Carpe Diem #1188 Burning the hills (yama yuki)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of CDHK. This month we are exploring the beauty of classical kigo and today I have another beautiful kigo for you. Instead of "burning fields" it has become "burning the hills" (yama yuki). And maybe you can remember that we have had a month full of Japanese festivals back in 2015, one of those festivals was Wakakusa Yamayaki (Burning down Mount Wakakusa).

Priest preparing Wakakusa Yamayaki

Burning the hills is a common activity in spring. The dry grasses of winter are burned to prepare the earth for a new season and make it useable for agriculture.

burning the mountain
smoke swirls from the green grass
pleasing the gods

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... it is not an easy prompt, but it is for sure a challenging one. So be prepared on a "struggle" with this prompt, this classical kigo for spring.

I have tried to find a few examples of haiku with this kigo but I only found one by Issa, not on "burning the hills", but on "burning fields":

windblown clouds--
the fires of burning fields
bring sunset

© Issa (Tr. Daniel Lanoue)

Maybe it was a kigo that wasn't used often, but that ... I don't know.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until April 15th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, thaw, later on. For now .... have fun!