YELLOW - the color

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. Yellow Mountain Rose (yamabuki 山吹) .
Kerria japonica

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The color YELLOW and haiku




spring sunshine -
challenging my concept of
Y E L L O W

- Gabi Greve, Spring 2007 -


The group of colors with a shade of yellow are often called

oodoiro, oodo iro 黄土色　"yellow earth color"
#c39143

In ancient China it was a well-respected color, used for the tiles of the Emperor's palace and not allowed for the common folk.

By the time of Prince Shotoku in Japan, there were two extremes, dark yellow 濃黄　and light yellow 薄黄　whith various shades inbetween.
Around 650, it had become a color for the robes of the common people. Plants for dyeing yellow cloth were plenty and it was nothing special.

kariyasu 刈安 (Miscanthus tinctorius #f5e56b) , kuchinashi 梔子 (gardenia #fbca4d 支子色), kihada 黄蘗　(Phellodendron amurense #fef263）plants.
Kihada was also used to color paper for copying sutras or other texts.

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Check out the Japanese color codes and samples of YELLOW
kiiro, ki-iro 黄色きいろ yellow - #ffd900
中黄ちゅうき
緑黄色りょくおうしょく
金色こんじき
and so on, too many to list them all here.
source : www.colordic.org



Shades of Yellow - Sunshine
These words are synonymous with or represent various shades of the color yellow: banana, cadmium yellow, chartreuse, chiffon, cream, golden, goldenrod, khaki, lemon, mellow yellow, saffron, topaz, yellow ocher.

- Reference :yellow color symbolism -


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- - - - - kigo using YELLOW 黄 ki

. yellow sand 　黄砂 (こうさ) koosa .


. "yellow sparrow wind" 黄雀風 koojakufuu.

. yellow conch trumpet plant 黄つりふね ki tsurifune .

. yellow plum blossom 黄梅 oobai .
Jasminum nudiflorum

. yellow cockscomb 黄鶏頭 kikeitoo .


. yellow chrysanthemum 黄菊 kigiku .

. Spring flowers with 黄 yellow .

. yellow (leaves) falling, kooraku 黄落 (こうらく) .


."yellow fish" nishin 黄魚（にしん）herring .

. "yellow horse fish" 黄鯛魚 watako .

. yellowtail 鰤 buri .
Seriola quinqueradiata

. yellow sea bream 黄鯛 kidai .
more sea bream with YELLOW 黄

. yellow gadfly 黄虻 kiabu, ki-abu .

. yellow bee 黄蜂 kibachi .

. yellow ant 黄蟻 kiari, ki-ari .

. yellow butterfly 黄蝶 kichoo .
monkichoo 紋黄蝶
asagi madara 浅黄斑蝶

. yellow (silkworm) cocoon 黄繭 kimayu .

. yellow sparrow, baby sparrow 黄雀 ki suzume .

. Narcissus flycatcher 黄鶲 kibitaki .
Ficedula narcissina


. Golden Week 黄金週間 oogon shuukan .

. yellow linen kimono 黄帷子 kibira .

and many more . . .

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- - - - - topics using YELLOW

. yomi 黄泉 "the yellow springs" .
meido めいど【冥土 / 冥途】 the Netherworld, nether world
the world of the dead, the other world


. Yellow Fudo, Ki Fudo　黄不動明王 .
Fudo Myo-O with Yellow Eyes, Meki Fudo 目黄不動

***** . Colors used in Haiku .



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Things found on the way



-- - Yellow Daruma Dolls - - -


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HAIKU



There is an animal
ko-oo, kichoo 黄鶯 "yellow uguisu" コウライウグイス
koorai uguisu 高麗鶯 Oriolus chinensis

kinakodori 黄粉鳥（きなこどり）uguisu with the color of kinako, soy bean powder


Haiku by Issa with a "yellow voice"

鶯や黄色な声で親をよぶ
uguisu ya kiiro na koe de oya o yobu

nightingale--
with a shrill voice
calling mother
Tr. David Lanoue


The young uguisu
Calls its parents
With a yellow voice.
Tr. Blyth


the Bush Warbler
with a yellow voice/call
calls for its parents

Japanese English: Language and Culture Contact
source : James Stanlaw


The youngest nightingale that can rejoice
calls to its parents in a yellow voice.

Issa must have been in deep meditation and he heard the nightingale rejoicing and calling to its parents in a yellow voice.
Issa is saying something about his silence. When you are in silence and a cuckoo from the bamboos starts singing, it deepens your silence.
source : shiromani






The Japanese expression is "yellow voice"
kiiro na koe きいろな［＝の］ 声（こえ）- kiiroi koe きいろい（黄色）声

kiiroi koe 黄色い声 "a yellow voice"
the shrill high-pitched voice of a small girl child, sounding something like
kiikii キイキイ in Japanese.
The Chinese character 黄 also has the faint meaning of
"a child 子ども" with a high-piched voice.

During the Edo period it was fashionable to compare the voice with a color, from white to the goshiki, five colors ５色の声.

kowairo 声色（こわいろ） the color of a voice
neiro 音色 （ねいろ） the pitch of a color

In ancient China yellow was already a symbol of alert.


. Voices of animals in haiku .

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Synesthesia
(also spelled synæsthesia or synaesthesia, plural synesthesiae or synaesthesiae), from the ancient Greek σύν (syn), "together," and αἴσθησις (aisthēsis), "sensation," is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.

Sound → color synesthesia
According to Richard Cytowic, sound → color synesthesia is "something like fireworks": voice, music, and assorted environmental sounds such as clattering dishes or dog barks trigger color and firework shapes that arise, move around, and then fade when the sound ends. For some, the stimulus type is limited (e.g., music only, or even just a specific musical key); for others, a wide variety of sounds triggers synesthesia.

Sound often changes the perceived hue, brightness, scintillation, and directional movement. Some individuals see music on a "screen" in front of their faces. Deni Simon, for whom music produces waving lines "like oscilloscope configurations—lines moving in color, often metallic with height, width and, most importantly, depth. My favorite music has lines that extend horizontally beyond the 'screen' area."

Individuals rarely agree on what color a given sound is (composers Liszt and Rimsky-Korsakov famously disagreed on the colors of music keys); however, synesthetes show the same trends as non-synesthetes do. For example, both groups say that loud tones are brighter than soft tones, and that lower tones are darker than higher tones. Synaesthetes nevertheless choose more precise colours than non-synesthetes and are more consistent in their choice of colours given a set of sounds of varying pitch, timbre and composition.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


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quote
禁男の園の夏至光紺また黄
kindan no sono no geshikoo kon mata ki

in the male-forbidden school
the summer solstice light is
deep blue and yellow

平畑静塔 Seitoh Hirahata

Fay’s Note: The poet plays with the letter “dan.” Usually, “ 断” (dan: forbid) is used for the word, but he uses “男” (dan: male) instead. With a character meaning “forbid,” the word “kindan-no-sono” is “a garden with the forbidden fruits”.
Japanese school uniform is usually in deep-blue color. Is“yellow” he saw the color of ribbons on the female students?
Or does he want us think about the young girls’ high-pitched voices , “kiiroi koe” (literally translation: yellow voice)?
source : Fay Aoyagi


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Japanese haiku with a "yellow voice", the voice of small girls:

夕立や走る赤傘黄色声

連翹を抜けて黄色の風になる
source : www.gendaihaiku.gr.jp


夏台風黒雲払う黄色声
source : ichinichi ikku


キンセイ花黄色い声で大合唱
source : machikado


空元気闇汁血色黄色声　　　　　　　　
のぶべい
source : teacup.com

黄色声心頭滅却寒灸　　　　　　　　　
一路
source : teacup.com


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haiku with YELLOW, compiled by Larry Bole

2 hailku by BUSON

teshoku shite iro ushinaeru kigiku kana

The yellow chrysanthemums
Lose their color
In the light of the hand-lantern,
Tr. Blyth





cha no hana ya shiro ni mo ki ni mo obotsukana

Tea-flowers;
Are they white?
Are they yellow?
Tr. Blyth


The tea-plant flowers --
whether white or whether yellow,
hard to tell.
Tr. Sawa & Shiffert


. WKD : Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 in Edo .

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yamabuki no utsurite ki naru izumi kana

Catching the reflection
Of the yamabuki,
The spring is yellow.

Ransetsu
Tr. Blyth


. Yellow Mountain Rose (yamabuki 山吹) .
Kerria japonica


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since olden times,
the yellow voice of spring -
narcissus

- Shared by Gennady Nov -
Joys of Japan, 2012


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the wind carries
a yellow cloud over
the rape flowers field

Heike Gewi
kigo hotline


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Related words

***** . PLANTS in all seasons . . . SAIJIKI 　


***** . Colors used in Haiku .


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World Heart Day

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World Heart Day

***** Location: Worldwide
***** Season: Autumn
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation

September 28

World Days as KIGO





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Like I always say the heart is big enough to hold love in enormous quantity - endless in fact.
Warmth, compassion and kindness accompanied with a big smile can do wonders in touching someone's heart.

28th september
my heart beats
for the downtrodden

Kala Ramesh, India

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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way


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HAIKU

september 28 ....
my heart weaves a nest
for my love bird

Kumarendra Mallick, Hyderabad India


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heartless bomb blasts
mark
world heart day

B.Vadivelrajan, India


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World Heart Day...
lad helps a paraplegic
cross the busy street

28th September...
bayanihan for a
cancer patient

"tequilas_sunrise11" Philippines
Kigo Hotline


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28th september -
see this bouncing heart
on a little twig

Heike Gewi, Yemen


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world heart day --
why not for as long as
hearts keep beating?

hortensia anderson, USA






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***** World Days as KIGO


. WKD : Kigo Calendar .

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Wolf (ookami)

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Wolf, Japanese Wolf (ookami 狼)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: All Winter
***** Category: Animal

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Explanation

The wolf has been living in Japan for a long time, but now it is extinct, even in Hokkaido. The wolf has smaller ears than a dog, but his teeth are stronger. Since he was feared during all seasons, his name was "the Great God" ookami　大神、later the Chinese character changed to 狼.

Other kigo names for this animal:

mountain dog, yama-inu, yamainu　山犬、豺

Wolf of Ezo, Ezo ookami　蝦夷狼
..... Ezo is the old name of Hokkaido.


. Hayataro, Shippeitaro, the strong Mountain Dog .
and the Hihi (狒々, 狒狒 or 比々) Baboon Monkey Monster



. ookami 狼 Okami, wolf legends .
- Introduction -

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Honshu Wolf (Canis lupus hodophilax)which occupied the islands of Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu in Japan.
The last known specimen died in 1905, in Nara Prefecture.

Ezo Wolf (Canis lupus hattai), the Hokkaido Wolf.
The Ezo Wolf became extinct in 1889.

http://www.answers.com/topic/japanese-wolf

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ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES
Shrines are no salve when it comes to extinctions

By ROWAN HOOPER

There were two subspecies, the Hokkaido wolf, and the smaller Honshu wolf (like the two bear species still living in Japan today, the animals living in Hokkaido needed to be bigger because of the harsher climate). Both were distinct from wolves in Europe and North America; the Honshu wolf, only about 30 cm tall at the shoulder, was the smallest known variety of wolf.

In former times, wolves were revered and respected. They were seen by farmers as guardians of their crops. It was believed that wolves kept deer, hares and wild boars from causing damage to farmland. The Heian Period warlord ruler of northeastern Honshu, Fujiwara no Hidehira (1096-1187), was said to have been raised by wolves, like Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome.

In Yamanashi Prefecture, offerings of azuki bean rice were left for wolves when cubs were born. It was sometimes believed that the tradition, known as inu no ubumimai, would be reciprocated by the wolf when a human child was born.

Read the rest here:

Wolves, Ookami, By ROWAN HOOPER

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Woodblock Print by Kayama Matazoo
加山又造　狼



http://www.444009.jp/interiahangatokkaseiru.htm

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JAPANESE WOLF FOLKLORE
by U.A. Casal

In the role of divine messenger, the wolf watches over mountains and forests. He sees to it that there is no undue cutting of trees or careless fire which may start a mountain conflagration, as also that there be no pollution of those little sanctuaries which are found all over a mountain.

Read this very interesting essay here:
JAPANESE WOLF FOLKLORE. by U.A. Casal

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Mitsumine Shrine (Mitsumine Jinja) is famous for its wolf cult.



There is a talisman print of the Wolf Deity from this shrine.
This for a wolf that accompanies the hunter home from the mountain and then gets a morcel to eat. (okuri ookami)



http://www.kitanippon.co.jp/pub/hensyu/chinmoku/maboroshi/050112.html


Okuri ookami, the wolf seeing you home

.... An extension of this semantic affinity of the wolf with the dog is the image (in myth and legend) as a protector of mankind -- a sort of banken (watchdog) in the mountains. This watchdog role appears in the benign okuri-okami (sending wolf) stories. "When someone is walking along mountain roads at night sometimes a wolf follows without doing anything. On nearing the house the wolf disappears."

Sometimes the ubiquitous okuri-okami tales also mention the danger of looking back or falling over while being followed by the wolf, acts that may invite the wolf to attack....Nonetheless, what is usually stressed is that the wolf's purpose is not to prey but to protect, to see the lonely human being safely home through the dangerous night-time mountains.... Even today many villagers claim to have had such experiences in their youth....
© Copyright 2004 Wolf Song of Alaska.

Read a lot more about Japanese wolves:
http://www.wolfsongalaska.org/Wolves_Japan_on_extct.htm

My Essay about Japanese Wolf Worship
....... at Mitsumine Shrine Mitsumine Jinja 三峰神社

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Worldwide use

Alaska

Wolves and Religion

The Role of Fox, Lynx and Wolf in Mythology
Meaning Wolf
Wolves and the Christian Church
Beware of Wolves
Wolves and Christianity
Wolves and Early Saints

© Copyright Wolf Song of Alaska.
http://www.wolfsongalaska.org/wolves_and_religion_menu.html


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Ireland

The Irish Wolfhound (Irish: Cú Faoi)
is a breed of domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris), specifically a sighthound. The name originates from its purpose (wolf hunting with dogs) rather than from its appearance.
Irish Wolfhounds are the tallest of dog breeds.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


cú faoil...
keeping the wolves
from the door

- Shared by John Byrne -
Haiku Culture Magazine, 2013



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Things found on the way

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson
about a battle that goes on inside of all of us.
He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves.


Read the story here:

feeding two wolves
or feeding just one ...
your haiku life


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HAIKU

- - - - - Kobayashi Issa -

狼の糞を見てより草寒し
ookami no kuso o mite yori kusa samushi

seeing wolf shit
these weeds feel
even more cold

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山犬や鳴口からも霧の立
yama inu ya naku kuchi kara mo kiri no tatsu

mist rising even
from the gray wolf's
howling mouth
Tr. Chris Drake

This autumn hokku is from the seventh month (August) of 1823, when Issa was in his hometown. Before they became extinct in 1905, small gray wolves (Canis lupus hodophilax), called "Japanese wolves" (nihon ookami) in Japan and "Honshu wolves" elsewhere, were once common around Japan. In the hokku Issa refers to the wolf using the colloquial name "mountain dog," a name related to the wolf's size. Issa seems to be standing fairly close to the wolf, yet he doesn't seem to be afraid of it. He may share the common view in village Japan that wolves, like monkeys, are helpers and messengers of the mountain god and are benefactors of humans who are not to be feared or attacked.

Several Shinto shrines are devoted to the wolf god Ma-kami, "True God," and according to a widely believed folk etymology the word wolf (ookami) goes back to another ookami meaning "great god." In Japanese folktales wolves often walk along behind villagers, protecting them when they travel in the mountains. Female wolves were especially revered because of their fecundity, and they were commonly believed to ensure fertility among village women and good crops in the fields. In some areas, villagers even presented special dishes of rice with red beans in them -- dishes usually made to celebrate human births -- to the local mountain god shrine if it was discovered that a wolf mother near the village had given birth. Although gray wolves normally didn't attack humans, they did prey on deer, wild boars, raccoons, and other animals that like to ravage village fields, and so they were regarded as important allies of farmers.

The hokku is implicitly as much about thick mist rising up in an area apparently on or near a mountain or hill as it is about the wolf. The comparison of rising mist to breath suggests that the whole mountain and the area around it are alive and breathing, and Issa is impressed by the way the wolf and mountain seem to be closely connected and part of the same great living system. Issa does not explicitly say the mountain god is howling through the wolf, but he seems to be implying that the wolf and the mountain are both speaking the same mist-language, a language most humans are not able to speak fluently. This haiku may be both a salute to the wolf and mountain and an expression of thanks to them for their help in supporting human life in the high Shinano plateau, where Issa's hometown is located.

Chris Drake

. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .


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狼に墓の樒の乱されし　
ookami ni haka no shikimi no midasareshi

the wolves
have thoroughly destroyed
the shikimi around the grave
(Tr. Gabi Greve)　


石井露月 Ishii Rogetsu (1873-1928)
www.diary.ne.jp/logdisp.cgi?user=36640&log=20011113

... Read: Ishii Rogetsu by Susumu Takiguchi

Shikimi Flowers

http://www.hana300.com/sikimi1.html

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A wolf; one firefly clinging to it

Tohta Taneka
(trans. by Jim Kacian, Toshio Kimura, Ban'ya Natsuishi & Eric Selland )
[Haiku Troubadours 2000]
http://www.into.demon.co.uk/dew/number_4_reviews.htm

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Winter mountains,
Pass them not
run into a wolf.

Masaoka Shiki
http://www.risk.ru/auto/calendar2/50/index_en.htm



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Related words

***** . wolf offers wild animals
ookami kemono o matsuru 豺獣を祭る
kigo for late autumn
one of the 72 seasonal points 七十二候



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Winter drizzle (shigure)

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Winter drizzle, sleet (shigure)

***** Location: Japan, other areas
***** Season: Early Winter
***** Category: Heaven

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Explanation

There are many Japanese kigo related to this kind of early cold rain in the overlapping time from autumn to winter. According to the weather patterns of this season, when cold air masses come down from Siberia, the rains come and go fast, as is represented in the Chinese characters, meaning "rain for a (short) time".
It might hit you unexpectedly on a mountain pass and leave a thin white cover on the peaks. Most common in Northern Japan, these showers come fast and leave fast, so it may rain here and shine there (kata shigure　片時雨).

The short cold drizzle evokes many melancholic feelings for the Japanese haiku poet. It is a symbol of the passing of events in the human life, of the passing of life itself.
It is also something that can be enjoyed hearing, it makes a hushing sound and this kind of sound is reflected in other kigo, for examle the famous cicada shrilling (semi shigure　蝉時雨). I often go to our local shrine and listen to the shigure on the roof, quite an eeerie sound!

These drizzle kigo have mostly been used already since the Heian period and are well loved and full of allusions to famous poems. SHIGURE is a good example to show that kigo are much more than just the weather report.






- shigure 時雨 winter drizzle, sleet -
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .

... ... ...

rain mixed with snow, cold rain, snowy drizzle, sleet (shigure　時雨）　

winter drizzle in the morning, asa shigure 朝時雨
winter drizzle in the evening, yuushigure 夕時雨
nightly drizzle, sayo shigure 小夜時雨, さよしぐれ

"village shower", passing winter shower, mura shigure　村時雨
murashigure
The sound of sleet sounding on the thatched roofs of a village in the Edo period.


first winter shower of the season, hatsushigure　初時雨 はつしぐれ
..... first cold rain after the 8th of November

"shower month" 10th month of the old lunar calendar,
shigurezuki 時雨月, しぐれづき

scattered winter showers, kata shigure 片時雨
winter drizzle from the North, kita shigure　北時雨
winter drizzle from the side, yoko shigure 横時雨

winter drizzle in the Kitayama (North Mountain) district of Kyoto
..... Kitayama shigure　北山時雨
"rain in the mountains", yamameguri　山めぐり

soaking cold rain, eki-u 液雨, えきう
..... an old Chinese term for the cold rains, starting from 10 days after the beginning of winter (立冬) as
beginning of the winter drizzle season, nyuueki　入液

autum leaves coloring in a winter drizzle, shigure iro　時雨の色　しぐれのいろ

"sound of the drizzle in a river", kawa oto no shigure 川音の時雨
..... the river sounds like a winter drizzle
"sound of a drizzle in the pines", matsukaze no shigure　松風の時雨
..... the wind in the pines sounds like a winter drizzle
"sound of a drizzle on the autumn leaves",
ko no ha no shigure　木の葉の時雨
..... the rustling of leaves sounds like a winter drizzle
.. all expressions known since the Heian period.

clouds of a winter drizzle, shiguregumo 時雨雲

umbrella for a winter drizzle, shiguregasa　時雨傘

"It feels like a drizzle", shigure gokochi 時雨心地　しぐれごこち

drizzling, sleet is falling, shigururu　しぐるる

"tears like a winter drizzle", namida no shigure 涙の時雨
"a sleeve wet from cold tears" tamoto no shigure 袖の時雨
..... expressions used since the Heian period


a famous folk-song called "Sansa Shigure" さんさ時雨

(photos)

In 福島市 Fukushima city 飯坂町 Iizaka
While walking and working in the mountain forest, it is not allowed to sing or recite サンサしぐれ / さんさ時雨 the Sansa Shigure, a folk song from Miyagi, dating back to 1589 and the warlord 伊達政宗 Date Masamune.
. Yamanikami 山の神 and Legends from Fukushima .

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sleet in spring, haru shigure 春時雨
... haru no shigure 春の時雨（はるのしぐれ）
kigo for spring

. . . . .


sleet in autumn, aki shigure 秋時雨

kirishigure 霧時雨（きりしぐれ）"fog and sleet"

kigo for autumn


. . . . .


sleet and snow, yuki shigure 雪時雨
kigo for late winter


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kigo for all winter

mizore 霙 (みぞれ) sleet
yukimajiri 雪雑り（ゆきまじり）
yukimaze 雪交ぜ（ゆきまぜ）


けしからぬ月夜となりしみぞれ哉
keshikaranu tsuki yo to narishi mizore kana

look out!
moonlight slicked
with sleet
Tr. Chris Drake


This hokku was written at the end of the 10th month (November) in 1803, while Issa was staying at the house of a student in the area just east of Edo.
The meaning of keshikaranu in the first line is a bit complex. Keshikaranu literally means "not just unusual," that is, extreme, very bad, awful, terrible, suspicious, weird, very strange, or just "very X,Y,Z."
In Issa's time it could sometimes be used in a positive as well as a negative sense, depending on the context, but in contemporary Japanese the meaning is usually strongly negative. In terms of weather, the 1603 Japanese-Portuguese dictionary, which is based on the actual speech at the time, says "extreme weather" (keshikaranu tenki) was a standard phrase that meant "extremely bad weather." (In English the meaning of the phrase isn't much different.)
In Edo, where Issa was living, keshikaranu meant the equivalent of modern Japanese hidoi (severe, intense, hard, frightful, outrageous, terrible, dreadful) or taihen da (terrible, awful, very serious, countless, enormous, disastrous; often used as an exclamation). I take Issa to be exclaiming at the sudden sleet storm that takes place while the moon is still out, as if he were talking to a companion or to himself as he takes cover. The next hokku in his diary evokes someone sweeping away sleet from the ground near a house, so a fair amount of sleet must have fallen.

Chris Drake


. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 Issa in Edo .


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Read more about "Shigure" in the University of Virginia Saijiki 　


Click HERE to see more items of Japanese Culture with
the name of SHIGURE
Sweets, rice wine, special regional dishes and many more

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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way




Shigure-Den 時雨殿　in Kyoto

The two-story Shigure-den (Autumn Shower Palace) in Arashiyama is a museum where people can experience and learn about the Hyakunin Isshu. This building is two storeys high. In the main room, there are many 45-inch, liquid-crystal monitors that display 70 large karuta cards and images of the city of Kyoto on the floor. You can take part in several activities here.
©　Kyoto University of Foreign Studies.


Card Games (karuta) Japanese Poetry and Haiku




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. WASHOKU
Shigure no Matsu 時雨の松 sweet 　
In Memory of Matsuo Basho

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. Teri-furi ningyoo 照り降り人形 "weather forecasting dolls" .
ji-u ningyoo 晴雨人形 shine and rain dolls


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HAIKU




the sound of iced rain
dripping
in the bamboo grove

© Photo and Haiku
Gabi Greve, 2005 　

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音は時雨か
oto wa shigure ka

the sound, oh,
it's sleet !

Santoka (Santooka　山頭火)　
Read a discussion of the Translating Haiku Forum

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

初しぐれ猿も小蓑をほしげ也
hatsushigure saru mo komino o hoshigenari

first snow shower -
even the monkeys would want
a straw raincoat


MORE in - Sarumino 猿蓑 Monkey's Raincoat -
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .

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霧時雨　富士を見ぬ日ぞおもしろき
kiri-shigure Fuji o minu hi zo omoshiroki

misty rain.
the day when I don't see Mt. Fuji:
most fascinating!
(Tr. Susumu Takiguchi)



in the misty rain
Mount Fuji is veiled all day --
how intriguing!
(Tr. Makoto Ueda)




Misty rain;
Today is a happy day,
Although Mt. Fuji is unseen.
(Tr. thegreenleaf.co.uk )


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今日斗り人も年よれ初時雨　　　　
けふ斗人もとしよれ初しぐれ」
今日ばかり人も年寄れ初時雨
kyoo bakari hito mo toshiyore hatsu shigure

today is a day
when people just (huddle and) grow old -
first winter drizzle
Tr. Gabi Greve


今日ばかり人も年寄れ初時雨」。冬の寒空から落ちてくる初時雨、人々はみな身をちじめて、なんだか年をとってしまったようだ.

kyoo bakari . . . today is one of these days



Read the translations of Ueda and Barnhill :
. Getting Old with Haiku .


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. WKD : Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .


度々にばか念入てしぐれ哉
tabi-tabi ni baka-nen irete shigure kana

again and again
idiotically fastidious
cold rain showers
Tr. Chris Drake

This hokku is from the 9th month (October) of 1821, when Issa was in his hometown.
Shigure are intermittent short, hard, cold rain showers, sometimes short squalls, that come one after the other in systems of fast-moving clouds in late autumn and early winter, though occasionally they occur in spring and summer. In waka they are often referred to as capricious or unreliable. Just when blue sky returns and you think the showers are over, another one begins pelting down, and just when the rain seems to be falling harder, it stops. These continuous intermittent showers are different from steady cold rain or from late afternoon downpours (yuudachi) that soon leave the sky clear. In Issa's time these cold rain showers were regarded as either a winter or an autumn image, depending on the context or the other images in the hokku.

This hokku by Issa happens to be an autumn verse because it's from the 9th month. The cold showers in 1821 seem to be quite vigorous, and to Issa the never-satisfied rain seems to obsessively and fastidiously fall in irregular bursts that again and again defeat human expectations.

Chris Drake


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hibi hibi ni shigure no fureba hito oinu

day after day after day
only cold drizzle with snow ー
I am getting older　

Ryokan (Ryookan 良寛)　

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More Winter drizzle / shigure / Japanese haiku
時雨：日本語の俳句集

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... when Bashō composes a haiku that is the same as one by Sōgi but for one word

yo ni furu mo/ sara ni Sōgi no/ yadori kana
世にふるも さらに宗祇の やどり哉

yo ni furu mo/ sara ni shigure no/ yadori kana
よにふるも さらにそうぎの やどりかな

his poem is considered an original work, for that one word, that one small change, alters the whole. The new poem thereby establishes roots, and strengthens the roots of its predecessor, in the native tradition.
Translators constantly make such changes; this is unavoidable when one is transferring data from one language into another, for there are no perfect inter-lingual synonyms. Is their work not therefore original?
©　Michael Haldane

Iio Sogi (1421 - 1502)

Passing through the world
Indeed this is just
A shelter from the shower.

Life in this world
is brief as time spent sheltered
from winter showers

The Green Leaf

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Related words

***** cicada shower, cicada chorus, semi shigure
蝉時雨 (せみしぐれ)
kigo for late summer
..... see Cicada (semi)



***** dew shower, tsuyu shigure 露しぐれ,つゆしぐれ
kigo for autumn
..... see Dew, dewdrops (tsuyu)



***** insect shower, insect chorus, mushi shigure 虫時雨 むししぐれ
kigo for autumn
..... see Insects (mushi)



***** Winter-Drizzle Anniversary, Bashō's (Death) Anniversary / Basho's Memorial Day, shigure ki 時雨忌 しぐれき
kigo for early winter
..... see Basho Memorial Day (Basho-Ki)



.. .. .. .. Rain in various KIGO (Japan)


***** Tear, tears (namida) Japan. Träne, Tränen


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Wisteria Cutting

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Wisteria Cutting Ceremony (Fuji Kiri Eshiki)

***** Location: Japan, Yamanashi Prefecture
***** Season: Early Summer. May 8
***** Category: Observance

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Explanation

藤切り会式、大善寺（山梨県勝沼町）

This ceremony takes place at the temple Daizen-Ji in Yamanashi prefecture on May 8. (It used to be May 14.)

Since this ceremony is not an official kigo, it is sometimes used with other kigo in haiku.

The parishioners of this temple cut some strong wisteria vines, some more than 5 to 6 cm in diameter and about 30 meters long, and bind them into a ring (fujitsuru　藤蔓, symbolizing the fearful snake. At the front they bind a red piece of cloth, symbolizing the horns and bloody tongue. They also paint eyes on it.

Two days before the festival, they erect a special tree trunk (go shinboku　御神木) of about 7 meters in the temple grounds and wind this snake around it seven and a half times.

On the day of the festival, mountain ascetics proceede, blowing their conches, and the young and student monks walk along with them. There is also some entertainment, like the young ones dancing and a dance with swords.

Finally a mountain ascetic (yamabushi　山伏) climbs up the tree, cuts the "snake" and throws it among the crowd, who try each to capture a piece of it. The pieces serve as talismans for good harvest and protect from evil.

Since the vines of the wisteria are bound together strongly, the more you tear, the more they hold together. Sometimes it takes the firebrigade and a saw to cut them apart. In former times, each farmer was even allowed to bring his own saw.

The festival is held in memory of En no Gyoja (En no Gyooja 役の行者, who fought with a fierce snake at Mt. Omine San.

In the long course of time, the name of this festival came to be used as a kigo for haiku.
This area of Yamanashi is also famous for its grapes, see the story below.

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大善寺藤切り祭り だいぜんじ ふじきりまつり

大蛇を形どる藤づるを法印で刀で切り落とし、参拝者が奪い合う勇壮な祭り。ぶどうの歴史と深く関わる大善寺は、行基の創建として伝えられる古刹で、 本尊の薬師如来（重要文化財）を安置している薬師堂は国宝に指定されている。

http://www.rurubu.com/event/detail.asp?ID=12438


Main HP of the Temple (in Japanese)

This temple belongs to the Shingon sect of Esoteric Buddhism.


Statue of Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of Healing
http://katsunuma.ne.jp/~daizenji/
http://katsunuma.ne.jp/~daizenji/kito.htm

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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way

Quote from the pilgrim G. Blankestijn

The Yakushi Hall

After buying a ticket at the temple office, I walk up a stone staircase, pass through an old gate, and then stand in front of the square Yakushi Hall. Five-bays wide, its dark brown walls supporting a shingled roof with slightly upturned corners, it forms a perfect harmony between strength and elegance. The temple's founding predates the hall by three centuries, but from that period only three statues, the Yakushi triad in the zushi, the closed altar cabinet, remain, and those are usually not on view.

The altar cabinet itself, dating from 1473, is a national treasure, and is beautifully decorated with woodcarvings. On the flanks of the altar other statues from the Kamakura period such as Nikko and Gekko, the Boddhisattvas of the Sun and Moon, have been placed.

I receive a detailed explanation about the temple's history from a friendly and loquacious priest in the hall, while I kneel in the shadows before the altar. He apologizes for the fact that I can not view the main image, the Yakushi. "A hidden Buddha, it is only shown once every five years, and then only for a few days. But there is a picture of the statue on the altar."

The large color picture in front of the zushi is so realistic, that in the dark hall I first took it for the real image. The Yakushi has a strong and individualized face, as is the case with other statues from early Heian. The priest then speaks about something new to me: the strong link between the temple and the grapevines surrounding it, through the person of the Yakushi. The Yakushi is the Buddha of Healing, both mentally and physically, and is often depicted carrying a small medicine jar in his left hand. In the past, temples in Japan fulfilled the same function as Europe's monasteries: that of hospitals, infirmaries and apothecaries. They often possessed gardens where medicinal herbs were grown.

The Healing Grape
And one of those herbs," explains the priest, "was the grape." The grape, of course, is loaded with symbolism also in the West. In Christianity, grape wine symbolizes the blood of Christ. Wine is the elixir of life. Behind this may also have been a belief in the healing properties of the grape itself.

"In Central Asia and China," continues the priest, "there are statues of the Yakushi carrying a grape instead of the medicine jar. The grape was a medicine, and people also believed that it served to ward off evil. Of course, the grape was not indigenous to Japan, but it was brought here with Buddhism from the Asian mainland."

The Healing Buddha has brought the grape to Katsunuma. In Daizenji and other temples, this medicinal plant from Central Asia was grown in the herb garden. Without the temples, there would have been no grapevines. Is it therefore thanks to Daizenji that Yamanashi is famous for its wine?

"That is a bit exaggerated," smiles the modest priest. "Moreover, the old vines were quite a different type from today's Muscat grapes, that have been crossbred with varieties from overseas." Nevertheless, it is a nice thought that this tranquil temple is responsible for one of the pillars of Yamanashi Prefecture's modern economy and tourism. It is an aspect that is apparently forgotten - I have not found it mentioned in any guidebook.

I walk around the hall, and inspect the statues on the altar from close range. Looking at the woodcarvings of the altar cabinet, I discover something that strengthens the priest's theory about the link between the Yakushi Buddha and the grapevines: along the top of the sides of the cabinet elaborate vines have been carved.

Copyright © 2003-2006 Ad G. Blankestijn



Yakushi Nyorai by Mark Schumacher

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HAIKU

一山に　秘めたる祭り　五月来る
hito yama ni himetaru matsuri gogatsu kuru

石原林ヶ Ishihara

the festival brings
mystery to the temple ground -
May has come
(Tr. Gabi Greve)



藤切会　待つ少年の　五月来る
Fujikiri-e matsu shoonen no gogatsu kuru

坂本普　Sakamoto

Cutting the Wisteria Vines -
the boy waited so long,
now May has come
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

Buddhist and Shinto Events, Saijiki

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藤切りや　我が煩悩も　切り去りぬ
fujikiri ya waga bonnoo mo kirisarinu

Fuji Cutting !
all my delusions are
cut and gone

Gabi Greve
More about Bonno, the 108 worldly delusions

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Related words

***** . Wisteria blossoms (fuji, fuji no hana　藤) .

kigo for late spring

and more wisteria kigo.



. shinboku 神木, shinju　神樹　sacred tree .


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. OBSERVANCES – SUMMER SAIJIKI .


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[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]

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Wintersweet (roobai)

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Wintersweet (roobai, Japan)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Late Winter
***** Category: Plant

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Explanation

Roobai, lit. "Wax Plum" 蝋梅
Chinese T'ang Plum, karaume 唐梅
Chinese Nanking Plum, Nankin Ume 南京梅




This is a very good smelling waxlike strong flower on a shrub, blooming even if it is snowing outside, a very tough old girl. She grows right next to a red-flowering camellia in my garden, giving even the bleakest winter day some glow of color. Her smell does not transmit via internet, that is too bad.

The Japanese name "Wax Plum" is taken from the flower, which looks like made from bee's wax.

This flower comes from China and has been introduced to Japan during the Edo period. It is a favorite for Bonsai too. The sweet smell and the wax-like flowers during the winter months make it a favorite. Together with the Camellia, Plum and Narcissus it is one of the Four Flowers of Winter of the old Chinese poetry tradition.

During the flowering seaseon, January to February, there are no leaves yet and the flowers sit on every knot, facing downward. A variety with rather large flowers is called Dan Roobai　壇蝋梅. A variety with a specially sweet smell and bright yellow flowers is called True Heart Wintersweet, soshin roobai 素心蝋梅 Chimonanthus praecox form. concolor. This variety is all yellow, even in the inside, where the other varieties show a little purple or red.

Even if the name has the Chinese character for PLUM, this plant does not belong to the plum family.

Gabi Greve

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Chimonanthus praecox - Wintersweet
The Greek name means Winter Flower (cheimon anthos).

A nice painting
http://washimo.web.infoseek.co.jp/illust/roubai.htm


Japanese Links with photos


http://www.hana300.com/roubai1.html
http://www.hana300.com/roubai2.html
http://www.hana300.com/roubai.html

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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way

The Japanese reading of ROOBAI ろうばい, ロウバイ　should not be confused with the
OLD PLUM TREE roobai 老梅.

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HAIKU

蝋梅や　遠くある父の　庭思う



reminding me
of father's far-away garden - -
first wax-forsythia

Gabi Greve
Wintersweet, Roobai

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. evening sunshine -
a wintersweet glows
on a bare branch 　　


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Wintersweet and Snow in 2010

. Photos from Winter 2010


. Robai Photos from Gabi Greve



morning meditation -
how yellow
is yellow ?

My Robai - February 2012

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蝋梅や　雪うち透す　枝のたけ
roobai ya yuki uchi sukasu eda no take

Akutagawa Ryuunosuke 芥川龍之介
http://www.wood.co.jp/haiku/s-aku.htm


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Related words

Forsythia (Forsythia suspensa)
kigo for mid-spring

rengyoo, 連翹　れんぎょう
itachigusa いたちぐさ, itachihaze　いたちはぜ

The land of origin is China, but now it is found in gardens all over the world. Its energetic flowers represent the joys of spring very well.

december sunshine -
an early forsythia
streches its head

Gabi Greve, December 2006 Look at the photo !


Click HERE for more photos !

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***** Spring (haru, Japan)

***** Camellia (tsubaki) Sasanka

***** Plum blossom (ume) Japan

***** Narcissus



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Withering wind (kogarashi)

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Withering Wind, Cold Gale (kogarashi)

***** Location: Japan, other areas
***** Season: Early Winter
***** Category: Heavens

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Explanation

This is one of the first really cold winds, when the last leaves are swept from the trees. Literally it means "tree-witherer".

withering wind, cold wind
kogarashi　木枯らし, 木枯, 凩

Echigo Mountains, Echigo Yama, see below

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World Haiku Review
COLD WIND, by Susumu Takiguch

In the Edo Period, kogarashi was used either for autumn or winter, but it is now a kigo for early winter. It is the cold and strong north or west wind in October and November, which withers leaves and blows them off the trees. However, it seems that the emphasis is more on the strength of the wind than on its coldness.

kogarashi ya umi ni yuhi o fuki-otosu
(Natsume Soseki)

withering wind
blows the setting sun
down to the sea
(ST version)


kogarashi ya hoshi fuki-kobosu umi no ue
(Masaoka Shiki)

withering wind --
stars are blown scattered
over the sea
(ST version)


kogarashi ya ishi fuki-tobasu Ohi-gawa
(Hasegawa Reyoko)

winter gale --
blowing rocks away
at the Ohi-gawa River
(ST version)


kogarashi ni Asama no kemuri fuki-chiru ka
(Takahama Kyoshi)

withering wind --
would the smoke of Asama vocano
be blown everywhere
(ST version)


Some other samples where the strength of kogarashi is not that apparent: -

kogarashi no hikkakari iru toge no ki
(Hara Yutaka)

withering wind --
caught and hanging on
to the hilltop tree
(ST version)

kogarashi ya me yori toridasu ishi no tsubu
(Watanabe Hakusen)

winter gale --
I get out grit
from my eyes
(ST version)


umi ni dete kogarashi kaeru tokoro nashi
(Yamaguchi Seishi)

blowing into the sea
withering wind has now
no place to return
(ST version)

*This haiku was written in October 1944 and the Kamikaze pilots were flying to the sea then.


kogarashi ya mezashi ni nokoru umi no iro
(Akutagawa Ryunosuke)

withering wind --
faint on the dried sardines
the colour of the sea
(ST version)

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Things found on the way


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HAIKU

> kogarashi ga
> iki o hisomeru
> ike no fuchi

The wintry wind
Hides its breath
In the pond's depths

Toshiaki from Canda: A Love Story enfolds

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木枯らしの吹き行くうしろ姿かな　

嵐雪



kogarashi no fukiyuku ushirosugata kana

withering winds -
blow and gone, we see
its backside now
(Tr. Gabi Greve)


写真は木枯らし１号に耐える尾花
東松山葛袋, 撮影　11月13日
http://www.geocities.jp/tokihikok/masaji/haiku/oriori/2004/fuyu/kogarashi.html

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kogarashi no hate wa arikeri umi no oto

bitter winter wind
ends there --
sound of the sea

IKENISHI Gonsui (1650-1722)

comment:
The word kogarashi reminds us Japanese of the bitter cold wind in the winter which may be beyond imagination for people in warmer countries. I have spent some winters in a colder country than Japan, but I felt the Japanese winter was much colder than that. It may be because of the moisture and the housing architecture. The kogarashi in the Edo Period must have been much severer than now, which may explain the reason why this haiku became popular then.

Gonsui, later surely influenced modern poets like YAMAGUCHI Seishi who wrote a related haiku about the WW II suicide bomber pilots in his famous haiku:

umi ni dete kogarashi kaeru tokoro nashi

out to the sea --
bitter winter wind
has no place to return

Haiku Selected by SATO Kazuo
http://www.haiku-hia.com/kongetsu_en05.html


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木枯しや竹に隠れてしづまりぬ
kogarashi ya take ni kakurete shizumarinu

The cut marker YA is at the end of line 1.

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

Amid the wintry gust
Disappears amid the bamboos
And subsides to a calm
(Tr. Toshinaka)

(note the opposition of motion and stillness in the poem, "there is a delicate harmony between the two senses"(Ueda, 48))
http://mll.kenyon.edu/~japanese02/J28sp99/projects/tohinaka/1/1.html

A wintry gust
disappears amid the bamboos
and subsides to a calm.
(© Makoto Ueda)

Порывистый листобой
спрятался в рощу бамбука
и понемногу утих.
(© Вера Маркова)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dmitrismirnov/BASHO_Haiku_K2.html


withering gales !
they hide in the bamboo
and subside
(Tr. Gabi Greve, 2006)

Here is a photo of my bamboo grove. Click on the photo to see more !



More versions of this haiku and a discussion of kogarashi and fuyu no arashi (winter storm):


The winter tempest
Hid itself in the bamboos,
And grew still.
Tr. Blyth


The winter storm
hid in the bamboo grove
and quieted away.
Tr. Robert Hass


a withering wind
hiding in the bamboo
has calmed down
Tr. Reichhold


The winter storm
hides in the bamboo
and becomes silent
Tr. Stephen Addiss (with Fumiko and Akira Yamamoto)


Comiled by Larry Bole
Translating Haiku Forum

... ... ...

poliyunna kaatu
mulangoottathil
olinju illaathaay

this Haiku in Malayalam, by Narayanan Raghunathan

... ... ...

withering wind
hidden in the bamboo
subsides

Tr. Grzegorz Sionkowski. Read the discussion too.


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kyooku 狂句 Kyoku, comic verse - a wild verse


木枯の身は竹斎に似たる哉
kogarashi no mi wa Chikusai ni nitaru kana

in winter's wind
don't I look
just like Chikusai
Tr. Barnhill

Written in 1648, Nozarashi Kiko


In from a gale,
looking like Chikusai,
the mad quack!
Tr. Robin D. Gill
MORE about kyooku :
source : books.google.co.jp


In den Winterböen
ein Wanderer ... dem Chikusai ähnlich
bin ich geworden!
Tr. Udo Wenzel



my body
in this withering wind
resembles Chikusai ...
Tr. Gabi Greve

This hokku has the cut marker KANA at the end of line 3.

Chikusai was a doctor, famous at his time through an illustrated story book, kana zooshi 仮名草子.
Chikusai wrote a lot of "wild verse" and did not take good care of his patients.
The stories were penned by Tomiyama Doya 富山道冶
Other sources name Karasumaru Mitsuhiro 烏丸光広.

Basho here compares his own miserable, poor life with that of the shabby doctor.



The light-hearted doctor Chikusai travels all around Japan, getting involved in regional troubles and stories, writing his "wild verse" about it, thus also contributing to the spread of haikai.


Chikusai Monogatari 竹斎物語 "The Tale of Chikisai"
Partial translation by Edward Putzar
source : www.jstor.org



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


. zooshi 草子 stories of Japan .


. kyooku　狂句　Kyoku comic verse (of the haiku type) .
and other eccentric poetry


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山寺や木がらしの上に寝るがごと
yamadera ya kogarashi no ue ni neru ga goto

Kobayashi Issa

mountain temple--
like it's lying down
on the winter wind

Hiroshi Kobori comments on the word, kogarashi ("winter wind").
In early Japanese poetry, this refers to the wind that blows through trees, breaking branches and turning the leaves brown. By Issa's time it means "a dry windy day during the late autumn--deep winter season."
It is classified as a winter season word.

More haiku about the "kogarashi" from Issa
Tr. David Lanoue

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Echigo Mountains Echigo yama　
越後山　えちごやま


こがらしや隣と云もえちご山
kogarashi ya kabe no ushiro wa Echigo yama

winter wind--
behind the wall
is the deep north

Issa (tr. David Lanoue)

Issa ends this haiku with the phrase, echigo yama ("Echigo mountain[s]"). Echigo is one of the old provinces of Japan, today's Niigata Prefecture. A northern land, it is famous for its coldness. For this reason, French translator L. Mabesoone renders the closing phrase, as ("la frontière du nord": "the northern frontier"; Issa to kuhi (Tokyo: Kankohkai 2003) 49.
This seems a reasonable solution to the following problem: in Issa's time "the mountains of Echigo" would have been synonymous with a cold place in the north, but for most English readers this connotation is nonexistent.

ледяной ветер
застеной начинаетсяполя
рная ночь
(Russian by Eugene Wasserstrom)


Later Issa wrote this haiku


川向ふ隣と云もえちご山
kawa mukau tonari to iu mo Echigo yama


facing the river--
next door, it seems
Echigo mountains

. . . . .


夜涼や足でかぞへるえちご山
yo suzumi ya ashi de kazoeru Echigo yama

evening cool--
with my feet counting
the mountains of Echigo

"Evening cool" is a kigo for summer.


MOREHaiku by Issa about the cold Echigo Mountains

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Related words

***** WIND in various kigo



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