The Tales of Ise, Section 8: Mount Asama in Shinano

Once, there was a man. Perhaps he found the capital difficult to live in,

so he said he would go to the eastern provinces to seek a place to live, and he went with one or two people he considered friends.

Seeing smoke rising from Mount Asama in the province of Shinano,

The smoke rising from the peak of Asama in Shinano, do people here and there not notice it?

(The smoke rising from Mount Asama in the province of Shinano—do people here and there not notice it? No, they surely must notice it.)

Where there is no fire, there is no smoke... this is a common saying about rumors.

Here, as a metaphor, it likely means that rumors are as active as the volcanic smoke of Mount Asama, and that everyone must surely notice them.

The poem "The smoke rising from..." is also included in the Shin Kokin Wakashu as a poem by Narihira. It is said that it was included in the Shin Kokin Wakashu because it was in The Tales of Ise.

Today, when reading The Tales of Ise in the order of its sections, questions inevitably arise regarding the route of the journey to the east in this section.

The Tokaido road, which is commonly known, does not go toward the Asama area. Asama is on the Tosando road.

In other words, in The Tales of Ise (Hatsukanbon version), although he sees the smoke of Mount Asama in this eighth section, he returns to the Tokaido, sees the irises at Yatsuhashi in the ninth section, then sees Mount Fuji, and after crossing the Sumida River, he is wandering around Musashino in the tenth, twelfth, and thirteenth sections, and reaches Mutsu in the fourteenth section, where he composes a poem about "the pines of Aneha in Kurihara..." (Kurihara City, Miyagi Prefecture; a medieval utamakura). The fifteenth section is Mount Shinobu in Mutsu (Fukushima City).
Did the person who compiled the Hatsukanbon version know where each of these place names was?

Incidentally, the place names in the poems of The Tales of Ise are, in a sense, obsessive, or perhaps not very famous, and it is hard to say that all of them were major, well-known utamakura in the Heian period.

Because we have been familiar with The Tales of Ise for many years, we sometimes mistakenly assume they are Heian-period utamakura, only to be stunned when we happen to look them up and find they are not among the Heian utamakura.

Therefore, when you investigate the place names in each section, you feel that the author of The Tales of Ise knew the eastern provinces well, despite repeatedly calling them the "hinterlands."

The fact that Mount Haruna erupted twice in the 6th century is also introduced archaeologically, in connection with horse grazing at the Kuroimine ruins in Gunma District, Kozuke Province. ("Thinking about Antiquity: The Eastern Provinces and the Yamato Kingship," edited by Reiji Harashima and Ryoichi Kanaizuka, 1994; "The Formation of the Ancient Japanese State," by Akira Yoshida, 2005).

Also, that people of continental origin had moved into that area. And that after the second major eruption of Mount Haruna, pumice two meters thick accumulated, leaving the area devastated, after which it became a grassland, people returned from the latter half of the 7th century, and from the 8th century, pastures were created by the ritsuryo state. What were Musashino and Asama like in the 8th century?

The illustrations for The Tales of Ise have traditionally followed a set pattern, but for Asama, the picture looks as if one is viewing the volcanic smoke of Mount Asama from some mountain pass, suggesting the Tosando road. The Tosando road crosses the Chikuma River in Shinano Province and enters Kozuke Province via the Iriyama Pass or the Usui Pass ("Thinking about Antiquity: Ancient Roads" (Edited by Ryo Kinoshita, 1996), p. 88, Figure 19). Then, it passes near the Kozuke provincial capital, through the ancient Gunma station, crosses the Tone River, and heads toward the ancient Ashikaga station (ibid., p. 102, Figure 23). It then enters Shimotsuke Province, passes through the ancient Ashikaga station and the Shimotsuke provincial capital, and from there, although the route is unclear, it crosses the Hoki River and the Kinu River. It would have crossed northern Kanto to the east and headed north from Shimotsuke toward Mutsu.

It has been pointed out that Musashi Province was transferred from the Tosando to the Tokaido in the second year of Hoki (771) ("Thinking about Antiquity: Ancient Roads" (Edited by Ryo Kinoshita, 1996), p. 104). Also, due to this transfer, the Tosando Musashi Road was abolished, and archaeologically, it is believed that the Tosando Musashi Road had been abandoned by the middle of the 8th century (ibid., p. 108).

However, recent excavations have revealed that the Tosando Musashi Road was used for a while after its abolition. In other words, if it were Narihira's time, it is thought that he traveled down the Tokaido, went north along the Tosando Musashi Road, entered the Tosando near Ashikaga, and from there headed straight for Mutsu Province. (Miyuki Uchida, "A Study of The Tales of Ise II: The Eastern Provinces and Historical Background," Shintensha, 2021).
If so, he would have traveled north from Sagami, passed by the Musashi provincial capital, crossed the old Sumida River, and the smoke of Asama should have gradually come into view.