I've made it a rule to take a walk around Lake Yogo every afternoon in order to keep fit. Today, I happened to find that the ground at a small lakeside park was just like a red carpet of fallen leaves. The landscape matched very well with the blue surface of the lake, reflecting cold autumnal sky.
When I looked up at the lake, I found a lot of water birds swimming restfully and comfortably on the surface. It seems to me that the number of several kinds of birds have been increasing gradually in these years. I think there are not so many natural predators for them here. The small lake may be a paradise for the peaceful small creatures. The interesting thing is, there is a stone monument on which a seventeen-syllable Haiku poem by Rotsu (Rotsu INBE, 斎部 路通; 1649 - 1738 AD) is carved, the mentor of whom is that famous holly person of Haiku, Basho (俳聖 松尾 芭蕉). The poem says that Water Birds are Sleeping Too, on the Lake of Yogo. (鳥共も 寝入っているか 余吾の湖)
Over the calm lake, I was able to see Mt. Shizugatake (賤ケ岳), at which Hideyoshi and Katsuie had fought a fierce battle in the provincial war era in Japan (1583 AD). They say that the lake was dyed crimson-red of fighters’ blood.
More than 400 years have already passed since then, but I guess the warlords fighting at the risk of their lives must have seen almost the same vista that I saw today.
