Hyakunin Isshu Oracle

No.10 蝉丸「これやこの 行くも帰るも 別れては 知るも知らぬも 逢坂の関」

これやこの 行くも帰るも 別れては 知るも知らぬも 逢坂の関

蝉丸

everyone parts at this gate — known, unknown, all the same

everyone parts at this gate — known, unknown, all the same

キーワードKeywords

Border GateStrangersComing and GoingCrossroadsAnonymous Crowd
★★ Miscellaneous

蝉丸Semimaru — No. 10 官人Official

A poet said to have lived beside the Ōsaka barrier; legend makes him a blind master of the lute.

これやこの ゆくもかへるも わかれては しるもしらぬも あふさかのせき

Kore ya kono Yuku mo kaeru mo Wakarete wa Shiru mo shiranu mo Ōsaka no seki

現代語訳Modern Japanese

コンセプトConcept

情景The Scene

A checkpoint on the road. All day people pass in both directions — friends, strangers, no difference — and every one of them separates here. The gate does not care. Its name means “the slope of meeting,” and all it does is part people.

日本の美意識Japanese Aesthetic

Yohaku (Deliberate Void)

The poem names no individual and tells no story; it holds a single location and lets an entire century of traffic pass through it. Fix the camera, remove the protagonist, and the place starts speaking.