"It drizzles on and on
       So the new stumps of rice plant
             Is getting very dark now"  
                                (The mound of old Basho) 

This Haiku implies "In these days, drizzling rain has kept on so long that the new stumps of rice plant are getting dark."
Basho composed this Haiku in 1690 (Genroku 3), on his way to his home country, Iga-Ueno (present the west part of Mie Prefecture), looking the lonely scenery of the beginning of winter.
This monument is called "Arakabu-Zuka : The mound of new stump".
Kijyu Ohara (at the age of 49, at that time), who respected and praised Basho as "the great God of flower", built this mound by the side of his hermitage in Ohkaga, in 1860 (Man-en 1) when fell on the 167th anniversary of Basho's death.
After that, this mound transferred all over the place and settled in this place with the monument of the great God of flower in 1929 (Showa 4).
In the middle autumn of that year, Kijyu Ohara gathered Haikai from 58 Haikai originators of 18 countries and published the two collections (Vol.1 & 2) of Haikai , "The collection of Arakabu", commemorating the building of this mound.