Munemitsu Mutsu · Kishu
Original
失題
Munemitsu Mutsu's Chinese-style poem, "失題朝誦暮吟十五年飄身漂泊似難船他時". Read the original Japanese, translation, meaning, and historical background. The poem shows young Mutsu's ambition and drifting condition.
Person
A Kishu-born figure connected with Sakamoto Ryoma in the Bakumatsu, later a major diplomat of the Meiji era. His poems carry the restlessness of a young activist and the later gaze of a man who would read Japan through the world.
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Translation
For fifteen years I have recited morning and night, drifting like a wrecked ship; someday I want wings vast enough to clear the clouds and fly to the highest sky.
Poetic Shape Kanshi draws on a classical Chinese poetic tradition, where restraint, allusion, and moral tension carry much of the weight. The poem sounds formal, but the pressure beneath it is personal.
Reading
The poem shows young Mutsu's ambition and drifting condition. It reads as an unformed great aspiration before his contact with Ryoma and others.
Background
Said to have been written when the young Mutsu Munemitsu was leaving his home province. It seems to anticipate the later flight of the diplomat he would become. A Kishu-born figure connected with Sakamoto Ryoma in the Bakumatsu, later a major diplomat of the Meiji era.
Source / Transmission Wording and readings may differ by transmission; this page treats the text as one circulated form.
Further Reading
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