Shuri Jinbo · Aizu
Original
帰りこん
Person
An Aizu retainer who was forced to take responsibility after Toba-Fushimi and died by seppuku. Shuri Jinbo's final poem is not battlefield heroism, but pain turned toward his mother. Made to bear responsibility after Toba-Fushimi and driven toward death with little chance to defend himself, he turns political injustice into the image of a frail message reaching the mother who waits for him.
Translation
At the time when my mother waits for me to return, she will hear only a fleeting report instead.
Poetic Shape A Japanese death poem is less a final explanation than a last shape given to feeling. Its brevity matters: a life is not narrated, but compressed into a few lines that leave room for silence.
Reading
Though this is the final poem of a man made to bear political responsibility, its last movement turns toward his mother. The mother's time, waiting for his return, cruelly misses the reality that only news of death will arrive. Aizu's defeat and internal conflict shrink into a small family wound.
Background
After Toba-Fushimi, Shuri Jinbo is remembered as a man forced to bear responsibility for defeat and driven to seppuku. Even if attempts were made to save him, the hardening mood inside Aizu closed around him. The poem holds both the posture of a retainer obeying death and the human voice that cannot help thinking of his mother.
Source / Transmission Wording, headnotes, and transmission may differ by source; this page treats the text as one circulated form.
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