Snake (hebi)

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Snakes, Serpent (hebi)

***** Location: Japan, worldwide
***** Season: Various, see below
***** Category: Animal

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Explanation

Snakes are to be found all over the world. There are many kigo related to the snakes and their seasonal customs. Let us look at some.

Basic kigo for SUMMER:

snake, serpent, hebi 蛇
"rope with a mouth" kuchinawa くちなわ
"Gread Green General", aodaishoo 青大将

striped snake, shimahebi シマヘビ、縞蛇
..... Elaphe quadrivirgata

mountain snake, Tiger keelback, yamakagashi ヤマカガシ, 山棟蛇
..... Rhabdophis tigrinus

"Crow Snake", karasuhebi 烏蛇
hibakari 竹根蛇


poisonous snake, viper, mamushi マムシ、蝮
red viper, akamamushi 赤蝮
catching vipers, mamushi tori 蝮捕
ricewine with vipers, mamushi sake 蝮酒

Okinawa Pit Viper, habu ハブ 、はぶ 飯匙倩
... Princess Viper, himehabu 姫ハブ

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kigo for early summer

snakes changing their skin
hebi kinu o nugu 蛇衣を脱ぐ
hebi kawa o nugu　蛇皮を脱ぐ

snake skin, hebi no kinu 蛇の衣
..... hebi no nukegara 蛇の抜け殻

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kigo for mid-spring

snakes coming out of their holes
hebi ana o izu 蛇穴を出づ

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kigo for mid-autumn

snakes go into their holes, snakes start hibernating
hebi ana ni iru 蛇穴に入る

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Snakes are wonderous creatures, the little brothers of the heavenly dragon.
They do not have any limbs yet they advance fast. They have no eyelids or outer ears. Their tongue is long and split in two.

They are a global topic of many mythological tales, just remember the Paradies story of Adam, Eve, the Apple and the snake.

The Great General, Aodaishoo, is a common snake in rural Japan and said to bring good luck to a home where he stays. We have many in the holes of the stone walls around the estate.

The skins of a snake are worshipped in some parts of Japan and kept as a special item in many local shrines.

If you are lucky to catch a living mamushi, poisonous viper, you put it in a bottle of strong rice shnaps and let it brew there for a year. Then this stronb liquor is used as an antidote if bitten by a viper. It is also sold at expensive restaurants to enliven the low spirits of tired salaried workers.

Gabi Greve

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Quote from the Wikipedia

A Habu is any of four species of poisonous snakes found in the Ryukyu Islands, Japan.

The Habus are all pit vipers. They belong to the genus Trimeresurus whose other members are found in southeast Asia. Four species have the name habu:

Himehabu - Trimeresurus okinavensis (formerly classified in genus Ovophis)
Sakishima habu - Trimeresurus elegans
Habu - Trimeresurus flavoviridis
Tokarahabu - Trimeresurus tokarensis
Snakes living on different islands of Okinawa prefecture have slightly different features. The habus are viewed as having migrated to Okinawa over a prehistoric land bridge connecting the island to China.

Habus are usually not aggressive; however they will bite if provoked. If one is bitten, it is excruciatingly painful and fatalities were not rare on Okinawa, though the snake's poison fatalities have been controlled on the Ryukyu islands. As in other places in 1910 the mongoose was introduced from India into Okinawa to control the population of habus but recent studies indicate that mongooses have not interfered with the habu, but instead prey upon other protected rare species of birds and reptiles.

The habu does not properly hibernate during the winter, but is more active from April to late autumn. Okinawa residents are advised to keep weeds trimmed and avoid loose lumber close to their dwellings, or anything else that could attract the rodents upon which the habu feed.

During the American occupation, when A-12 (and later the SR-71 Blackbird) planes were flown out of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, the locals thought the strange and dangerous-looking planes looked like a habu, nicknaming them Habu.

A habu was a prime player in a Japanese children's story called Miki the Mongoose.
Bottles of (very expensive) "Habu wine" are widely sold in Naha, the capital of Okinawa prefecture; the habu venom present in the wine (along with a dead snake on the bottom) is reputed to increase male virility.

Habu Kurage (Kurage means Jellyfish in Japanese) is the name used in Okinawa for the species of poisonous Box jellyfish Chiropsalmus quadrigatus.

'Habu' is also a nickname for the SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habu

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Rattlesnake



smiling rattle snake
so happy you won your meal
you have earned your rest

© Photo and Haiku : Cathy Williams, May 2007

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Comments from Carole

Your haiku about rattlesnakes reminded me of a pretty gruesome custom that takes place in several States of America. I attended the Whigham, Georgia Rattlesnake Roundup when I lived in Florida back in the sixties. It was the first time in my life I’d seen hundreds of snakes in one place. I watched them milked for their venom, and watched as people tasted rattlesnake tidbits on toothpicks. I was horribly fascinated then, but today I feel quite differently realizing the rattlesnakes serve us well as our best rodent catchers.

I’ve provided some links below to read one insightful accounting and a locator to show the extent of these roundups, plus a few arguments against this practice. It appears to be predominately a spring activity, although there is on January event and one June, I think.

Whigham Georgia Rattlesnake Roundup
http://www.wildclassroom.net/wildideas/rattlerroundup.html

Rattlesnake Roundup Locater: Predominately a Spring occurrence, but not always.
http://www.rattlesnakerecipe.us/roundup.htm

Concerns against Rattlesnake Roundups.
http://www.cnah.org/khs/pospaper.html




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Worldwide use

India

Serpent Festival (Nag Panchami)




Mukha Linga with Snake Hood
© Exotic India Com

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North America

Bullsnake, bull snake (Pituophis catenifer sayi)
kigo for spring
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_snake


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Things found on the way

In Japanese history shortly before 1600, the Lord of Mino, Saitoo Toshimasa Doosan, was quite a formidable foe and had the nickname VIPER, Mamushi.
Mamushi, Saitoo Toshimasa


The DRAGON is the bigger brother of the snake in Asian mythology.
Read more in my Dragon Gallery.
http://dragondarumamuseum.blogspot.com/


Umbrella like the eye of a snake, ja no me gasa 　蛇の目傘
often used in Kabuki plays

Look at some great collections of these umbrellas:
http://www.gendaiya.co.jp/s_wagasa.htm
http://kenyasaijiki.blogspot.com/2006/09/umbrella.html

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HAIKU

穴阿房鼠が入にけり
hebi no ana ahô nezumi ga iri ni keri

into the snake's hole
oh foolish
mouse

Issa (Tr. David Lanoue)


More SNAKE haiku by Issa

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親蛇や烏さらばと穴に入る
oya hebi ya karasu saraba to ana ni iru

mother snake -
farewell crow, she says
sliding into her hole

Issa

Tr. Gabi Greve
Read a discussion of this translation.

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This garter snake
goes in and out of the grass
all at the same time!

The Zen Haiku and other Zen Poems of J.W.Hackett,
Japan Publications, 1983, p.43

Garter snakes in Wikipedia



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Sunny morning:
a snake slides through the fence
looking for a prey

SNAKES ...a haiku sequence
Ram Krishna Singh, India, October 2007


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Related words

***** Wild Strawberries, hebi ichigo 蛇苺
kigo for early summer

Lit. "Snake Strawberries". They are quite a weed in our area. They are not poisonous, but not delicious either, so people rarely eat them.

Gabi Greve

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