月に遠く おぼゆる藤の 色香かな tsuki ni tōku oboyuru fuji no iroka kana buson 蕪村 In the moonlight, the color and scent of the wisteria, seems so far away

In the moonlight,
the color and scent of the wisteria,
seems so far away

月に遠くおぼゆる藤の色香かな (tsuki ni tōku oboyuru fuji no iroka kana): under the moon, the wisteria's color and scent seem far. 月に遠く is far from the moon, or far, under the moon, and the verse turns on which; おぼゆる is the classical seems, is felt to be, the only verb in it; 藤 is wisteria, the late-spring season word, and 色香 is one word for its color and scent together; かな closes it. In 1903 three men of Shiki's circle read Yosa Buson's verse together and argued what the distance is: Meisetsu drew a triangle of moon, wisteria and poet; Hekigotō said the geometry is beside the point and the verse praises the hour; Kyoshi said the color is blurred in moonlight and seems far, and that the scent only seems far because the rhythm carries the word along. Were the moon bright, the flowers would seem near; because it is faint, they seem far. Meisetsu said so at the meeting, and Reiyoshi repeated it in 1921. That dimness is the scene. Blyth translated it twice and took each side once. The English is Timothy L. Jackowski's, made for Takase Studios.

The verse is Buson's, one of the hokku he brought to the verse-writing sessions of his circle in 1780, and it was first printed in 1800 in the anthology 新五子稿.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 月に遠くおぼゆる藤の色香かな.

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The scrolls are 12 1/4" W × 43" H (31 × 109 cm), with woven damask borders and layered Japanese paper, designed to last generations. The scrolls themselves are made by a scroll maker in Gifu, Japan, and we have worked with them for over two decades.

Eri Takase was born and raised in Osaka, Japan, and holds the rank of Shihan, the highest rank in Japanese calligraphy, from the Bokuteki-kai and the Bunka-shodo. About Master Takase