More than Nozarashi

[MauroP]

Complexity in Japanese visual art tradition keeps on intriguing me. Even  supposedly common themes may reveal more than one interpretation. I was prompted by a recent post in NMB (https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/35147-kozuka-calligraphy/) to reconsider a record in my database (I've collected just images, not the real tsuba):

The NBTHK paper reports in description: あなめ図鐔 - aname no zu tsuba.

According to a legend the poet Ariwara no Narihira heard a voice from a skull and recognized the bones of his former lover Ono no Komachi. Aname means something like "Oh, my eyes hurt!", and refers to lamentation about the discomfort produced by grass growing in the skull orbits.
Ono no Komachi was one of the Rokkasen, the six best waka poets of the early Heian period, and she was renowed for her unusual beauty.
The theme nozarashi (野晒) seems, at my untrained eyes, indistinguishable, but should be based on poems by Matsuo Bashō.
I'd like to know some more precise references about the two themes.
Thank you for reading.

[PietroParis]

I googled this, but I suppose you know it already:

 

https://www.Japanese-wiki-corpus.org/literature/Nozarashi Kiko.html

[SteveM]

This is the first time for me to come across this term "Aname". Since it seems completely specific to the image of the grass growing through the skull, I would think it is a very unusual and rare topic for tōsōgu, but I will keep an eye out for other examples from now on. It would seem to be a niche sub-genre of "nozarashi" which just means "exposed to the elements" (literally, exposed on the field). Nozarashi has since come to be known as a shorthand for bones/skulls left on the battlefield, reminding bushi of the brevity of life, and harmonizing with the Buddhist doctrine of dukka - inherent suffering in life. I don't think Basho coined the term, but I guess he was responsible for its adoption as a "meme" in the Edo period. I will look out for specific references to this as well. ”Nozarashi” is also the name of a story in rakugo, but this dates from the 1800s, so Basho's Nozarashi no Kikō well predates the rakugo story. 

 

In any event, I think the tsuba in the picture somehow wraps up all of these things in a way that is very sophisticated, and hints at the high level of erudition the original owner must have had. 

[MauroP]

Thank you both for your interventions. Bashō wrote Nozarashi Kiko in the late 17th century, but I also suspect the theme "Bones in a Field" predates Bashō's poems. If memory helps there should be nozarashi tsuba by Kaneie, commonly dated in Momoyama period.