Frog (kawazu, kaeru)

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Frog (kawazu, kaeru, Japan)

***** Location: Japan, other areas
***** Season: Spring, Summer (see below)
***** Category: Animal

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Explanation

There are many types of frogs and toads on our planet. And for haiku friends, the frog lives on a special podest because of Basho and his "old pond" haiku.

Let us look at some frogs the way they are used as kigo in various seasons.

.. .. .. ALL SPRING

frog, kaeru, kawazu 蛙
This is a very general term and does not include the various species mentioned below.

red frog, akagaeru 赤蛙
Lord Frog, tonosama gaeru 殿様蛙
frog in the ground, tsuchi gaeru 土蛙

first voice of the frog, hatsu kawazu 初蛙
frog voice afar, toogaeru 遠蛙
frog voice during the day, hiru gaeru 昼蛙
frog voice in the evening, yuu-gaeru 夕蛙

frog in the mountains, yamagaeru 山蛙
frog in rice plantariums, nawajiro kawazu 苗代蛙
frog in mud, dorokawazu　泥蛙
frog concert, kawazu gassen　蛙合戦

Frogs tend to come out of their winter hiding from the earth at the end of Feburary. They enjoy to live in the wet ricefields during spring and summer.

My home in Okayama is surrounded by terraced rice fields and the annual frog concert season is quite something!

There is also a proverb about the frogs borrowing human eyes, expressing the drowsiness in late spring. This is also a kigo:

kawazu no me karidoki 蛙の目借時
time of borrowed eyes, mekari doki 目借時

Karl the Froggie at GokuRakuAn, Gabi Greve

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.. .. .. ALL SUMMER




green frog, aogaeru 青蛙 Species Hyla
tree frog, rain frog, amagaeru 雨蛙
summer frog, natsugaeru 夏蛙

river frog, kajika 河鹿, kajikagaeru　河鹿蛙 Polypedates buergeri
river frog song (lit. flute), kajijabue 河鹿笛
..... Kajika is noted for its attractive voice when singing in the river.

toad, bullfrog, hikigaeru 蟇蛙　Bufo vulgaris
... also hiki 蟾 or gama 蝦蟇


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Worldwide use

Kenya

The bull frog is a rainy season kigo.
It is extraordinarily hard to catch sight of it -- while its voice is an unmistakable sign of the rainy season!

Isabelle Prondzynski

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North America

Spring peeper

The Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer, synonym Hyla crucifer) is a small tree frog widespread throughout the eastern USA.
More in the WIKIPEDIA !



new peepers
singing their song of
heart's desire


spring chorus
peepers sing love songs
at sunset

©　bob


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Things found on the way

The famous scroll of the frolicking animals.
Choojuu-giga scrolls (choju giga) 鳥獣戯画

http://www.kokingumi.com/ChojuGiga/66.html

See comment Nr. 2 below.


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furuike ya Daruma tobikomu mizu no oto

this old pond -
the sound of water
as my Daruma jumps in

©　Gabi Greve ..... Look at more !

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HAIKU

Furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto
古池や蛙飛び込む水の音

Old pond — frogs jumped in — sound of water
Translated by Lafcadio Hearn

To Japanese of sensitivity, frogs are dear little creatures, and Westerners may at least appreciate this animal’s energy and immediacy. Plop!

30 translations of this famous haiku online are here,
with a Commentary by Robert Aitken
http://www.bopsecrets.org/gateway/passages/basho-frog.htm


Sound of Water
a haiku discussion !!!

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little green frog -
even your voice
the voice of Buddha

Click on the photo to see the whole story
by Gabi Greve

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a frog farting -
this too is the
voice of Buddha

a frog farting -
this too is the
voice of God

More about the Voice of Buddha and Frog

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Carpenter frogs
hammering nails out of synch:
"cu-tuck, cu-tuck, cu-tuck..."

Darkened ditch –
the harsh “rraak, rraak, rraak”
of a squirrel tree frog

Pinewood tree frogs
tapping out a telegraph:
"dik-dik-dikadik..."

Zhanna P. Rader

Read more of Zhanna's frog haiku here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/happyhaiku/message/1621

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frog jumps
reflections
ruined

a tiny frog leaps
out of the moon
creates ripples

Marella Vinodh

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I remember the very first time that a Japanese friend offered to drive me from the local town to the next one. Sitting in a car offers a great opportunity to say "Stop!" and have a look -- in my case, at a rice field with a young and growing crop. And a green frog on top of one of the blades.
An unforgettable memory.

out of the car --
growing rice field holds a
tiny green frog

Isabelle Prondzynski

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marine gallery
army outnumbered
by the navy

M. Shanna Moore, Hawaii

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a big splash
and down he went
the prince



© Geert Verbeke
http://users.skynet.be/geert.verbeke.bowls

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> yasegaeru makeru na Issa koko ni ari

> skinny frog
> don't give up the fight
> Issa is here!

Remarks from Larry Bole : Haiku Information Board

I wonder if thinking of this as a frog "sumo" match, with two frogs facing each other, doesn't give the wrong impression. I think I've seen this activity in some nature film at some time or other, so I have more of an impression of a number of male frogs fighting for position in the process of attempting to mount a female frog.

According to David G. Lanoue, "In his diary, Issa explains, 'I stooped to watch a frog scuffle on the 20th day of Fourth Month.' "
http://www.worldhaikureview.org/3-1/haikuined_dl.shtml


It's a shame that more translators don't include contextual information like this with their translations. I wonder if Issa included anything else in his diary about the writing of this haiku.


Both Makoto Ueda and Haruo Shirane mention the militaristic phrasing found in this haiku.
In his book "Dew on the Grass," Ueda writes:
Issa wrote the frog poem after seeing several frogs fighting for a lone female. The hokku has since become well known for its expression of sympathy toward the weak, but we should also take note of the self-confidence implied in it. Although he himself is a faltering old man,
he is still strong enough to help a frog. "Issa is here," which mimicks the self-announcement of a samurai on the battlefield, adds a touch of humor. [end of comment]

And Haruo Shirane, in his book "Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology 1600-1900," writes:
"Don't give up!" ('makeru na Issa kore ni ari') is a military phrase used by a commander to urge on his troops. [end of comment]


I wonder, when a Japanese person hears this haiku, if they are struck by the military nature of the expression.
Even after over 200 years of relative peace in Japan, a military-style phrase still comes tripping off of Issa's tongue!

I think a spirit of nationalism must have been in the air. Issa certainly felt it when he wrote about geese now being "geese of Japan."

kyoo kara wa Nihon no kari zo raku ni neyo

From today
You're Japan's geese, wild ones,
Rest then in peace!

Issa, trans. Lewis Mackenzie


I wonder even if the "black ships" hadn't appeared when they did, if there still wouldn't have been a "Meiji restoration" at some point, and the renewed militarism which followed.

Larry Bole, February 2008

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Speaking of Frogs
Haibun by Larry Bole, February 2008

Even though it's still winter here in New York City, spring is in the air, or just around the corner, as is said.

So I'm walking down the street in my neighborhood, and suddenly I hear a frog croaking! A frog in this mostly cement-covered neighborhood, with no appreciable body of water nearby except for a few stray puddles left over from last night's sleet shower? A frog in the midst of large apartment buildings crowded up against small, huddled groups of attached houses which have been split up inside into rental apartments, legally or illegally?

Well, some of those attached houses still have pocket-sized gardens out in front which haven't yet been cemented over. So I began my search. The frog croaking seemed to be coming from a small patch of dirt, about five feet by five feet, which was crowded with white plaster rabbits, ducks, and several sets of cherubic children. In the growing season there will barely be room for plants!

Looking and looking I finally spotted it: an accurately painted green ceramic frog sitting on a green ceramic lily pad, afloat on the garden dirt.

A little hole in the frog's open mouth indicated the presence of some sort of electronic soundmaking device hidden inside. Ah, the wonders of modern technology!


spring is in the air!
even the ceramic frog
goes "ribbit! ribbit!"


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Haiga by Emile Molhuysen, February 2008


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Related words


2008, the Year of the Frog
***** Leap day, leap year 2008



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