Understanding Basho haikus in difficult calligraphy


I'm struggling here to read these two haikus on my teacups. One horizontal row
is one cup. All others I have are reading right to left, guess these ones go
same way. All others have also been Matsuo Basho poems. Any tips would be
welcome! A little hint, picture A4 rightmost thingy has been "の" and the
character on A1 (leftmost image) is probably "mu" as in emptiness, is not part
of the haikus usally. Thanks.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Rtdp7.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Rtdp7.jpg)

This is my conclusion from the delightfully detailed answers I got from this
discussion here. Thanks, guys! I have some more puzzles in my teacups set,
I'll drop them in another time.[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cj4cA.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cj4cA.jpg)




The problem is that the writing is not only old and cursive, but using a lot
of obsolete variant kana
([hentaigana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hentaigana)) that you'd no longer
see in the modern documents.

Using hentaigana supported by Unicode ([a font that can display
them](http://wakufactory.jp/densho/font/hentai/) or
[another](https://mojikiban.ipa.go.jp/1300.html) is recommended), the writing
on the two cups can be displayed as follows.

[![Basho
haiku](https://i.stack.imgur.com/oBsY2.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/oBsY2.png)

Cup A reads:

> □/の山/二丁/れ(?)/大悲/閣

or identifiable to this haiku:

> **花の山二町のぼれば大悲閣**

The first character that probably is 花 is too radically stylized as an image
of petals(?) to be recognized as a character on its own.

Cup B:

> ゆく/春()を/近江の/人と/を//る

or

> **ゆく春を近江の人とをしみける** (ゆく春を近江の人と惜しみける)

* * *

Without expertise knowledge, I have totally no idea about last couple of signs
on both cups, sorry. But as I think I slightly see two grass components (艹)
there, I could try guessing that it might be a stylized name of 芭蕉, or might
be something completely different.

References:

  * [Wikisource 芭蕉俳句全集](https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%8A%AD%E8%95%89%E4%BF%B3%E5%8F%A5%E5%85%A8%E9%9B%86)
  * [芭蕉発句全集](http://www2.yamanashi-ken.ac.jp/~itoyo/basho/haikusyu/Default.htm)




The problem is that the writing is not only old and cursive, but using a lot
of obsolete variant kana
([hentaigana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hentaigana)) that you'd no longer
see in the modern documents.

Using hentaigana supported by Unicode ([a font that can display
them](http://wakufactory.jp/densho/font/hentai/) or
[another](https://mojikiban.ipa.go.jp/1300.html) is recommended), the writing
on the two cups can be displayed as follows.

[![Basho
haiku](https://i.stack.imgur.com/oBsY2.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/oBsY2.png)

Cup A reads:

> □/の山/二丁/れ(?)/大悲/閣

or identifiable to this haiku:

> **花の山二町のぼれば大悲閣**

The first character that probably is 花 is too radically stylized as an image
of petals(?) to be recognized as a character on its own.

Cup B:

> ゆく/春()を/近江の/人と/を//る

or

> **ゆく春を近江の人とをしみける** (ゆく春を近江の人と惜しみける)

* * *

Without expertise knowledge, I have totally no idea about last couple of signs
on both cups, sorry. But as I think I slightly see two grass components (艹)
there, I could try guessing that it might be a stylized name of 芭蕉, or might
be something completely different.

References:

  * [Wikisource 芭蕉俳句全集](https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%8A%AD%E8%95%89%E4%BF%B3%E5%8F%A5%E5%85%A8%E9%9B%86)
  * [芭蕉発句全集](http://www2.yamanashi-ken.ac.jp/~itoyo/basho/haikusyu/Default.htm)

