Yorinori Matsudaira · 宍戸藩
Original
さして行く
Yorinori Matsudaira's death poem, "さして行く竹の弓こそ朽ちにけれ". Read the original Japanese, modern translation, interpretation, and historical context as distinct parts of the poem.
Person
Lord of Shishido domain, sent to pacify the Tengu Party crisis but forced to die by seppuku under shogunate suspicion.
Learn about Matsudaira Yorinori
Translation
The bamboo bow that should have gone forth to be drawn has rotted away, left beside the scarecrow.
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
Read as the final poem of a man who was not allowed to act, the image cuts deeply.The bamboo bow is also the self left unused before its mission could be fulfilled.Rotting beside a scarecrow is not valor, but the sorrow of being prevented from moving.
Background
Yorinori departed under orders to restore calm in Mito, but the intended mediation never came to completion.Political suspicion turned an assignment meant to prevent further conflict into an order for his death.The unused bow therefore carries a precise biographical weight.
Source / Transmission Wording and readings may differ by transmission; this page treats the text as one circulated form.
Further Reading
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