The Priest and the Willow

The Priest and the Willow (遊行柳, Yugyō yanagi) is a Noh play based on the experiences of the 12th-century poet and travelling-monk Saigyō.

[1] Saigyō was travelling to North Japan, when he sat in the shade of a willow-tree, later identified by Bashō as being close to the village of Ashino,[2] and wrote a waka: " ‘Just a brief stop,’/ I said when stepping off the road/into a willow's shade/where a bubbling stream flows by,/as has time since my ‘brief stop’ began".

[3] A wandering priest, Yugyō Shonin, is given directions by an old man who recites Saigyō's poem before vanishing: the priest then realises it was the spirit of the willow tree.

[4] By reciting a prayer to Amida Buddha, he enables the spirit to attain Buddhahood, for which the willow spirit thanks him in a dance sequence.

[5] Buson wrote a haiku on rocks and willows underneath the Pilgrim's Willow Tree, alluding to the Noh play.