Carpe Diem #1464 wind in the verdure (aoarashi)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome to our last regular episode of June. This month it was all about the beauty of the classical kigo for summer that nice little word to point towards the season in which the scene took place. We have seen beautiful kigo and I applaud you all for creating the most wonderful verses with them.

Next month I will challenge you to create haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry inspired on images. So ... July will be a month to "imagine without limits". I have already gathered images to use. Images I took myself and images found on the Internet. I am looking forward to this upcoming month.

Green Waves

Okay ... back to our last episode of this month, the last regular episode to be precise. Today's classical summer kigo is: wind in the verdure (aoarashi). What does this kigo mean. It's about the wind through the green leaves, or the greeness of summer's nature. It wasn't easy to find a haiku in which this kigo is used, but I have found one:

the wind in the green
helps to soothe their shattered nerves
and old rivalries

© Elizabeth Barrette

After a stronger search I found a haiku by Issa in which this classical kigo for summer is used:

aoarashi waga ya mi ni deru asahi kana

wind on the greenery--

coming to see my house

the morning sun

© Kobayashi Issa

Or these two by Shiki:

kisha miru-miru yama wo noboru ya aoarashi

the steam train very quickly
climb the mountain
the wind blow through fresh verdura

shiroyama no ukami agaru ya aoarashi

castle hill

high above

breezy green

© Masaoka Shiki

wind in the verdure (aoarashi)

fragile beauty
the summer breeze
plays with the grass

© Chèvrefeuille

A wonderful kigo to conclude this wonderful summer kigo month with I think. I hope you all did like this month and I hope to see you all again in July as we are going to create our verses through imagination.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 5th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend-meditation later on. For now ... have fun!

And here is the last classical winter kigo for all of our friends on the Southern Hemisphere: snowflakes (kazahana). Lit. wind-flowers.

Carpe Diem #1461 waterfall (taki)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today another nice classical summer kigo. Our kigo for today we have seen here very often, but I think that this kigo has so much hidden it that we can use it often here at our wonderful Kai.

I found a nice haiku by Basho with this kigo in it, I don't know who was the translator of this haiku, so my apologies for that.

overhanging pine…
adding its mite of needles
to the waterfall

© Basho (Tr. unknown)

Urami no taki; the waterfall seen from behind; woodblock print by Kobayashi Kiyochika, 1896

Our classical kigo you will find in the last line of this haiku. Today's classical kigo is waterfall (taki) and Basho has written several haiku with this kigo. In his Oku no Hosomichi (The Small Road Into the Deep North) he wrote about a waterfall that had a cave behind it's surface:

[...] "After climbing two hundred yards or so from the shrine, I came to a waterfall, which came pouring out of a hollow in the ridge and tumbled down into a dark green pool below in a huge leap of several hundred feet. The rocks of the waterfall were so carved out that we could see it from behind, though hidden ourselves in a craggy cave. Hence its nickname, See-from-behind (Urami-no-taki). [...]

for a while
secluded behind the waterfall
summer retreat begins

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold, 'Basho, the complete haiku')

I think you already have noticed that our classical kigo is waterfall (taki) and I think it's a wonderful kigo to create haiku or tanka with.

Here is one of my haiku from the archives:

the waterfall
ah! that sound ...
mesmerizing

© Chèvrefeuille

And of course I had to create a new one also:

in awe
the sound of falling water
nightingale's song

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 2nd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.
For our friends on the Southern Hemisphere I have a nice classical kigo for winter: fireplace (ro)

Carpe Diem #1455 half-year's end festival (nagoshi)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend and for the fathers ... did you have a nice Father's Day? I really had a wonderful Father's Day, because I could go walk with my grandson and my son-in-law along the most beautiful Oldtimers. Every year on Father's Day the city were I am living is organizing the so called "Oldtimer Day". Just around the corner of my home there were hundreds of Oldtimers and I enjoyed watching them and sit in them. My grandson was enthousiastic too, just like me and my son-in-law. Yes I had a wonderful Father's Day together with my kids and grandchildren. Awesome ... so to say.

Okay enough about my weekend, back to the business of every day ... creating a beautiful episode for our wonderful Kai. This month we are exploring classical kigo for summer and today that will be a nice one I think. Today's kigo is: half-year's end festival (nagoshi).

Nagoshi Festival Fireworks

Nagoshi is a great Japanese festival. Nagoshi (half year's end festival) and it's one of the 100.000 festivals which occur in Japan. Nagoshi is a kind of 'end summer' festival and it lasts for three days. Let us take a closer look at this festival.

Omura Nagoshi Matsuri (Festival) is a summer event held on the evenings of August 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Nagoshi is a shortening of “Nagoshi no Harae” which translates to “summer purification rites.” The original event brought to Japan from China occurred in the summer, usually on the last day of the 6th lunar month (June 30). However, because Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar rather than the Chinese calendar, many ancient Chinese rituals take place a month later than the original date. Therefore, Nagoshi no Harae takes place on July 31. On this day, People visit one of Omura’s 25 Shinto shrines to be purified of their sins and then, beginning August first is the celebration of that cleanse. A fireworks show is held over the bay on the first evening, displaying 3,000 to 4,000 rounds.

On the evening of the second and third, there are many vendors selling an array of food, drinks (alcoholic and non), toys, candy and Omura specialty products on the main road that leads from Omura Train Station. There are also various performances, visual arts and games for your entertainment. The main event, happening on the night of the third, is a two-hour parade/dance competition featuring many local Omura groups. Everyone dances the Omura Ondo, the region dance, while parading around Nagoshi Yume Dori (Dream Street) otherwise known as Omura Station Road.

Nagoshi Festival

What a joyful festival to celebrate the end of Summer. I don't know if there are such festivals in other regions of the world. Not in my country by the way, we celebrate the start of Summer, but never the end of it.

leaves are coloring
at the end of summer
days become shorter

© Chèvrefeuille

The above haiku is from my archives, but I had to come up with a new one too ...

dancing in the rain
summer runs towards its end
leaves start to color

© Chèvrefeuille

What a wonderful festival this must be. It feels really like the end of summer and I hope that I caught that essence in my second haiku.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 24th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, sweetfish (ayu), later on. To conclude this episode here is the winter kigo for our friends on the Southern Hemisphere, year market (toshi no ichi).

Carpe Diem #1452 cool (suzushi)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all enjoy this month full of classical kigo for summer (and winter). I enjoy it very much to create these posts every day for you. It gives me the opportunity to dive into the beautiful history of haiku, tanka and other forms of Japanese poetry and it gives me the opportunity to try my hand on classical kigo myself.

Today I have taken a kigo from the sub-division of summer, the season. Our classical kigo for today is cool (suzushi) and it is normally used as a kigo for the summer evening in Japan. I think you all can relate to that, because after a hot summer day it is wonderful to sit down in the garden, on the porch, on the beach on a cool summer evening to cool down.

I found a nice haiku created by my master, Basho, that paints this coolness in a nice way, but without the kigo that we have to use today:

Basho wrote the following haiku in the Summer of 1688.

taneshisa ya   aota ni suzuma   mizu no ato

delightfulness
cooling oneself in a rice paddy
the sound of water

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

(In this haiku the word "suzuma" is "cooling oneself")

Cool (suzushi)

Here is a haiku written by myself in which I have used this classical kigo:

chasui ha futtou suru nai fan ni mo suzushi sa wo mitsukeru tame no houhou

tea water boils
no way to find coolness
not even a fan

© Chèvrefeuille

And I ran through my archives and found a nice tanka with the same theme:

seeking for coolness
in the depths of the heart -
Summer romance
laying in the shadows of the pines
cooling down

© Chèvrefeuille

Of course I have also a nice classical kigo of winter for our friends on the Southern Hemisphere. Today that will be: Indian summer (koharu)

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until June 19th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, dripping spring-water (shitatari), later on.

 

Carpe Diem #1451 young maple-leaves (waka kaede)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai. This month we are exploring the beauty of classical kigo (seasonwords) for summer and today I have another nice summer kigo for you. But first this: Maybe you know that at the start of CDHK I wasn't aware that it would become such a success and I am grateful for that. Back in the beginning of our Kai I created a whole month about the Tarot. The episodes of that month I have brought together in an exclusive CDHK E-book back in 2016, and now, two years later, I have revised that CDHK E-book about the Tarot and I am proud to announce that "The Divine Tarot" is now available for download at the right of our Kai.

Okay ... back to our episode of today. Today I have chosen another kigo from the sub-division "plants" of summer;  young maple-leaves (waka kaeda).

Young Maple Leaves (waka kaede)

And I found a nice haiku by Basho on "young leaves", but not of "young maple leaves". To be honest I couldn't find any haiku on this classical kigo.

ara to¯ to aoba wakaba no hi no hikari

so holy:
green leaves, young leaves,
in sun’s light 

© Basho (Tr. Landiss)

And here is my try to create a classical haiku with this kigo for summer:

young maple leaves

shimmer in the early sunlight
like crystalline waves

© Chèvrefeuille

Not as wonderful as I had hoped, but I like this one anyway. Of course I also have a nice kigo for winter for our friends on the Southern Hemisphere: withered pampas grass (kareobana).

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until June 18th at noon (CEST). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1448 afterglow (yuuyake)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have to apologize for being late with publishing today's kigo. I had a very busy evening shift and hadn't time to write this episode. So now, around 1:30 AM (CEST) I am writing this episode. We are busy to explore the classical kigo for summer this month (and for our friends on the Southern Hemisphere, winter kigo). Today's kigo is taken from the division of summer - heavens.

Afterglow (yuuyake) means literary "burnt evening" or yuuyake, the glow of the sky at sunset. I found a nice haiku in which this kigo is used:

There, where eagles fly,
Heaven's gold is boldly splashed
As red orb sinks west

© C.L. Hanna

I couldn't retrieve a URL or something for this haiku, but it's a real beauty in which you can read (and see) very easily our classical kigo for today.

Afterglow (yuuyake) (late summer kigo)

Here is another definition of "afterglow" as found on Wikipedia:

[...] An afterglow is a broad arch of whitish or pinkish sunlight in the sky that is scattered by fine particulates like dust suspended in the atmosphere. An afterglow may appear above the highest clouds in the hour of fading twilight, or be reflected off high snowfields in mountain regions long after sunset. The particles produce a scattering effect upon the component parts of white light. [...]

daylight fades away
father sun is traveling on to the west
paradise regained

© Chèvrefeuille

!! The Japanese think that paradise is in the west !!

For our friends on the Southern Hemisphere I have chosen also a classical kigo from the division "heavens", but than taken from winter. Here is your kigo to work with:  withering wind (kogarashi).

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 13th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1446 mandarin orange blossoms (hana tachibana)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. CDHK is the place to be if you like to write and share haiku, tanka or other form of Japanese poetry. This month we are exploring the classical kigo or seasonwords, for summer. For today's prompt I have chosen to use mandarin orange blossoms (hana tachibana), but before giving you some background on this prompt I love to tell you a little bit more about the use of kigo in (especially) haiku.

As you all know every haiku needs a time-frame and that time-frame is set by the use of kigo or seasonwords. Kigo are words that point to the season in which the haiku is written. For example (by the way not a well chosen example) tulips. If you use tulips in your haiku than you say that the haiku is written in spring, because tulips are spring flowers as are e.g. daffodils. Through using kigo in your haiku the reader knows in which season you had this experience you describe in your haiku. Let me give you an example of a spring haiku in which I use tulips:

reach for the sun -
tulips burst through the earth 
colorful rainbow

© Chèvrefeuille

If you read this haiku you immediately know that this is a spring haiku.

The Japanese haiku poets compiled a large collection of kigo in what is called a Saijiki. In a Saijiki they selected all kigo for every season and brought them together. In every Saijiki you can find the same way of selecting the kigo for the seasons.

As you (maybe) know the classical Japanese haiku poets used five seasons, New Year, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. In every Saijiki you will find those seasons. In every part of the Saijiki (every season) you also will find several subdivisions, those subdivisions are: The season, The heavens, The Earth, Humanity, Observances, Animals and Plants. In those subdivisions you also see sometimes that the kigo are subdivided in Early season, Mid season and Late season. By creating the Saijiki in this way the haiku poets could find easily which kigo they had to use.

Mandarin Orange Blossoms (image found on Pinterest)

Our prompt for today Mandarin Orange Blossoms is a classical kigo for summer especially for mid-summer and it is taken from the subdivision "plants".

Mandarin orange blossom is the blossoming of the mandarin orange tree. The blooming of the mandarin orange features small white flowers with five petals. The flowers have about 1.5 cm in diameter and they typically grow in a group of two or three flowers in a stalk, where the leaf meets the twig.
Mandarin Orange Blossoms are considered a harbinger of good luck, health, and fertility, it is popular at weddings and celebrations. Over the years, the orange blossom has been adopted a sign for eternal love.

As you all know this month I will tell you a lot about the classical kigo for summer on the Northern Hemisphere and to give our participants on the Southern Hemisphere also their nowadays seasonal words I also give a winter kigo. Today that winter kigo is spearflower (manryoo), it's a winter kigo that is stated as an all winter kigo and it is also taken from the subdivision "plants".

Spearflower Haiga by Shiki

Every episode I try to create my own haiku with the given classical kigo. I live on the Northern Hemisphere, but today I have chosen to create a haiku with the winter kigo I gave above for the Southern Hemisphere, spearflower (manryoo).

Let me give you also a haiku by Yozakura, the Unknown Haiku Poet, in which he uses "spearflower":

spearflower berries
tempting the sparrows with their color -
graveyard in the mist

© Yozakura (1640-1716)

And here is one I created myself:

spearflower berries
sparrows picking them from the snow
in my backyard

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... it has become a long episode this time, but I hope you will forgive me for that. Now it is up to you to create haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form with this classical kigo. Of course, but not necessary, I hope you will create a haiku or tanka following the classical rules as you can find above in the menu at CD's Lecture One.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 11th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. (By the way ... I hope to publish our promptlist for June 2018 this week).

Carpe Diem #1444 barley autumn (mugi no aki)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Well ... it's time for a new month of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to write and share haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form. This month I love to inspire you through the classical seasonwords (kigo) for Summer (and Winter). Why have I chosen for this theme? Well ... as you all know haiku has several classical rules as you can read above in Carpe Diem Lecture One (1), This month I hope to read wonderful haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form that are following the classical rules as you can find above in the menu.

Why two seasons this month well that needs no real explanation, but I will give you it ... On the Northern Hemisphere, where I am living, we are entering Summer, but on the Southern Hemisphere they enter Winter. Because my part of the world is entering Summer all the prompts will be of Summer, but I will give you also a classical prompt for Winter. For this first episode of June 2018 that will be Indian summer (koharu).

Barley Autumn (mugi no aki)

The first prompt for this month of Summer kigo is barley autumn (mugi no aki) and it refers to the time in which barley ripens. In Summer this cereal grain ripens to the form in which we know it and use it after harvesting it.

Around my hometown we have several farms that produce this cereal grain and it is always awesome to see how it is harvested. My dad, he rests in peace, was once a farmer so I grew up with this cereal grain and the time of harvesting. As my dad was harvesting the barley he was almost the whole day on the fields and we (my brother and I) missed him. But in the weekends he wasn't busy with harvesting and did all wonderful things with us. Yes ... I have wonderful memories of that time.

I found a nice haiku by my sensei, Matsuo Basho, in which this summer kigo is used and I love to share that one with you here in this first episode of June:

these ears of barley
that redden now in the tears
of crying skylarks

© Matsuo Basho (summer 1691)

A wonderful haiku I think in which you can see, hear and feel the essence of this classical kigo for summer.

Field of Gold (barley field in summer)

It inspired me to create the following haiku:

greenness disappears
like waves of the ocean change
barley autumn starts

© Chèvrefeuille

It has become a nice haiku I think, but I don't really know if I did right to the kigo given to use.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 7th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired, create and share.