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Heron (aosagi)
***** Location: Japan, India ...
***** Season: Various, see below
***** Category: Animal
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Explanation
歌川広重 - 逆井のわたし Sakai ferry (in Edo)
Hiroshige - Sakai no watashi
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SUMMER KIGO
"blue heron", aosagi 青鷺
Ardea herodias, Ardea cinerea
Click HERE to see some photos !
There are many species in the heron family. This kigo refers to the grey heron. He is visible in my parts of Western Japan all year round. Some families breed just around the corner in a small pond. The wet rice paddies with the many frogs make for good hunting grounds of these lovely birds.
We also have the
"white heron", egret, shirasagi 白鷺
Click HERE to see some photos !
Gabi Greve
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WINTER KIGO
egret in winter, fuyu sagi 冬鷺 (ふゆさぎ)
nokorisagi 残り鷺（のこりさぎ）
egret left behind. egret staying behind
"Herons in the snow"
Koson Ohara (1877-1945)
声なくば鷺うしなはむ今朝の雪
koe nakuba sagi ushinawan kesa no yuki
but for their voices
the herons would disappear--
this morning's snow
Tr. Donegan
. Chiyo-ni 千代尼 .
and Ichihara Tayo-Jo 市原多代女
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The Heron Maiden - Sagi Musume
Once upon a time a young man rescued a wounded heron, cared for it, and set it free. Soon after, he met a beautiful girl. She was not from his neighborhood, indeed no one knew where she came from and she was herself vague on the subject. However, she was charming, and he quickly fell in love with her.
They married and lived blissfully together for several months. She turned out to be a skillful maker of silk brocade, which he sold to support them. The only condition she asked as she gave him the brocade was that he not look at her while she was working. One day, unable to resist his curiosity, he looked into her room: of course she was the heron he had saved, and he saw her weaving at the loom in her heron form.
Sorrowfully she turned into a beautiful young woman for the last time. She told him that she had been happy as a human being but could only live with him as long as he was unaware of her nonhuman nature. Although she meant him nothing but good, she was now bound to fly away and leave him forever.
Look at the woodblock print here:
source : www.tumblr.com
The famous Kabuki actor Tamasaburo performs a dance about the "Heron's Maiden", sagi musume 鷺娘 , an old folktale of Japan.
The set is a frozen pond in the middle of Winter. The music from the geza is the classic sound effect for falling snow. The spirit of the heron appears on a platform, dressed in white, solitary and silent. This dance is a series of transformations, done through costum changes using either the bukkaeri or the hikinuki techniques to switch the roles.
The first change turns the dancer into a young maiden in love, dressed in a beautiful red kimono, who dances the joy of love in a lively atmosphere. Her love is a short one and the next section of the dance is no more about happiness but sadness and jealousy.
The dance is getting darker and the final change brings back the spirit of the heron, who frantically dances, depicting the torments of hell and pleading for pity. The highlight of this section is an ebizori pose. Then the heron maiden collapses on stage, bringing the dance to a close.
http://www.kabuki21.com/sagi_musume.php
Video with Tamasaburo:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Tamasaburo-Sagi-Musume-Japanese-Kubaki
July 22, 2012
Bando nominated for treasure title
Tamasaburo Bando V, a veteran kabuki actor known for his "onnagata" female roles, has been nominated as a living national treasure by the Council for Cultural Affairs.
source : Japan Times
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Worldwide use
Chesapeake Bay, USA
Chesapeake Saijiki
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India
flight of egrets
a boy with his ear
to a telephone pole
grey sky
the cluster of white breaks up
into egrets
still morning
a cattle egret
spears a grasshopper
unhurried
the egret whiter
than the clouds
Johannes Manjrekar, India
The leisurely flapping whiteness climbing higher and higher in the sky is an egret. The sunset moon is bright even though it is a long way from fullness. Crows share the sky with moon and egret, playing flighty games with the wind.
A car backfires and pigeons erupt into the sky. They circle long enough to demonstrate that they too have the gift of flight, before settling back on their perches.
evening breeze
sharp leaf shadows
on the white wall
Johannes Manjrekar
March 2012
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White feathers of dead egrets
beautify the rear of the dhaki
joyous, he jumps with others.
Dhaki is the hired drummer who dances and drums during the Puja days, recently with huge white feathers decorating his back, so it looks good and people also like it but all this over the dead bodies of the poor birds.
Aju Mukhopadhyay, India
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a lonely egret
past the dark clouds
hurrying home
Vidur Jyoti, India
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Southern California, USA
We see them all year in the wetlands of Southern California.
Billie Dee
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Germany
Fischreiher
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Yemen
Western Reef Heron (Egretta gularis)
Küstenreiher
The Western Reef Heron, Egretta gularis, also known as the Western Reef Egret, is a medium-sized heron. It occurs mainly on the coasts in tropical west Africa, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and east to India.
It has been recorded as a vagrant in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian territory in the eastern Indian Ocean
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !
breeding time: April- July
Nesting or building a nest is starting now
The Western Reef Heron's breeding habitat is coastal wetlands.
above the mangrove
a landing call – little heron bills
open
after the feeding
'at ease' posture –
reef heron
preening finished-
clock hands and reef heron
bolt upright
Heike Gewi, March 2012
. WKD : YEMEN SAIJIKI .
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Things found on the way
冬草も見えぬ雪野のしらさぎは
おのが姿に身をかくしけり
fuyukusa mo mienu yukino no shirasagi wa
ono ga sugata ni mi o kakushikeri
No winter-grass being seen,
A white heron in a snow-field
Hides itself in
Its own form.
. Doogen Zenji 道元禅師 .
source : 冨士 翠康 先生 筆
not even winter grass
to be seen
in this snow field
a white heron hides his body
in its own form
Tr. Gabi Greve
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The Heron as Divine Animal 霊獣 reijuu
. Kehi Jinguu 氣比神宮 ー 気比神宮 Tsuruga .
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source : story.turuta.jp
Koimari plate with sagi heron
青磁染付葦鷺文四方皿
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The Heron's Nest, a Haiku site
Managing Editor: Christopher Herold
http://www.theheronsnest.com/
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HAIKU
father heron
cruising home -
sunset in the valley
He always leaves his home, the West Pond, in the morning, crossing the valley to the east.
I guess he is working the terraced rice fields over there …
High in the sky, majestic wings flapping gently, enjoying the updrift, greeting us with a friendly word (heron language, which we learned over the years)
June 22, 2004
Today, July 1, three of them where cruising the sky.
Father heron
taking the kids
for the first ride
Riding the evening up-current over the valley, showing them here and there, slowly and majestically, the bigger bird leading the two smaller ones in circles....
Gabi Greve, Okayama, Japan, 2004
morning mist --
an egret hunts
in the lotus pond
Gabi Greve, April 2010
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寺の冬 鷺も餌に つかぬもの
tera no fuyu sagi mo esa ni tsukanu mono
winter in the temple -
even the heron can get
no food
I dedicate this haiku to all the water birds who lost their natural habitat thanks to the activities of the human race.
gabi Greve, January 2007
Look at the Photo HERE !
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foggy slough
the invisible heron
stands on one leg
setting moon
the heron’s head snakes
beneath a wing
croaking pond
among the reeds
a heron’s deadly silence
in the shallows
a heron’s feathers blend
with the ripples
stifling heat
the only thing moving
a heron’s eye
Billie Dee
http://billie-dee-haiku.blogspot.com/2007/01/socalhaiku-study-group-2006-anthology.html
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breakfast buffet
a walk in the marsh
at dawn
- Shared by Jimmy ThePeach -
Joys of Japan, 2012
photo : tri-colored heron photo - ken thomas, public domain
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pink sunshine
on the evening clouds -
herons gliding home
Gabi Greve
August 2012
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Related words
"Heron Plant / Egret Plant",
fringed orchid, sagisoo 鷺草
Habenaria radiata, a kind of orchid
kigo for late summer
..... tsure sagisoo 連鷺草
..... gamoo kyokuhooka 鵞毛玉鳳花
Originally a plant of the wetlands in Japan. The white flower on the straight long stalk looks like a white heron in flight, hence the name.
Birthday flower for people born on August 21.
As legend tells us, during the Period of warring states, a fair maiden from the castle of Setagaya (now in Tokyo) sent a letter for help to her dearest in the war, giving it to a white heron to carry it on. The heron was shot down, however, but where it fell to the ground, this beautiful flower started to grow. Now this flower is the mascot flower of Setagaya ward, Tokyo.
© Photo http://www.hana300.com/sagiso.html
Click HERE to see more photos !
...
鷺草は宙舞うごとく鉢の上
sagisoo wa chuu mau gotoku hachi no ue
fringed orchid -
like dancing in the universe
in its flower pot
(Tr. Gabi Greve)
© BLOG: hanayomi
http://ameblo.jp/hanayomi/entry-10015471622.html
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***** Migrating Birds (wataridori) (Japan)
***** Winter Birds, Water Birds
BIRD SAIJIKI
. Tsuwano no sagimai 津和野の鷺舞 (つわののさぎまい)
heron dance of Tsuwano .
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"Crested Ibis Plant",
tokisoo 鴇草 (ときそう)
Pogonia japonica
kigo for mid-summer
Japanese Crested Ibis
is bred on Sado Island, Japan
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