WKD Tanuki haiku

http://omamorifromjapan.blogspot.jp/2011/11/tanuki-badger-racoon-dog.html

tanuki 狸 mujina 狢　－ badger legends from Japan .


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The Awa Tanuki Gassen (阿波狸合戦) (also called the Awa no Tanuki Gassen (阿波の狸合戦) or the Kinchō Tanuki Gassen (金長狸合戦)) is a Japanese legend that takes place in the Awa Province (now Tokushima Prefecture).
The legend is about a great war between two tanuki powers.
Tanuki Kinchō (金長狸), and the bad one, Rokuemon (六右衛門狸),
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

source : 鈴木寿雄画


戸をたたく狸と秋をおしみけり
to o tataku tanuki to aki o oshimikeri
(1768)

with a badger
knocking at my door I lament
the passing of autumn

Buson wrote this poem while staying in Ibaraki, 結城市 Yuki town, where many Tanuki have been killed. So in honor of their souls he wrote another poem:

秋のくれ仏に化る狸かな
aki no kure hotoke ni bakeru tanuki kana

at the end of autumn
this badger poses
as a Buddha . . .

hotoke ni bakeru - signify a tanuki who got killed.
hotoke is a word used for a dead person or a corpse.
The cut marker KANA is at the end of line 3.


. Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 in Edo .


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Tanuki Sake