone, and karaoke.

Ehime

Quoted from the Shikoku Bilingual Guidebook by Akiko Takemoto and Steve McCarty

Matsuyama City

-Castle, haiku & Hot Springs-

Matsuyama, the largest city in Shikoku, has dominated this area since 1595, when Lord Kato arrived here. The castle he began to build seven years later still looms over downtown Matsuyama as its definitive landmark.

A large stone monument at the left-hand corner of the JR Matsuyama station plaza reads as follows:

Come spring as of old

When such revenues of rice

Braced this castle town!

Shiki

This monument characterizes the nostalgic pride of haikuloving Matsuyama people, three out of ten of whom are said to be haiku poets.

Very few Japanese, haiku poets or not, can visit Matsuyama without remembering Shiki, a preeminent son of Matsuyama, who made this town what is called the hometown of Haiku (5- 7- 5 syllable verse).

Another nationwide attraction of Matsuyama is the fabled Dogo Onsen Hot Spring. The Dogo Onsen Honkan public bathhouse of distinctive architecture can be fully experienced inside.

Ishite-ji Temple ( No.51) near Dogo Onsen is one of the most impressive of the 88 Sacred Places of Shikoku. It is also known for a gripping supernatural legend deeply imbued with the origin of the Shikoku Pilgrimage.

*It was 150, 000 koku.

Matsuyama-jo Castle

[ By Streetcar ]

Take the loop line in front of JR Matsuyama and get off at Okaido and walk about 5 minutes to the "Ropeway" Station or past it to the Shinonome-jinja shrine stone steps.

[ By Bus ]

10 minutes' bus ride to Shinonome-jinja-mae or "Ropeway" -mae from JR Matsuyama ( Oku-Dogo Onsen Kanko Bus bound for Oku-Dogo ) .

* To the hilltop : 15 minutes' walk up the hillside past Shinonome-jinja Shrine at the end of the wide stone steps or 3 minutes by ropeway or chair lift from Ropeway Station.

The three-storied main donjon and a subsidiary donjon fortified with several turrets and gates from a typical fort castle of the 17th century. The original buildings are gone except for Inui-mon Gate, some walls and ramparts.

Recently the city has completed an extensive projet to rebuild the entire castle. Great care was taken to employ the same techniques and materials as used in the original construction ; not one nail was used to fit all the wooden parts together.

The main donjon houses a large collection of swords, spears, armor, documents, works of art and calligraphy, and mementoes mainly of the lords of the castle - the Katos, the Gamos and several generations of the Matsuyama. open daily. Admission : 260 yen.

Matsuyama, the Hometown of Haiku

The local enthusiasm for composing haiku dates back to 1674 when Lord Matsudaira Sadanao came to govern this province. While in Edo ( Tokyo), Sadanao had proved himself a distinguished haiku student of Kikaku, one of the foremost disciples of Mtsuo Basho ( 1644-1694 ), the poetic genius who virtually invented the classical Japanese haiku.

People in Matsuyama took interest in the literary art from their new lord brought to them and soon made haiku an outlet for artistic expression in their daily lives. In 1880 Japan's first haiku monthly was published in Matsuyama,with Masaoka Shiki's maternal grandfather among its editors.

In the 1890's, Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902), who had been trying to bring Japanese literature more up - to - date in Tokyo as a student -turned - newspaperman, succeeded in originating a new style of haiku by freeing it from formalism, while fighting a losing battle against tuberculosis. Before his death at 35, he managed to establish new standards for waka ( 5 -7 -5 -7 -7 syllable verse ) as well.

Soon Matsuyama produced many other poets who carried on Shiki' s shasei realism as Japan' s premier haiku poets throughout the modern period that followed, including Takahama Kyoshi, Kawahigashi Hekigodo, Naito Meisetsu, Yanagihara Kyokudo and Ishida Hakyo. They in turn attracted such a large number of haiku poets to their hometown that Matsuyama was dubbed " the hometown of haiku."

Literature - loving people will enjoy visiting these places:

Shiki - do House on the ground of Shoshuzen - ji Temple behind Matsuyama - shi - eki Station is a replica of Shiki' s home - a small house of a lowranking samurai family. Shiki spent his first 16 years there until he set out for Tokyo to study.

The exhibition includes about a dozen paintings he did with the juice of herbs and flowers his sister picked from the garden of his house in Tokyo where he was bedridden for the last seven years of his short life. Open daily. admission: 50 yen

5 minutes' walk from Matsuyama - shi - eki Station.

Another house associated with Shiki is the Gudabutsu - an behind Bansuiso Art Museum. At the age of 27 Shiki returned to Matsuyama, trying to recover from tuberculosis he had contracted five years before, snd he shared a two - storied cottage with Natsume Soseki rented and named Gudabutsu - an after one of his pen names, Gudabutsu or Foolish Buddha. Soseki' s portrait is now ubiquitous on the 1000 yen bill.

6 minutes' walk from Okaido on the streetcar loop line.

There are ' haiku post ' boxes of various shapes and sizes standing in many public places including Matsuyama - jo Castle. The forms to write your haiku, name and address, are placed beside each post.

Here is an example of an English haiku that appeared in " A Collection of the Best Haiku of the Year " ( the 20th volume ) published by the City in June, 1989:

Dyes of blue and white Gimmer in the looms so fast Making summer cloth

Stephen L. John

This alludes to the Iyo - gasuri kimono cloth native to this prefecture.

Taneda Santoka ( 1882 - 1940 ) , a haiku nonconformist who cast aside all the rules including the ( 5 - 7 - 5 ) syllable structure, is also associated with Matsuyama. Santoka, an ordained Zen priest, after spending most of his life wandering all over the country as a begging monk, chose to settle in Matsuyama only to die 10 months later.

The humble cottage where he dwelt - Isso - an - ( A Blade of Grass Hermitage ) is preserved north of Ehime University. His books and documents are also preserved in Shiki Memorial Museum.

A pop of hail even in my iron bowl !

Santoka

( Tetsu - bachi no naka nimo arare )

A bowl used by a mendicant priest.

30 minutes' walk from Sekijuji Byoin - mae on the loop line.

Iyo-gasuri Kaikan Museum

5 minutes' walk from Kinuyama Station on Iyo-tetsu Takahama Line.

The museum houses 2,300 items concerning this traditional art of Iyo - gasuri making - the indigo - dyeing and weaving peculiar to this former Iyo Province, designated as a National Folk Art by the government, and enjoying nationwide fame.It has a workshop to demonstrate the art and a shop to sell the products, as well. Admission free. Open daily except December 31 and January 1.