is a Noh play based on the experiences of the 12th-century poet and travelling-monk Saigyà Â.
Saigyà  was travelling to North Japan, when he sat in the shade of a willow-tree, later identified by Bashà  as being close to the village of Ashino, and wrote a waka: " âÂÂJust a brief stop,âÂÂ/ I said when stepping off the road/into a willow's shade/where a bubbling stream flows by,/as has time since my âÂÂbrief stopâ began".
A wandering priest, Yugyà  Shonin, is given directions by an old man who recites Saigyà Â's poem before vanishing: the priest then realises it was the spirit of the willow tree. By reciting a prayer to Amida Buddha, he enables the spirit to attain Buddhahood, for which the willow spirit thanks him in a dance sequence.
Buson wrote a haiku on rocks and willows underneath the Pilgrim's Willow Tree, alluding to the Noh play.