The Waters of Literature: Dogo Walked by Masaoka Shiki and Natsume Soseki

Matsuyama, the City of Haiku, and Masaoka Shiki

Matsuyama, which encompasses Dogo, is the birthplace of Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902), an innovator who introduced "shasei" (sketching from life)—a method of depicting things in front of one's eyes as they are—into modern haiku and tanka. Until his short life of 35 years ended after contracting tuberculosis, Shiki captured the scenery and hot springs of his hometown, Matsuyama, in numerous works. Within the city, there is the Matsuyama City Shiki Memorial Museum, which traces Shiki's life and achievements, and monument stones inscribed with haiku (kuhi) are dotted along the approaches to Dogo and Ishite-ji Temple. For Shiki, who was at the center of the haiku and tanka reform movement, the waters of Matsuyama and Dogo were an unchanging primal landscape throughout his life.

Learning About Shiki's Work at the Shiki Memorial Museum

Located at 1-30 Dogo Koen, the Matsuyama City Shiki Memorial Museum is a facility dealing with the life and achievements of Masaoka Shiki. The official website introduces Shiki as a haiku and tanka poet, noting his real name as Masaoka Tsunenori and his childhood name as Noboru. In addition to haiku and tanka, he engaged in creative activities including new-style poetry (shintaishi), novels, critical essays, and personal essays, and is considered one of the representative literary figures of the Meiji period who influenced modern Japanese literature. The museum's website provides guidance on permanent exhibition rooms, exhibition introductions, a haiku search, and digital archives, serving as an entrance to tracing Shiki through his works.

Soseki's Assignment to Matsuyama and Cohabitation with Shiki

In April 1895, Natsume Soseki arrived in Matsuyama as an English teacher at Matsuyama Middle School (currently Matsuyama Higashi High School). In the summer of the same year, Shiki, who had traveled to the continent as a war correspondent during the First Sino-Japanese War and returned to Matsuyama after suffering a major pulmonary hemorrhage on his return journey, moved into Soseki's boarding house. It is said that the two lived together under the same roof for about 50 days. This boarding house was called "Gudabutsu-an," where Shiki lived downstairs and Soseki upstairs, and it also served as a venue for haiku gatherings with young haiku poets who assembled there. It is recorded that the two frequently visited the baths at Dogo Onsen Honkan, and on the third floor of the Honkan, the private room said to have been used by them at that time is preserved as "Botchan's Room."

The Birth of "Botchan-yu"

The roughly one year of experiences in Matsuyama later bore fruit in the novel Botchan (1905). The hot spring that the protagonist frequently visits in the work is said to be modeled after Dogo Onsen, and in reference to this, the Honkan is still called "Botchan-yu" today. In 1994, marking the 100th anniversary of the completion of the Honkan, the Botchan Train was restored and operated, reviving the light railway that once ran in Matsuyama, and the Botchan Karakuri Clock was installed at Hojoen in front of Dogo Onsen Station. This can be considered an example where a literary work has shaped the town's landscape itself across time.

Tracing Haiku Monuments: Literary Traces Left in the Hot Spring Town

In Hojoen, a small park in front of Dogo Onsen Station, a footbath, a karakuri mechanical clock, and a yugama (hot spring water vessel) that once held bath water are placed, and a Botchan Train locomotive is stationed in the station square. Along with the statue of Masaoka Shiki and the haiku monuments standing in various places including the approach to Ishite-ji Temple, Dogo is also a town where one can trace glimpses of literature between hot spring visits as a "hot spring of literature." By walking and reading the haiku monuments one by one, you may come a little closer to the atmosphere of Meiji-era Matsuyama that Shiki and Soseki saw. Connecting the locations in the order of the museum, Hojoen in front of the station, the Honkan, and the Ishite-ji approach allows you to walk and confirm the connections among people, works, and scenery.

The official website of the Shiki Memorial Museum also provides information on Shiki's Haiku of the Month and a haiku search. Before reading the haiku monuments on the streets of Dogo, looking up poems or checking his scope of activities as a literary figure provides an opportunity to look at the same scenery from a different angle. Connecting the locations in the order of the museum, Hojoen in front of the station, the Honkan, and the Ishite-ji approach allows you to walk and confirm the connections among people, works, and scenery.

* Opening status and admission fees for each facility are subject to change. For the latest information, please check the detailed page for each spot and official sources.