This Haiku was composed in the spring of 1892 (Meiji 25).
"Tsubana" is the young flowering ear of "Chigaya" (refer to notes ) and covered with the silver white downs at the beginning of spring.
This year, Shiki returned home between July and August and visited his friend, Kurt Takechi and passed a night. On Aug. 2nd, Shiki was asked for selecting the collection of Haiku by Takechi at the festival of the Nagata Village. This Haiku must be composed at that time. Ichi-no-tsubo (the present Ichitsubo) is the place name of the old "Ichi-no-tsubo" in Yodo village that derived from the "Jouri System" (The ancient method of the consolidation of arable land holdings in Japan).
The expression of "Have fallen into a state of devastated" is caused by that Ishite River often flew over its bank and it was particularly serious in the lower reaches of the stream.[Notes] "Chigaya" : A perennial grass belonged to the department of a rice plant. Grow to a height of about sixty centimeters in an uncultivated field. A stalk in the ground gets longer horizontally and grows thickly. A leaf is linear and its small flowering ear sprouts.
The ear of it is called "Tsubana" or "Chibana".
