Yabuiri no
Yume ya azuki no
Nieru uchi.
—Buson
The servant’s day off.
Does he dream of that as on
The stove red beans boil?
Yabuiri was a semi-annual holiday for apprentices, servants, and
other household employees. On January 16 and July 16, these peo
ple were permitted to go home for the day, or seek amusement in
the city streets, parks, temples, and shrines. On such special occa
sions red beans (a%uki) were mixed with rice, boiled, and eaten in
the home as a special treat. Dozing by the warm hearth on which
his mother had set red beans boiling, what dreams did the young
apprentice have ? The reader is left to conjecture.