Tobikoeishi

Tobikoeishi is a place in the middle of a stream that flows through the skirts of Mt. Matsuchiyama where two rocks jut out so that one can jump across to get to the other side. It is called “the Ancient Crossing Point” and the travelers back in the ancient days used these rocks to hop across the river to get to the Yamatonouni from Kinokuni, and vice versa.

MeaningMy horse carrying me has stopped on its tracks at the river which flows through the gleaming white mountain of Matsuchi that looks like a white piece of cloth. My family must be thinking of me.
* “Matsuchi no Yamagawa (the Yama river of Matsuchi)” is the river flowing through the skirts of Mt. Matsuchiyama and is the river currently called Ochiai-gawa. The prefectural boundary between Wakayama and Nara lays here. It is not a big river, but if you go right up close to this river where it flows into the Kinokawa river, you can see that the people back in the old days had a very hard time crossing it. You will be surprised by the deepness of the ravine and will surely be able to understand how difficult it must have been to cross. In this poem, the poet sings that his horse had stopped because it couldn’t cross the river. He assumes that his family who are waiting for his return at home are missing him very much.