3 Years in Sendai-9 - Date Masamune

"Remember these moments!" I always reminded my late wife Nancy to who Japan was probably her number one home instead of the US>  "When the hard times comes along no matter where we will be, just remember these moments." Living in Sendai was a dream come true for her and she was at home. Our apartment was located on the fifth floor of the 'Dia Palace, Yasoen over looking the City of Sendai practically and on clear days one could see all the way to the ocean on one side. 

As for me i took on the roll of a Home maker taking care of the children while my wife works and on my free time when she was home i took to become the travelling artist and decied to follow the foot steps of the famous japanes haiku Master Matsu o Basho. Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉^?, 1644 – 1694), born 松尾 金作, then Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa (松尾 忠右衛門 宗房^?),^[2][3] was the most famous poet of the Edo period inJapan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest master of haiku (then called hokku). Matsuo Bashō's poetry is internationally renowned; and, in Japan, many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Although Bashō is justifiably famous in the West for his haiku, he himself believed his best work lay in leading and participating in renku. He is quoted as saying, “Many of my followers can write haiku as well as I can. Where I show who I really am is in linking haiku verses.”^[4]

Bashō was introduced to poetry young, and after integrating himself into the intellectual scene of Edo (modern Tokyo) he quickly became well known throughout Japan. He made a living as a teacher; but then renounced the social, urban life of the literary circles and was inclined to wander throughout the country, heading west, east, and far into the northern wilderness to gain inspiration for his writing. His poems were influenced by his firsthand experience of the world around him, often encapsulating the feeling of a scene in a few simple elements.

Overlooking the Hirose River and the City of Sendai stood a rider sitting on his mount all dressed up in his suit and armor with his long samurai blade by his side. His name was Lord Date Masamune, the Lord of Aoba Castle in Sendai.

Date Masamune (伊達政宗^?, September 5, 1567 – June 27, 1636) was a regional strongman of Japan's Azuchi-Momoyama period through early Edo period. Heir to a long line of powerful daimyo in the Tōhoku region, he went on to found the modern-day city of Sendai. An outstanding tactician, he was made all the more iconic for his missing eye, and Date was often called dokuganryū (独眼竜), or the "one-eyed dragon".^[1]

As a legendary warrior and leader, Masamune is a character in a number of Japanese period dramas. 

I stood tall among them only because Most Japanese are short in stature, LOL! The Mukaiyama Kindergarten family picture. My family was privileged to have been accepted into this community.

Taking in the sun and the flowers at the nearby park.of Jido Koen.

A Spring festivity

Reciting Haikus in the Park.