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Muro no Yashima室の八島
Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North) Complete in one volume "The months and days are the travelers of a hundred generations, and the years that come and go are travelers too" — the travel record of Bashō, who left Edo at forty-six and walked Ōshū and Hokuriku for five months. In the summer grass he sees the dreams of warriors, in the rock he hears the voice of the cicadas soaking in, and under one roof he likens the sleeping women of pleasure to bush clover and the moon. Wherever the prose comes to rest, a haiku is set down. Beside the pilgrim records of Faxian, Xuanzang, and Hyecho, this is one more road in this library.
1The Smoke of Muro no Yashima
室の八島に詣す同行曾良が云此神はこの花さくやひめの神と申て富士一躰なり無戶室に入て燒給ふちかひのみ中に火火出見の尊生れ給ひしより室の八島と申す又けふりをよみ習し侍るもこの謂也はたこのしろといふ魚を禁ず緣記の旨世につたふ事も侍るなり
I paid my respects at Muro no Yashima. Sora, who traveled with me, said: this deity is called the goddess Konohanasakuya, and she is one body with Mount Fuji. She went into a doorless chamber and set it burning, and in the midst of that vow Hohodemi no Mikoto was born. From this it is called Muro no Yashima. It is for this reason, too, that it has become the custom to bring in smoke when one composes on this place. And a fish called the konoshiro is forbidden here. The meaning of the origin legend is also something handed down in the world.
Interlinear notes 1
一本るヲ入レタリ
Another text inserts 「る」.