Whitebait (shirauo)

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Whitebait (shirauo)

***** Location: Japan, other areas
***** Season: Early Spring
***** Category: Animal
shira uo, shira-uo
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Explanation


whitebait / icefish, shirauo 白魚 シラウオ
Salanx microdon

whitebait soup, shiraojiru 白魚汁
whitebait boat, shiraoubune 白魚舟
whitebait net, shirauo-ami 白魚網

whitebait fire, shiraobi 白魚火

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They are quite a delicasy here in Japan. There are various types, usually from rivers. They are fished from rivers and lakes, usually from February to May.


http://www.akita-gulmet.net/special/


Click HERE to see some
and the way they are eaten in Japan

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Whitebait are young fish; in Europe the term applies to young herring, but in other parts of the world it is used for similar fish of other species. Whitebait are tender and edible. The entire fish is eaten including head, fins and gut but typically each 'bait' is only 25-50 mm in length and about 3 mm in cross-section.

Whitebaiting is the activity of catching whitebait.

1 New Zealand Whitebait
2 Australian Whitebait
3 United Kingdom Whitebait
4 Chinese Whitebait

© Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitebait

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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way


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HAIKU

明ぼのや しら魚しろき こと一寸
akebono ya shirauo shiroki koto issun

Matsuo Basho

at dawn -
how white the whitebait
of just one SUN
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

- - - - - issun 一寸 about 3 cm or one inch



http://www.ese.yamanashi.ac.jp/~itoyo/basho/nozarasi/nozara21.htm


In the twilight of dawn // a whitefish, with an inch // of whiteness.
(© Makoto Ueda)

Early dawn,
young white fish shining in ephemeral white,
hardly an inch long
(© Nobuyuki Yuasa)

Early dawn – // whitefish, an inch // of whiteness
(© Haruo Shirane)

Dawn-scaling – //a whitefish, with an // inch of whiteness.
(© Lucien Stryk)

In the dawn: // a whitebait, whiteness // one inch long.
(© Thomas McAuley)

акэбоно я
ширауо широки
кото иссу-н
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dmitrismirnov/BASHO_Haiku_A.html



quote
In the light of dawn
the white of whitefish gleaming
just an inch or so

This comes from Basho’s Bleached Bones in a Field.
”Just before dawn I went to the beach when it was still dark.”
Here he jotted down the above haiku with the lines from a poem by Tu Fu ringing in his ears:

Every whitefish has its own life
In nature just an inch or so long.

- Tr. and Comment : Bill Wyatt


. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


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白魚やきのふも亀の放さるる
shirauo ya kinoo mo kame no hanasaruru

whitebait--
yesterday they parted ways
with the turtle



白魚のしろきが中に青藻哉
shirouo no shiroki ga naka ni aomo kana

amid the white
of the whitebait
duckweed's green



白魚に大泥亀も遊びけり
shirauo ni ôdoro-game mo asobi keri

among the whitebait
a big mud turtle
plays too



白魚のどっと生るるおぼろ哉
shirauo no dotto umaruru oboro kana

darting whitebait
suddenly are born...
night haze

Issa

The season word in this haiku, oboro, refers succinctly to a hazy night of spring. Shinji Ogawa explains: "The word, dotto is an onomatopoetic word that describes sudden movements of things of a large number. It seems that the scene is of fishing. The whitebaits are running in a large numbers from the sea into the rivers to spawn in spring. Fishermen scoop them with large nets. In the hazy night, one cannot see the whitebaits swimming in the river, but when the net is raised, the whitebaits suddenly emerge in the net."

Issa Haiku Tr. David Lanoue

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Related words

***** Haiku Topics: White (shiroi)

***** WKD : FISH as a kigo



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