almanac

　暦は英語でcalenderですが，他にもalmanacという語も用いるようです。暦に対する英語は色々ありますが，一言では言い表せないくらい深い意味があることがわかる記事です。面白かったので紹介します。

The Japanese term koyomi is a bit difficult to render accurately and completely in English. The dictionaries offer up translations like calendar and almanac, but the traditional koyomi is so much more than just an accounting of days and months marked with major holidays and celebrations.

The koyomi provides an astronomical, meteorological, ecological, cultural, aesthetic, historical, literary and spiritual framework for following, interpreting and enjoying the changing seasons. It is a magical guide for melding one's life energies into the surrounding cultural and natural environments.

The koyomi includes functions that in the West might be found in astronomical and astrological charts, Farmers' Almanacs, and religious calendars. There is, however, one powerful theme that runs throughout the koyomi--detailed observation of minute seasonal changes in the natural world, and expression of the feelings evoked by these changes in art and poetry. A good example of this nature theme can be seen in the kigo, special symbolic terms or concepts used as seasonal markers and mood setters in art and literature. A good kigo must be widely recognized and highly evocative, able to solidly anchor a poem, picture or story in time and place.

In a somewhat precarious position on a shelf above the computer sits my Haiku Saijiki encyclopedia of kigo. This is a heavy volume, in terms of both weight and content. For each kigo entry, the Saijiki provides a general introduction and a collection of haiku poems by various authors. I'd be less than honest if I said I understood the poems. As a naturalist and occasional low-level mystic, however, I do deeply appreciate the kigo as a fine-tuned mechanism for reflecting the rhythms of the changing seasons.

My Saijiki is over 700 pages long, but covers only the three-month autumn period! The kigo range over an incredible variety of natural and cultural topics. Major astronomical events, such as the solstices and equinoxes, all appear as kigo. Natural weather phenomena, especially special seasonal frosts, winds, rains and mists, also serve well as reliable markers. Feast days, festivals and other ceremonial events are included, much as in the ecclesiastical or church calendars issued by Roman Catholic Churches.

A whole section on animals introduces many fish, birds and especially a bevy of insects. But by far and away the longest part of the Saijiki, covering 213 pages, is devoted to the flowering and fruiting of local trees and wildflowers.

The traditional Japanese koyomi is in many ways an agricultural calendar, designed to manage the timing of farmwork. The koyomi, however, also quickly developed into a holistic guide for living that could be used by the aristocracy in their mansions, the warriors in their forts and castles, and the merchants and commoners in their towns. The nature presented in the majority of the kigo is thus not that of the deep mountains and virgin forests, but of the rice paddy countryside and parks and gardens in towns and cities.

One issue with the Saijiki is that the traditional kigo have been somewhat fixed and standardized. In a local area, some of the official kigo may not manifest themselves at all; while there may be many other outstanding natural movements that could readily be put to work as new kigo. The ideal solution to this dilemma is for people to make their own Saijiki specifically for the area they live in.

I am always on the lookout for new kigo to symbolize seasonal changes in the towns and countrysides of the southern Kanto region where I live and work. This week, I'm focused on the fruits of the uwamizu-zakura (Prunus grayani), a species of wild cherry that grows naturally here, and is also widely planted in parks and gardens.

This species is one of several local wild cherry trees. Unlike spectacular ornamental cherries, the flowers, which bloom in late April and early May, are small, white and relatively inconspicuous. The flowers are bunched together in a brushlike cluster that forms at the tip of each new branch. This location of the flowers and fruits is a botanical characteristic used to distinguish the uwamizu-zakura from similar-looking, closely related species. At this time of year, the little cherry fruits are just starting to ripen.

Over the course of a week or so, the fruits change color from lemon yellow to soft tangerine to deep orange to translucent red and finally to dark purple. Each individual fruit, however, seems to be ripening according to its own schedule. The result is a cluster of a dozen or more cherries sporting all shades of yellow, orange, red and purple.

The fruits of this wild cherry are a favorite snack for many local birds. Already the ground around the trees is littered with bird droppings containing the round, hard seeds. People also collect the fruits to make a delicious restorative liqueur.

In the traditional koyomi, autumn starts at the Risshu on Aug. 7, and continues until the Ritto, or beginning of winter, on Nov. 7. In my Haiku Saijiki this block of three solar months is divided into early (sho), mid (naka) and late (ban) sub-periods.

The fruits of the uwamizu-zakura are outstandingly colorful. As a valuable food source for wild birds, they also play an important role in local ecology, and have historically been prized by the villagers as well. I would like to propose these fruits as a regional kigo for the early autumn period.

The traditional koyomi is an excellent vehicle for staying in touch with the rich natural world that surrounds us.

Short is a naturalist and cultural anthropology professor at Tokyo University of Information Sciences.

(Aug. 16, 2012)

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/science/T120814002717.htm