Literary figures associated with the hotel

• Osamu Dazai 1909 to 1948

  A novelist of the decadent school who led a tumultuous life

  

  Osamu Dazai’s honeymoon

  When I invited Dazai out for a walk, he said he was afraid of snakes. He just stayed at the hotel the whole time and drank. This was not worth coming to Tateshina for.

  Memories of Osamu Dazai by Michiko Tsushima

  Osamu Dazai, at the age of 30, was trying to rebuild his life after a long period of self-indulgence, when he remarried Michiko with the help of Masuji Ibuse. Soon after their marriage, the two went to Shinshu on the 88th night from the beginning of spring, an auspicious time, and they visited Suwa and Tateshina. On the first night in Suwa, he bought some sake and got drunk, and the 26-year-old Michiko said, “He soiled the tablecloth, embarrassing me in front of the innkeepers.” The next day, upon arriving in Tateshina, he asked for more sake, and Michiko wondered, “Does this person not care about nature or the landscape? Does he live entirely in his own head?” She was lonely, and felt as if she were traveling with a blind person./p>

  Nevertheless, Dazai led a much more peaceful and stable life with Michiko than he ever had before, and wrote many works. Before attempting suicide for the third time, he left behind a will in which he wrote, “Michiko, I loved you more than anyone else.” At the age of 39, he committed suicide by drowning together with his young mistress in the Tamagawa Canal.

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• Byakuren Yanagiwara 1885 to 1967

  Owned a villa in Tateshina; a beautiful poet known as one of the three beauties of the Taisho period

  

  The entirety of Byakuren Yanagiwara’s love

  The moment I first felt and accepted happiness so great as to inspire the will to live

  Akiko Yanagiwara (later to become Byakuren Yanagiwara), born as an aristocrat and cousin to the Emperor Taisho, was a beautiful poet known as one of the three beauties of the Taisho period. In order to save her family from ruin, at the age of 26, she remarried Denemon Ito, a coal mine magnate in Kyushu, despite not being in love with him. During her marriage, she developed a talent for tanka poetry. At the age of 34, her life changed when she met Ryusuke Miyazaki. Her love for Ryusuke, who was seven years younger than her, caused her to throw everything else in her life away. She did not even fear being accused of adultery, which was a criminal offense at the time.

  In 1921, she published a letter breaking off her relationship with Denemon in a newspaper, and eloped with Ryusuke Miyazaki. This was known as the Byakuren Incident, it caused quite a sensation. At the time, she was already pregnant with Ryusuke’s child. She was taken back to and confined at her parents’ home, where she gave birth. They got married two years after that. Once married, they bought a villa in Tateshina, where they lived happily with their two children. Byakuren and Ryusuke kept all of the more than 700 love letters that they had exchanged with each other.

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• Jakucho Setouchi 1922〜2021

  A broadly active Tendai sect nun and novelist

  

  The fierce passion that Jakucho Setouchi loved

  From Shinyu Iriguchi bus stop, down a road off the Venus Line, I saw a river running down in the valley on left side of the road, and the Hotel Shinyu rising like a castle on the other side of the river.

  Koko Sugite by Harumi Setouchi

  Back when Jakucho Setouchi went by the name of Harumi Setouchi, her real name, she visited Shinyu to collect information for a story she wrote about Hakushu and his three wives for the book Koko Sugite. Harumi had once had her shoes hidden by her husband, but out of her strong desire to meet her lover, she ran out barefoot never to return, so she particularly empathized with the wife Ayako, who was good-natured yet lovesick. Ayako once wrote, “What would the world be like without love?” She was a passionate poet who committed herself entirely to Hakushu from the first day she met him, later supporting him during his time of honest poverty.

  In the preface to his own work, Hakushu wrote, “We loved each other, respected each other, and felt compassion toward each other.” During a party to celebrate the house they had finally been able to build, she eloped with a journalist well known to the couple. Ayako later got married and divorced a number of times, and gradually became consumed by madness. The book Koko Sugite depicts the story of Ayako fleeing to Hakushu’s villa in Tateshina to rest and get back on her feet.

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• Sachio Ito 1864 to 1913

  One of the most well known of the poets who loved Tateshina

  

  The purity of Sachio Ito

  Though the autumn breeze blows, it saddens me to see the wild chrysanthemums wilt in the dew and frost

  The Tomb of Wild Chrysanthemum

  Sachio Ito is one of the most well known of the poets who loved Tateshina. He is quoted as saying, “Only those who have experienced the grief of love can know the true taste of love.” He composed many tanka poems, and wrote novels full of unadulterated purity. His first novel, The Tomb of Wild Chrysanthemum, tells the story of a man and a woman who discover love in a peaceful farm village.

  On their way through the mountains, 15-year-old Masao and 17-year-old Tamiko open their hearts to each other, comparing each other to a wild chrysanthemum and a gentian flower. The character Tamiko is said to have been based on a girl named Kisa, whom the young Sachio had feelings for and even proposed marriage to back when he was working on a ranch. Kisa’s relatives refused to allow the marriage, so Sachio gave up. Fifteen years later, he learned that Kisa had gotten married and died while living with her husband. Two years later, he wrote The Tomb of Wild Chrysanthemum. It is said that whenever he read aloud from The Tomb of Wild Chrysanthemum, his voice would often be choked with tears.

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• Bunmei Tsuchiya 1890 to 1990

  A poet who taught in Suwa City and wrote the collection of poems Fuyukusa

  

  Bunmei Tsuchiya’s first love

  I'm just seeing the girl sitting at the same table and her ink-smeared calligraphy.

  Seinankoushu

  At the age of 28, Bunmei Tsuchiya was transferred to Suwa, where he composed his first collection of poetry, Fuyukusa. His marriage partner had been decided ever since he was a child. Her name was Etsuko Tsukagoshi, a classmate at elementary school. Etsuko’s father, the wealthiest man in the village, asked Bunmei what he thought about marrying his daughter, Etsuko. Soon, the entire village had heard about it. Once they grew a little older, even Bunmei and Etsuko began to act as though they were going to marry.

  One day, on his way home from school, some female students were blocking his path. One of them saw that he wanted to get by and said, “Hey, let him through. He’s related to Etsuko.” Standing there silently, Bunmei suddenly noticed Etsuko nearby, her face red with embarrassment. Two others spoke up, “Who is he?” “He’s Etsuko’s husband.” Bunmei had no choice but to quickly walk away. When Bunmei was in his second year of junior high school, Etsuko fell ill and passed away. Later, Bunmei married Etsuko’s older sister, Teruko.

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• Akahiko Shimaki 1876 to 1926

  A poet of the Araragi school born in Suwa City

  

  Akahiko Shimaki’s first pupil

  As the summer grasses thicken, I find myself so deeply saddened

  Shakko

  The love story of Akahiko Shimaki, born in Kamisuwa Village (now Suwa City), began when Shizuko got hired just out of university to work as a teacher at Hirooka Elementary School in Shiojiri City, where Akahiko was the school principal. Shizuko and Akihiko, who was not from the local area but rather had been assigned there away from his family, lived under the same roof and shared morning and evening meals together. Half a year after Akahiko's first wife passed away, he had gotten married to her younger sister. He was 33 years old and his life in Kamisuwa was luck of love at the time. Shizuko was 19 years old, and she adored Akahiko and even composed poetry. One day during the summer when they were at a branch school, they acknowledged their love for one another while wandering through a meadow.

  The first line of Akahiko’s poem about that day, provided above, is interpreted to refer to his sigh of anguish at being only a hair’s breadth away, yet unable to kiss, hold hands, or even cry. They fell in love and composed many love poems, but six years later, when Akahiko moved back to Tokyo to be with his family, the relationship between him and Shizuko came to an end.

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• Mokichi Saito 1883 to 1953

  A poet and central figure in the Araragi school; Composed poems about Tateshina

  

  Mokichi Saito’s last woman

  The red of her lips disappears within, and even the cow’s milk is odious

  Mokichi Saito walked two paths in his life: medicine and tanka poetry. At the age of 53, he met 24-year-old Fusako Nagai at a poetry party held on the 33rd anniversary of Masaoka Shiki's death. Although there was an age difference, their love was a source of motivation and purpose for both of them. Fusako received more than 150 letters from him, more than 120 of which were published 10 years after his death. These letters revealed his overflowing love for her. “I want to bite those! Those dear, precious, sweet things, like plump, clear, freshly-pounded rice cakes!” “I know that this is an abnormal request, but when you are in Tokyo, please do not go for a walk alone with old Mr. Y, go out to eat, or watch a movie...”

  However, Fusako was still obsessed about their relationship. Nevertheless, on her father’s recommendation, she had a formal marriage interview with a different man, and even got engaged. Later, she broke off the engagement, saying, “It is painful to receive anyone else’s affection.” Her relationship with Mokichi also dissolved, and she gave up poetry. Fusako never married in her life.

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• Kyoshi Takahama 1874 to 1959

  A haiku poet who evacuated during WW II to Komoro at the foot of Mt. Asama

  

  Kyoshi Takahama’s favorite pupil

  A rainbow forms and suddenly there you are

  During WW II, the haiku poet Kyoshi Takahama evacuated to Komoro at the foot of Mt. Asama. Later in life, he gained a pupil, the sickly but beautiful Aiko Morita. As her illness became more serious, the young and sensitive Aiko found hope for life in haiku, and as Kyoshi learned more about her situation, he began to care for her even more deeply. In the literary sketch Rainbow, which Kyoshi wrote with complete honesty, he describes Aiko and her lover Hakusui visiting him in Komoro, and his own visit to her house.

  Aiko was sad that she could not accompany Kyoshi due to her illness. One day, after reluctantly saying goodbye to each other, she saw a brightly colored rainbow in the window of the car that was carrying Kyoshi away from her. To herself, she whispered, “Shall we cross that rainbow bridge and go to Kamakura. Perhaps when the next rainbow comes…” Later, her words made Kyoshi compose several poems. The series of novels that followed Rainbow depicted the period from Aiko dying of her illness at the age of 31 to the first anniversary of her death.

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• Yukichi Fukuzawa1835 to 1901

  Great Enlightenment thinker, known as the father of Japan's modernization

  

  Believed in the idea of equality

  "Fukuzawa's ancestors came from the village of Fukuzawa in Shinshu.
  Yukichi Fukuzawa in "Fukuo Jiben" (The Autobiography of Fukuo)

  Yukichi Fukuzawa promoted the modernization of Japan by preaching that "Heaven does not create a man above another man or a man below another man. The founder of Keio University and known for his "Practice of Learning", it is said that the basis of his philosophy is related to his ancestors who had their roots in Chino City, Shinshu, where Tateshina Shinyu Onsen is located. The family name "Fukuzawa" is taken from the name of a place called "Fukuzawamura," and the ancestors trace their lineage back to Zentoku Tarozaemon, who made his home in Fukuzawamura, Shinshu (now Naka-Oshio, Chino City).

  In 1582, after being defeated at the Battle of Torii Pass as a general of Takeda Katsuyori, Zentoku left the area and moved to Buzen Nakatsu (present-day Oita Prefecture) in the service of Ogasawara Sadayoshi. The Fukuzawa family later settled in the Nakatsu clan and produced Yukichi. The inscription reads, "The ancestors of the Fukuzawa family came from the village of Fukuzawa in Shinshu," suggesting that Yukichi's philosophy of equality and "independence and self-respect" was influenced by the history of this area.

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Poem monuments to literary figures

In the Falling Star Garden, you can read well-known Shinyu poems by literary figures who loved Shinyu, such as Sachio Ito, Bunmei Tsuchiya, and Akahiko Shimaki.

Enjoy a stroll through the garden, which is beautiful in each season in its own way, with towering mountains in the distance and the clear highland air, while listening to the murmuring of the valley river and reading waka poems about Shinyu.

• Sachio Ito

  1864 to 1913
  Poet and novelist born in Chiba Prefecture. Established the foundation of the Araragi school through the publication of Ashibi and Araragi. Wrote the novel The Tomb of Wild Chrysanthemum (on which the film She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum was based).

  

  真白玉透き照るまでに明らけく清き出湯が滝つせのごと

  A pure white jewel, a piercingly bright and crystal-clear hot spring overflowing like a waterfall

  神さぶるみ湯の光に現身の醜のむくろも見らくうるはし

  The divine light of the hot water makes even my ugly body seem beautiful

  ねもころに心とどめて浴み居ればいよよ尊く清き出湯や

  As I soak in the hot spring determined to remain reverent, it seems even more precious and pure

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• Akahiko Shimaki

  1876 to 1926
  Poet born in Nagano Prefecture. Belonged to the Araragi school and studied under Sachio Ito. His poetry collections include Kiribi and Hio.

  

  雪ふりて来る人のなき山の湯に足をのばして暖まりをり

  I warm myself, stretching out my legs in the hot water up in the snowy mountains where no one comes

  草枯岡いくつも超えて来つれども蓼科山はなほ岡の上にあり

  Though we have passed over many hills of withered grass, Mt. Tateshina still towers over the hills in the distance

  湯のうへの岡にのぼれば眼近なり雪の残れる蓼科の山

  From the top of Shinyunokami Hill, you can see snow-covered Mt. Tateshina up close

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• Mokichi Saito

  1882 to 1953
  Poet born in Yamagata Prefecture. A central figure in the Araragi school who studied under Sachio Ito. Awarded the Order of Cultural Merit in 1951.

  

  山深く入りつつ来れば谿水とわきいづる湯と共に流れぬ

  Deep in the mountains, water from the valley and hot water from the springs flow together

  蓼科はかなしき山と思ひつつ松原なかに入りて来にけり

  As I walk through the pine forest, I realize that Tateshina is a sad mountain

  冬さびし前山のうへに蓼科の全けき山は今ぞ見えわたる

  (As the trees lose their leaves) the entirety of Mt. Tateshina can now be seen above the foothills, which are beginning to dress for winter

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• Bunmei Tsuchiya

  1890 to 1990
  Poet born in Gunma Prefecture. Edited Araragi. Awarded the Order of Cultural Merit in 1986.

  

  秋の日のますみの中に蓼科はただ穏やかにしづまれにけり

  In the beautifully clear and crisp autumn air, Mt. Tateshina towers above in peace and serenity

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