Yodo Yamauchi · Tosa
Person
Lord of Tosa and one of the Four Wise Lords, interested in coastal defense and shogunate reform. Yodo's intelligence and pride stand at the edge between old-domain politics and the forces that would dissolve it.
Translation
Autumn chrysanthemums bloom and moonlit waves rise like oil; who now will decide coastal defense, as I calmly study the globe by candlelight?
Reading
Beyond Yodo's boldness, the poem contains tension around coastal defense and awareness of the world. It also makes an interesting contrast with Shozan through the globe. Read together with Yodo Yamauchi, the poem is not only a matter of literal meaning; it shows movement and solitude at the edge of an age. With the figure in mind, what remains after reading is resolve, solitude, and the beauty that often belongs to the defeated side.
Background
A Chinese poem written by Yamauchi Yodo in the Ansei period, as coastal defense became urgent. It reveals the political self-consciousness of one of the wise lords of the Bakumatsu. Lord of Tosa and one of the Four Wise Lords, interested in coastal defense and shogunate reform. The words carry the inner pressure of someone caught in Bakumatsu politics, war, execution, exile, or the losses that followed the Restoration. Even where the transmission is uncertain, they quietly preserve the pain of the age.
Source / Transmission Wording and readings may differ by transmission; this page treats the text as one circulated form.
