August 1 (hassaku)

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"August 1" (hassaku)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Mid-Autumn
***** Category: Season / Humanity

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Explanation

hassaku 八朔 (はっさく)
first day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar

. Lunar Months and the Saijiki .


Nowadays it corresponds to the first of September in its climate, and thus has become a kigo for mid-autumn.
It is the 210th day after the beginning of spring, as a seasonal festival it is
nihyaku tooka 二百十日.
From this day on, strong typhoons are hitting Japan and farmers begin fearing for their harvest (and livelyhood).
. nihyaku tooka 二百十日の風祭り wind festival on the 210th day .
- Iwate


In the rural Japan of old, the ceremonies at the seasonal changes were very important for strengthening the bonds with the gods and among the farmers.

In the old lunar calender, the very first day of a month, when there was no moon, is called SAKU　朔 or tsuitachi. The first day of the eighths month is hachigatsu sakuhi 八月朔日, shortened to HASSAKU.
Ceremonies held on this day are also called like this. They have an old tradition in rural Japan to honour the rice paddies, which are just about beginning to bear fruit.

In rural areas, this day is also called
"special day for the fruits of the fields" (ta no mi no sechi 田美の節)
..... ta no mo no sechi 田面の節 たのものせち (tanomo)
..... ta no mi no sekku 憑の節供たのみのせっく (tanomi)
Farmers bring the best fruit of their harvest to the landowner to celebrate and wish for a good harvest coming autumn. TA NO MO is a play with words of an invocation to the gods for a good harvest "tanomimasu".

Workers would bring small paper dolls,
hassaku ningyoo　八朔人形 to their masters in an act of gratefulness.


Grandparents would make a straw horse for a baby boy who was born in the past year. Nowadays many splendid horses are for sale.

. . . CLICK here for Photos of Hassaku dolls !

. Hassaku Dolls 八朔人形 from Sano town, Tochigi .

. Iki no hassakubina, hassaku hina 壱岐の八朔雛
hassaku Hina dolls from Iki Island .
Nagasaki

. hassakubina, hassaku hina 八朔雛 .
Fukuoka


. Regional Folk Toys from Japan .

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This rural custom may have spread to the nobility and townsfolk in the Edo period. It then became the custom to bring small presents to those who are close to you in your work.
They also ate and served each other sweet Hassaku Mochi 八朔餅　dumplings in the knowledge that from now on the autumn harvest with a lot of extra hard and long work would come for most ... and maybe the taste of the mochi was a bit bitter in this expectation.
. . . CLICK here for Photos of the dumplings!　


ceremony of Hassaku, hassaku no iwai 八朔の祝
Harvest Festival, Hassaku sai 八朔祭

special vessel for giving a present to the wet nurses who feeded a person as a baby, other than the own mother, ebokai 絵行器（えぼかい）
Bokai were special vessels for carrying food around.

© PHOTO ainu museum japan

In these vessels, food and the following handmade animals were given as presents:

"manmade colored sparrow", tsukuri suzume 綵雀（つくりすずめ）
"manmade pheasant", tsukuri kiji 造り雉（つくりきじ）
"manmade heron", tsukuri sagi 造り鷺（つくりさぎ）


"princess melon doll", hime uribina 姫瓜雛（ひめうりびな）
"princess melon day", himeuri no sekku 姫瓜の節句（ひめうりのせっく）
Small white melons are painted with a powdered white face, cloths are draped around bamboo sticks to make them look like little princesses. This is a custom still practices in Kyoto.


special kimono worn for this day, hassaku no kosode
八朔の白小袖（はっさくのしろこそで）
..... for men the black official kimono with the family crest. Since it is still rather hot on this day, men sweat a lot during the ceremonies.
Even the ladies of the Yoshiwara quarters would wear light, often white robes or large white belts and visit their sponsors. Nowadays, Hassaku is celebrated in the Gion quarters of Kyoto, where the maiko walk around in light white kimono.



© PHOTO http://blog.goo.ne.jp/sya5017

Click HERE for some photos of the girls !


white ceremonial hat, hassaku no shiro katabira
八朔の白帷子（はっさくのしろかたびら）
Worn during the Edo period by the officials and regional lords for this festival.


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The term hassaku refers to the first day of the eight lunar month and the term hassaku matsuri encompasses a variety of observances held to ask the gods (kami) for a plentiful harvest.

The hassaku matsuri at Matsu-no-o Shrine (Matsunoo Taisha) in Nishikyō Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture is held on the first Sunday of September-which is actually numerically one month later than the traditional first day of the eight lunar month. The Tanomi shinji (田の実) held on September 13 at Aguchi Shrine in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, is also a hassaku festival, in which local farming households offer the first ears of rice harvested.

Likewise, on September 1 Iwakiyama Shrine in Iwaki Town, Naka-Tsugaru County, Aomori Prefecture, and Dewa Sanzan Shrine in Haguro Town, Higashi-Tagawa County, Yamagata Prefecture perform rituals called Tanomosai (田面祭) to secure a bountiful harvest. Moreover, Ono Shrine in Shiojiri City, Nagano Prefecture, holds a similar ritual on hassaku called Tanomosai (田母祭), whereas a Hassaku matsuri is held on hassaku both at Ōhirasan Shrine in Hirai District, Tochigi City, Tochigi Prefecture, and at Ōarai Isozaki Shrine in Ōarai Town, Higashi-Ibaraki County, Ibaraki Prefecture.

These and other cases demonstrate the ritualization of the lay custom of offering newly harvested grains to kami on hassaku and "entreating" (tanomu) them for a bountiful harvest.
　©　— Mogi Sakae, Kokugakuin University.




八朔祭（8月31日）Hassaku Ceremony August 31
Dewa Sanzan Shrine in Haguro





Hassaku matsuri at Oishi Fudo-In
大石不動院
Mie prefecture, Matsuzaka town, Oishi village
This festival has a tradition of more than 200 years.
Prayers are said to prevent damage from storm and water, for a good harvest, for the safety of the region and for a prosperous family.
It starts on August 31 and the main event in on September 1.

source : hudouinn

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Tea Ceremony

When Tokugawa Ieyasu entered the castle of Edo in 1590, his retainers and the feudal lords were invited for a congratulating ceremony. Red ceremonial rice (sekihan) was served as food for the townspeople.
In memory of this day, the students of a tea ceremony master come to visit him on this day.

Special food was served on this occasion, a rice gruel called
O-bana no kayu　尾花の粥
..... obana gayu 尾花粥（おばながゆ), obanagayu小花粥（おばながゆ）
..... susuki gayu 薄粥（すすきがゆ）
Roasted ears of the susuki grass were mixed in the rice gruel. It was supposed to have medical properties to keep you fit for the harvest season.
These words are also kigo for the season.

For the Sen school of tea, there is also a special tea ceremony on this day (and the first of January), when the ten supporting craftsmen (juushoku　十職) of this school are invited to celebrate the bond of their continuous support.
The long bonds between the Raku family, making tea cups (rakujawan 楽茶碗) and others are well known.

The kettle used for this tea ceremony is called
hassaku gama　八朔釜

External LINK
Tea Ceremony at Ura Senke with the 10 Artisans

... ... ...

In the creative aspect of the art, it is the iemoto who sanctions new utensils and styles for use within the school and can forbid the use of unrecognized objects and utensils made by unsanctioned craftsmen. Utensils are developed through relationships with established craft families (Senke Jushoku) as well as new artisans whose work meets his standards.

Each iemoto establishes his preferences (konomi mono) in utensil types and designs, these then become part of the utensil repertoire available for students. Through authentication (hakogaki), he establishes a sense of taste. Other ways of exerting influence over the utensils used for chado are through officially recognizing certain craftsmen and utensil dealers and encouraging members to patronize these people, by engaging in utensil sales, by assisting museums and other exhibitors in displaying utensils for public viewing, by providing assistance to scholars and researchers of the arts, and through financial support to individuals and institutions which promote the study and practice of chado.

By being the authority and definer of chado's symbolic content, the iemoto perpetuates the art through an hereditary system that enables continuity and creativity.

Read more here
© By Barbara Lynne Rowland Mori


***** Tea Ceremony Saijiki 茶道の歳時記　

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Hassaku Doll Festival at Nio Village

仁尾八朔人形祭り


© PHOTO http://gamma.de.takuma-ct

Click HERE to see more photos !

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Things found on the way


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HAIKU

八朔や治水神社の日照雨
hassaku ya Chisui Jinja no sobae ame

Hassaku Ceremony !
at the shrine Chisui
it rains and shines

Gendai Haiku
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

Click HERE for photos of this shrine !

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八朔や馬具に結はへし守札
hassaku ya bagu ni yubaeshi mamori fuda

hassaku ceremony -
I bind the lucky talisman
to the harness of a horse

Shimogawara Shoo 下河原勝
(Tr. Gabi Greve)



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Related words

***** Hassaku orange (hassaku kan 八朔柑 or zabon)
a citrus fruit
kigo for spring
Look at some PHOTOS HERE !


八朔や分けてあげたい自由時間　　
hassaku ya wakete agetai jiyuu jikan

hassaku orange -
I would like to share it,
my free time

Shizuko しずこ
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

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***** Hassaku Plums (hassaku bai 八朔梅)
"red from China" kara kurenai　唐紅花 からくれない
"red from Korea" kara kurenai 韓紅花
kigo for mid-autumn

A kind of plum that came via China to Japan a long time ago. It flowers arount the first of August, with a specially full blossom (yae 八重) and the flowers might last as long as December.


Teabowl called "Korean Red" 韓紅花 からくれない Rose Red

©　PHOTO ちゃわんあそび



***** Fields, rice fields, rice paddies (ta) and haiku

***** Red ceremonial rice (sekihan)

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kigo with moxabustion


. . . . . . . . . August second


getting a moxabustion on August second
nochi no futsuka kyuu　後の二日灸
kigo for mid-autumn


getting a moxabustion on February second
futsuka kyuu 二日灸
spring moxabustion, haru no kyuu　春の灸
day for the moxabustion, kyuu suebi 灸据え日
..... yaitobi やいと日
kigo for mid-spring


© PHOTO Copyright(C)1995-2006 Echizenya Co.,Ltd.

This day relates to the second day of the second month, according to the Asian lunar calendar. If you receive a moxabustion on one of these days, it is supposed to be a hundredfold more powerful for your health.
Modern dates may place this custom on the second day of March and September.
Moxibustion / the Wikipedia



Oku no Hosomichi
- - - Station 1 - Prologue 出発まで - - -
with a moxa on his shins . . .
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .

ashi no sanri　足の三里　the point SANRI on the leg, ST36
there is another SANRI one on the arm.


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yaitobana 灸花 (やいとばな) "moxa flower"
hekuso kazura 屁糞葛（へくそかずら） "smelling fart vine"
Paederia scandens
plant kigo for late summer


doyoo kyuu, doyookyuu 土用灸 (どようきゅう)
moxabustion on the doyoo day
... doyoo mogusa 土用艾（どようもぐさ）
... hooroku kyuu 焙烙灸（ほうろくきゅう） moxa with a horoku pot
kigo for late summer


hooroku plates for moxibustion ほうろく灸
and Jizo Bosatsu




Hitotsu Yaito ひとつやいと one moxabustion
for the tired monks and lay people. With the wish for health in the coming summer.
at temple Zuiryu-ji 瑞龍寺 Zuiryuuji.
Takaoka town, Toyama prefecture 富山県


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kankyuu 寒灸 かんきゅう moxabustion in the cold
... kan yaito 寒やいと（かんやいと）
kigo for late winter


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kigo for the New Year

初灸 はつきゅう first moxabustion
... hatsu yaito, hatsuyaito 初やいと


yaitoshoogatsu, yaito shoogatsu 灸正月（やいとしょうがつ）
moxabustion on the New Year


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source :　michiko328


月花の愚に針たてん寒の入
tsuki hana no gu ni hari taten kan no iri

Matsuo Basho　松尾芭蕉、1692, age 49

into my moon and flower
folly, I'll drive a needle:
start of deep winter
Tr. Barnhill


acupuncture
for flower-moon foolishness -
the cold weather's sting
Tr. Addiss


MORE
. - Basho and the Acupuncture needles - .



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



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やまの娘に見られし二日灸かな
yama no joo ni mirareshi futsuka kyuu kana

getting my February moxabustion -
a maiden from the mountains
looks on

Takahama Kyoshi 高濱虚子


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でこぽんのでこぽんでこの二日灸
dekopon no dekopon deko no futsuka kyuu

pon pon and again
pon pon on my forehead -
moxabustion on the second day

Gendai Haiku Collection
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

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From the opening passage of
Basho's "Oku no Hosomichi:"

"Possessed by the spirits of roving which wrenched the heart, beckoned by Doosojin, unable to settle hand on anything, I mended a tear in my pants, replaced a cord in my hat, burned my shins with moxa, and then with the moon of Matsushima rising in my mind..."

(trans. by David Barnhill)

Doosojin, the Wayside Gods and Haiku 道祖神


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WASHOKU
Hassaku Oranges and other food

***** . Mugwort (yomogi) for moxabustion .

***** . PLANTS - - - the Complete SAIJIKI . 　


. . . . AUTUMN
the complete SAIJIKI


. Dates used in Haiku and Kigo .


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Saito Mokichi

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Saito Mokichi Day

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Spring
***** Category: Observance

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Explanation

1882年5月14日（戸籍では7月27日） - 1953年2月25日 February 25）
He was a famous Tanka Poet.
He was the family doctor of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa and assisted in his suicide.

Mokichi Memorial Day, Mokichi Ki 茂吉忌 (もきちき)

Saito Mokichi / FACTS





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Things found on the way


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HAIKU


茂吉忌に重なる父の忌を修す　
Mokichi Ki kasanaru chichi no ki o jusu

Mokichi Day
the same as my father's death aniversary
to remember and pray

©　泉　靖子 / Izumi Yasuko
Tr. Gabi Greve

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龍太忌茂吉忌二月二十五日
Ryuuta Ki Mokichi Ki Nigatsu Nijuugo Nichi

Ryuta Day
Mokichi Day - February
Twentyfifth


©　藍生主宰句
Tr. Gabi Greve


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Related words

***** Memorial Days of Famous People
..... WKD SAIJIKI

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Gioo the Dancer

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Day of Gioo the Dancer (Gioo Ki)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Mid-Spring
***** Category: Observance

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Explanation

Memorial Day for Gio, the mistress of Kiyomori

Gioo Ki 妓王忌 (ぎおうき)
Gioo Ki 祗王忌（ぎおうき）

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Giō and Hotoke
The story of Giō and Hotoke is long and involved, but basically tells of the most famous shirabyoshi Giō, who had won the heart of Taira no Kiyomori, being ousted by a younger and more talented shirabyoshi named Hotoke. Kiyomori cruelly sent Giō away, which grieved her greatly, and Hotoke was constantly ridden with guilt.

A year later, Giō was asked to perform a dance for Hotoke at Kiyomori's command, who actually intended on humiliating her. In her grief and humiliation, Giō, her sister and their mother became nuns seeking for a happier life. A few years later, the guilt was too great for Hotoke and she became a nun. She asked for forgiveness from Giō, who willingly forgave her and the four women lived out the rest of their days in prayer.



Shirabyoshi (白拍子)
were female dancers that performed traditional Japanese dances (also called "shirabyoshi") dressed as men. The profession of shirabyoshi developed in the 12th century. They would perform for nobles and high-ranking samurai, and at celebrations.

They are sometimes referred to as courtesans in the West, but the term refers to a high-class prostitute, so this is rather incorrect. By nature they were performers, though some shirabyoshi would give birth to nobles' children, but this was not their purpose.

Shizuka, a famous shirabyooshi, commonly referred to as Shizuka-gozen, was the concubine and lover of Minamoto no Yoshitsune, the tragic hero of many folk legends.

© More in the WIKIPEDIA !




Dolls: Gio and her younger sister Gijo
祗王とその妹の祗女



............................. The song of Dancer Hotoke

"A delicate young pine at her first meeting
With him who is her Lord, through joys and tears
Sings of her hope that he may hear the beating
Wings of the passage of a thousand years;
While storks upon the tortoise island stand
And crowd the lily pond to seek his hand."


Read all the details here
THE STORY OF GIO

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shirabyooshi 白拍子 Shirabyoshi Clay Doll
34 cm high

. Dolls from Shimane 島根県 .
Nagahama 長浜土人形 clay dolls


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Things found on the way



Taira Kiyomori and the Genpei War


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HAIKU

妓王忌のミッキーミニーのペアカップ
Gio ki no mikkii minii no pea kappu

Gio Day -
pair cups of
Mickey and Minnie

©　Gendai Haiku Kukai





Japanese are very fond of pair cups. Usually, they are called "Couple's cups" meoto yunomi 夫婦湯のみ for husband and wife. Now boyfriends and girlfriends use them when they live together. Usually the one for the wife is just a bit smaller.
We also have rice bowls for couples in the same way.
Click on this thumbnail to view some more samples.


Traditional Tea cups for Couples


More about Happy Couples (meoto, fuufu) in Japan :
Meoto Daruma and the Takasago Legend 夫婦だるま


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妓王忌の苔に結べる春の露
香燿子



妓王忌や屈託もなく若き声
Gioo Ki ya kuttaku mo naku wakaki koe

Gio Memorial Day -
this young voice
so carefree

君不去
Tr. Gabi Greve



妓王忌とおもふ渚のうつぼ草
吉田紫乃

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- quote -
Dancer, Nun, Ghost, Goddess
The Legend of Giō and Hotoke in Japanese Literature, Theater, Visual Arts, and Cultural Heritage
Roberta Strippoli, Binghamton University
Dancer, Nun, Ghost, Goddess
explores the story of the dancers Giō and Hotoke, which first appeared in the fourteenth-century narrative Tale of the Heike. The story of the two love rivals is one of loss, female solidarity, and Buddhist salvation. Since its first appearance, it has inspired a stream of fiction, theatrical plays, and visual art works. These heroines have become the subjects of lavishly illustrated hand scrolls, ghosts on the noh stage, and Buddhist and Shinto goddesses. Physical monuments have been built to honor their memories; they are emblems of local pride and centerpieces of shared identity.
Two beloved characters in the Japanese literary imagination, Giō and Hotoke are also models that have instructed generations of women on how to survive in a male-dominated world.
- source : brill.com/products/book... -


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- quote -
Temple Gio-Ji - The Ladies’ Temple in Saga
- snip -
... I discovered a Basho renku about the Nonomiya Shrine in Saga, west of Kyoto, ...
... I translate “Gio dera” to “ladies’ temple” in a stanza by Basho taken from linked verse, known as renga.

Her hair gone,
chamberlain’s daughter
grown weary

Storm over Nonomiya
ladies’ temple bells

The Grand Chamberlain (Jijū) is a chief functionary of the Imperial court, and aide to the Emperor of Japan. He also keeps the Privy Seal and the State Seal, but his high rank does not prevent his daughter from experiencing the travails of life. She cuts her hair and escapes to Saga, at the foot of Mount Arashi (Storm Mountain) where there are many temples. Because “Gio” sounds like “Gion,” the stanza in Japanese recalls the famous opening to the Tales of the Heike:
“The bells of the Gion Shōja echoes the impermanence of all things…. The proud do not endure, like a dream on a spring night, the mighty falls at last, as dust before the wind.”

The Gion Shōja (or Jetavana) temple in India is where the Buddha gave most of his discourses. This passage is usually said to portray the fall of Kiyomori and his clan from power and wealth to exile and death – however the words well apply to the tale of the four dancers who became four nuns.

Basho sets up the opposition of storm and bells. The first is wild, violent, uncaring; the second deep, steady, and unifying. The storm represents the arrogance and intimidating behavior of men such as Kiyomori; the bells are the steady, focused energy of women. A bell, shaped like a uterus, is clearly female. Temple bells, with their reverberations of up to a full minute, are conducive to meditation, and have become a symbol for world peace. “Bells,” as final word of the verse, resounds through the weariness of the daughter as well as the violence of the storm. In “bells” there is resolution.

When I visited Gio-ji, I spoke to a priest who pointed out that the temple has no bell, so in Basho’s stanza we hear the bells of many temples in Saga combining their reverberations. While Gio-ji lacks a bell, it does have a beautiful moss garden which you can walk through but not touch. The temple is a twenty minute walk from Arashiyama Station which is a fifteen minute ride on the JR Sagano Line from Kyoto Station. There are statues of the four women, and their graves; they remained together for eternity. Maybe if you are there in the evening, you will be able to hear the kindness of Gio, the wisdom of Lady Buddha, the solidarity of the four women, in the temple bells of Saga. Furthermore, through this renku pair, we can explore the multi-faceted issue of gender politics, the ways men use their power to dominate women, the adaptations of women to survive, the chamberlain’s daughter who seems to be alone in her weariness, the ladies who found happiness in sharing their lives of devotion.
- source : Jeff Robbins 2017 -

Giō-ji 祇王寺 Temple Gio-Ji
Kyoto, Ukyō-ku, Sagatoriimoto Kozakacho, 32


... Tiny Gio-ji Temple is one of the most scenic spots in Arashiyama. The thatched-roof main hall overlooking a moss-covered grotto is a magical sight.


. Matsuo Basho Archives 松尾芭蕉 .


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Related words

***** Memorial Days of Famous People
....... A WORLDWIDE SAIJIKI

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Bosatsu Matsuri

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Bodhisattva Festival (Bosatsu Matsuri)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Mid-Spring
***** Category: Observance

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Explanation

Bodhisattva Festival, Bosa Matsuri, Bosatsu Matsuri
菩薩祭 (ぼさつまつり)
Dance at the Bosa Festival, Bosatsu odori 菩薩踊 (ぼさつをどり)

Festival of the Ship's Treasures, funadama matsuri
船玉祭 (ふなだままつり)

Maso Festival 媽祖祭　（まそまつり)
..... Maso-e 媽祖會 (まそえ)

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The Bosa Festival at temple Soofuku-Ji in Nagasaki
崇福寺の媽祖祭

On the 23rd of March a lantern procession leads from the temple Soofuji-Ji.
Its history dates back to about 400 years, it started in 1629.
It is a lantern festival of Nagasaki 長崎ランタンフェスティバル.



This festival dates back to the Edo period, when the merchants from China were permitted to stay in Nagasaki for trade and business. The deity Maso sama 媽祖様 is venerated as a god who brings good luck for travelling ships. This day is thought to be his birthday.

A lot of food is presented to the deity, including the head of a pig and a goat.



© Mogumi PHOTO tour

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Maso-do (Mazu Hall, also known as "Bosa-do　媽祖堂")
Prefecturally Designated Cultural Property

Maso, also known as the "Heavenly Empress Mother",
the Chinese protector goddess of the sea, is a syncretic deity who was originally the object of popular worship in Fujian Province in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Worship of Maso spread throughout China during the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), when she was enshrined on ships carrying rice from southern China north to Beijing. During the Ming Dynasty, veneration of Maso spread through international trade to Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia.

Portable shrines to Maso were also kept on Chinese ships that traded with Nagasaki, and were transferred to worship halls in the Chinese temples in Nagasaki while the ships were in port.

This ritual transfer was called the "Bosatsu age" ("raising of the bodhisattva"), and provided the occasion for a lively parade and other festivities. The original Maso Hall at Kofukuji was destroyed in the Great Nagasaki Fire of 1663 (Kanbun 3), but is thought to have been rebuilt in 1670 (Kanbun 10).

The hall's ceiling is shaped like the inverted hull of a ship, in another reference to the enshrined deity's identity as the protectress of seafarers. Maso is seated in the center of the rear of the hall, and is accompanied by numerous other deities, including the red and blue demons who stand before her. These demons, tamed by Maso, are actually the benevolent beings Senrigan and Junpuji, whose very names--literally "eyes that see a thousand leagues" and "ears that hear through the winds"--convey their powers.

The hall was built in a fundamentally Japanese architectural style, painted vermilion on the interior and exterior. Elements of "Obaku-style" architecture grace the structure, however, and are especially evident in the vaulted Obaku ceiling of the front gallery, the half-length doors, and the interior ceiling.
©　www31.ocn.ne.jp/~koufukuji/


This temple Koofuku-Ji is now one of the oldest of the Obaku sect.
興福寺, 黄檗宗



©　2004 I.HATADA
Look at many more beautiful photos HERE !

JUNPUJI 順風耳

SENRIGAN 千里眼

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READ MORE
Mosa Bosatsu


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Things found on the way

Chinpun kanpun 珍紛漢紛 / 珍糞漢糞 / 陳奮翰奮
chinpunkan pun for more rhythm in the Japanses language.

陳分漢 Chinpun Kan was a common of Chinese merchants, it seems, to be heared in Nagasaki during the Edo period. It was difficult for the Japanese to pronounce, so they made it "gibberish", chinpun kanpun.
In China it is also used in this meaning, as chinputon kanputon チンプトン、カンプトン. chinputon was something you did not understand when you heared it spoken, kanputon was something you did not understand when you saw it.

Japanese also used it when making fun of the scholars of Confucianism reciting the books in Chinese. Sometimes this is written like this: チンプン漢文.

There is also the expression: tonchinkan とんちんかん, but that only reflects the sound of the smiths of old when hammering the iron in a certain rythm.

ちんぷんかんぷん　の原語由来

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HAIKU




打鐘もちんぷんかんや菩薩祭
uchikane mo chinpunkan ya Bosa matsuri

Bosa Festival -
even the prayer gongs
ring gibberish

Issa
(Tr. Gabi Greve)


the Chinese gong ringing
all Greek to me...
Bosa Festival

Tr. Keiko Izawa


chinpunkan, chinpun kanpun is a play of words with the sound of the prayer gong and the meaning of gibberish, something is all Greek to me, as explained above.
Issa has more haiku with this expression.


辻だんぎちんぷんかんも長閑哉
tsuji dangi chinpunkan mo nodoka kana

a crossroads sermon
gibberish
spring peace

Issa, Tr. David Lanoue


...

Daruma ki ya chinpunkan o naku chidori

on Dharma's Death Day
spouting gibberish...
a plover

Issa, With a haiga by Nakamura Sakuo.

.. ... ... ... ... ..


たらいからたらいに移るちんぷんかん
tarai kara tarai ni utsuru chimpunkan

From washing bowl
to washing bowl my journey--
and just rigmarole!

Issa
Tr. Henderson




盥から盥にうつるちんぷんかん
tarai kara tarai ni utsuru chimpunkan

moving
from tub to tub . .
empty babble

Kobayashi Issa
Tr. David Lanoue, Haiga by Nakamura Sakuo


芦火たく盥の中もちどり哉
ashibi taku tarai no naka mo chidori kana

. tarai 盥 -　たらい　tub, basin, washing bowl, wash tub .


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枸杞さげて帰船を呼ぶや菩薩祭
kuko sagete kibune o yobu ya Bosa Matsuri

the matrimony vine carried away,
let us call the boat to go back home -
Bosa Festival

Matsuse Seisei 松瀬青々
(Tr. Gabi Greve)



Kuko plant, Chinese matrimony vine
The red little berries are used in Chinese Traditional Medicine.


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Issa spent some time in Nagasaki in 1793, age 31.

Here is a haiga by 　© Nakamura Sakuo.



君が世やから人も来て年ごもり
kimi ga yo ya karabito mo kite toshi-gomori

Great Japan--
a foreigner also attends
the year's end service!

. . . . . . . . .......................... Renku by Sakuo

異人達と除夜の鐘聞く
ijintachi to joya no kane kiku

with many foreigners
listen to the watch-night bell

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Related words

***** Chinese Medicine (kanpo), medicine (kusuri)

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Women's slope

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Women's slope (onna-zaka, onnazaka)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Topic for haiku
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation

Most mountain sanctuaries, temples and shrines in Japan have two access slopes to the topmost sanctuary. The more gentle one is for the ladies, onna-zaka　女坂, and the steeper one for the menfolk, otoko-zaka　男坂.

female slope, male slope
slope for women, slope for men
onna saka, otoko saka

It also implies the lot in life for men and women are sooo different!



Woman's Slope


Men's Slope


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Things found on the way

Onna zaka, The Waiting Years
Enchi, Fumiko, 1957.
a famous novel

Summary

The story is set in the early Meiji period (the late 19th-century) when feudalism, the strongest determinant of the family structure in the19th-century Japan, was going to end. Tomo (around 30 years old) is married to Yukitomo Shiwakawa (past 40), a rich government official living in Fukuoka, but she is his wife only nominally. The novel starts with Tomo's visit to Tokyo to find a concubine for her own husband.

Read more here !
©　www.willamette.edu


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HAIKU




似合しや女坂下る紙衣達
niai shi ya onnazaka oriru kamiko-tachi

they really look nice !
so many paper robes coming down
the women's slope

Kobayashi Issa
Tr. Gabi Greve

Paper robes (kamiko)
kigo for all winter


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tsuyu ake ya sate onnna-saka otoko-saka

end of the rainy season -
well, the slope for women
the slope for men


Kubota Mantaro (Mantaroo)
(Tr. Gabi Greve)


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女坂来て雷の男坂
onna zaka kite rai no otoko zaka

I came to
the women's slope - thunder
on the men's slope

© ryuusimutou2 /　俳句とお星様と山歩き

(Tr. Gabi Greve)


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城址へ落葉いろいろ女坂
shiro ato e ochiba iroiro onnazaka

different kinds of fallen leaves
on the ruins of the castle -
women's slope


© 竹内芳子 Takeuchi Yoshiko

(Tr. Gabi Greve)





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Compiled by Larry Bole

odori-ko-sou saku onna-zaka otoko-zaka

Odoriko-sou blooms...
both steep and gradual paths
to the temple

--Ikeda Toki, trans. by Shirawobi Haiku Association website editor

*On-na means women, Otoko does men, and saka means slope, in Japanese.
Onna-zaka is gradual and easy slope to the temple or shrine, and Otoko-zaka is steep and hard one

Odori-ko means the girl who is doing Japanese traditional dance. And Sou means plant or flower.
http://homepage2.nifty.com/shirawobi/05.01shuukuEnglish.html


about "onna-zaka" and "otoko-zaka," on an Amazon website:

Excerpted from Womansword:
What Japanese Words Say about Women
by Kittredge Cherry. Copyright ｩ 2002.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
[I am giving myself permission to quote it here, relying on US Code: Title 17107, sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work]

Onna-rashisa: Femininity

One way to chart the meaning of femininity (onna-rashisa) in Japan is to listen to how the landscape itself is described. A "male hill" (otoko-zaka) is the steeper side of a hill, while the more gently sloping grade is termed the "female hill" (onna-zaka). This seldom-used phrase was resurrected by author Fumiko Enchi as the title for her novel about a wife who waits decades to get revenge for her husband's infidelity, though the English translation of Onna-zaka is titled simply The Waiting Years. Another way of using nature to summarize the character of the sexes is the proverb "Men are pine trees, women are wisteria vines" (Otoko wa matsu, onna wa fuji), which means men are the strong base to which women cling.

　© www.amazon.ca




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Related words

***** . Hime Kaido 姫街道 princess route .



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Climbing Mt. Nantai Ceremony

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Climbing Mt. Nantai Ceremony(tohaisai 登拝祭 )

***** Location: Japan, Nikko
***** Season: Late Summer
***** Category: Observances

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Explanation
toohaisai
This is a ceremony in many parts, starting in July and can go on until August. It is important in the rituals of the mountain ascetics of this area.
Starting on August 1 is most common. Starting at midnight with drums and conches blown, the pilgrims reach for the summit to watch the sunset from there. The dark climb is lit by a few spots with torches or lanterns.

Mount Nantai 男体山 at the side of Lake Chuzenji in Nikko is a sacred mountain and this ceremony goes back more than 1200 years.


Praying at the innermost sanctum
gonaijin sanpai 御内陣参拝


男体山登拝 / Climbing Mt. Nantai

©　www.nikko-jp.org/tohaisai

Other names
『男体禅定(頂)』
『七夕禅定(頂)』


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Things found on the way


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HAIKU




七月や白装束の登拝祭　
shichigatsu ya shiro shoosoku no tohaisai

july is here !
mountain climbing ceremony
in white robes

大類　匡光　Masateru Ohrui
俳句の試み　　

Tr. Gabi Greve

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Mount Nantai, Nantai san 男体山 in Nikko

Mt. Nantai is also called Mt. Futara, and the name of Futara is derived from Potalaka in Sanskrit. Also, Futara can be divided into two Japanese words. One is futa, which means two in Japanese, and another word is ara, which means storm. The meaning of combination of those two words is two storms. According to a legend, god of wind and god of thunder appear at Byoubuiwa rocky screen and bring the two storms a year. Moreover, Futara can be pronounced Nikoh in another way of reading. You can imagine that the Nikoh became Nikko later.

Landscape of Oku-Nikko has been created dramatically by natural environment like an eruption. Lake, waterfall, grassy plain and marshland are gathered like a miniature garden.


　©　www.nikko-jp.org

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WKD: Basho in Nikko

Matsuo Basho wrote:

Kurokami-yama, which means "Mount Raven Locks," though wreathed in spring mists, was still white with snow. Sora composed a verse:

With my hair clean shorn,
I came to Mount Raven Locks
On Garb Changing Morn.

Comment:
Mount Kurokami is another name for Nantaisan which rises above Nikko. The slopes are covered with ancient trees which makes it appear black when seen from a distance, hence the name. The snow on its peak is one of the eight famous views of Nikko, but the image as Basho uses it also sets up a contrast between the black mountain and the white snow. But the contrast is both maintained and resolved in the sense that both Sora and the mountain have changed their garb and yet they are different in the sense that one has hair.

Sora / Oku no Hosomichi


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男体山の雨となりたる躑躅かな
Nantai san no ame ni naritaru tsutsuji kana

Mount Nantai
now in the rain ...
azaleas

Minagawa Bansui 皆川盤水

Tr. Gabi Greve



　©　PHOTO : satochan


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Related words

***** Fuji, Mt. Fuji, Fujiyama, Fujisan Mount Fuji, Japan

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Shiogama Sail-cord Festival

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. Shiogama Kaido Highway .
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Sail-cord Festival (hote matsuri)

***** Location: Shiogama, Japan
***** Season: Mid-Spring
***** Category: Observance

- Shiogama Festival, see below

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Explanation

Hote Festival, Hote Matsuri 帆手祭 (ほてまつり)
March 10

One of the thee famous festivals in Japan known for the wild activities of the sacred palanquin.

The festival started with the original purpose of fire prevention, and now serves to ward off evil and to offer prayers for the prosperity of the town Shiogama 塩竃市.
Even if it started off as a festival with children as the main participants, the adult participants prayed for a good fishing harvest and more activity of her town too.
People made a statue of the deity Bonten out of the grasses of the "dragon whiskers grass" ( mondo grass ). The old reading for BONTEN 梵天 .. HOTE　ほて .. might has then developed with the Chinese characters it is written nowadays. The grass Bonten effigy was called "kusa Bonten" 草梵天.



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Sail-cord Festival. A festival held on March 10 at Shiogama Shrine (Shiogama jinja　鹽竈神社 in Shiogama City, Miyagi Prefecture.
Shiogama Myoojin （塩釜明神, 鹽竈明神)

Beginning two days before the festival, sacred dance and music (kagura), a shrine priestess festival, Yamato dances are performed at the Ceremonial Hall (haiden). After the ceremonies on the festival day, there is a procession of the divinities. At the head of the procession is a hayashi stage called katsugi-kagura, with children riding on a doll stage. Besides the children and shrine priestesses (miko), spears, clothing boxes, swords, guns, bows and arrows and others objects are all part of the procession's stately accoutrements.
It is a lively occasion
with hundreds of worshippers. Around the sacred palanquin (mikoshi) flags similar to sails are raised and those accompanying it make offerings. This is the origin of the name.
Festival floats (dashi)
and stages of the town are dragged around. Also, a Daikoku (one of the seven gods of happiness) doll is made and placed on a horse. People sing packhorse-driver songs as they lead this horse from house to house. It is said that this began as a festival for fire protection in 1682 and originally took place on January 28. Now it has changed to be a festival praying for domestic safety and business prosperity.
- source -　Mogi Sakae, Kokugakuin University.

帆手祭り





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日本三大荒神輿のひとつ Shiogama-sama no Ara Mikoshi

The festival's highlight:
Sixteen young men dressed in white carry a sacres palanquin, which weighs more than one ton, on their shoulders, and heroically rush down a dangerous flight of 202 stone steps in the shrine compound.


Shiogama Shrine

Shiogama has prospered as the home of the Tohoku area’s Shiogama Shrine and as a harbour city. Shiogama served as an unloading port forthe provincial Tohoku government (Mutsunokuni) and as a port for the Date clan during the Edo period (1603 ～1867). Shiogama was a prominent national harbour city from the Meji period (1868～1912) on and has more recently developed as a fisheries base (for fishing in both near-by and far waters .）

Shiogama is recognized as the largest unloading point for fresh tuna in Japan,as well as a city with abundant fresh seafood. The City has the most sushi restaurants per square kilometer in Japan . The fisheries industry is strong and Shiogama leads Japan in the production of kamaboko, or kneaded fish cakes, as well as other processed fish products.

Shiogama is one of the doorways to tourism in the famed Matsuhima Bay.
In the“Narrow Roads to the Deep North", the poet, Matsuo Basho, describes traveling from Shiogama to Matsushima by boat. What is not so well known, however, is thefact that over half of the“808 Matsushima Islands" are actuallyin Shiogama. In particular, the inhabited Urato Islands attract many visitors who enjoy sunbathing, marine-sports, clamming, fishing, and rape-blossom viewing.

In ancient times a god named Shiotsuchi no oji no kami, is said to have cometo Shiogama and to have taught the people how to make salt. Shiogama, meaningsalt caldron, derived its name from this legend.
Today, the ancient salt makingritual is still performed every July at the Okama Shrine in Shiogama.

Here is a poem about the city from the Kokinshu #1088

In Michinoku province
Everywhere is sorrow -
But especially here
in the bay of Shiogama
When I see the boats pull away.

anonymous

- source: www.city.shiogama.miyagi.jp...


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Things found on the way


Click for more images .

Amulets from Shiogama Shrine

hooyoke 方除守 protection in all directions



source : www.shiogamajinja.jp/charm

. Amulets for all eight directions .


. Amulets and Talismans from Japan .　


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HAIKU

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

On 5.8 (6.24) Basho left Sendai, passed through Tofukai Yashiki and went on to Shiogama.

奥の細道絵巻 - 鹽竈神社にて


Basho at Shiogama Shrine
© PHOTO Bashouan

Writes Basho

The following morning, I rose early and did homage to the great god of the Myojin Shrine of Shiogama. This shrine had been rebuilt by the former governor of the province with stately columns, painted beams, and an impressive stone approach, and the morning sun shining directly on the vermillion fencing was almost dazzlingly bright. I was deeply impressed by the fact that the divine power of the gods had penetrated even to the extreme north of our country, and I bowed in humble reverence before the altar.

I noticed an old lantern in front of the shrine. According to the inscription on its iron window, it was dedicated by Izumi no Saburo in the third year of Bunji (1187). My thought immediately flew back across the span of five hundred years to the days of this most faithful warrior. His life is certain evidence that, if one performs one's duty and maintains one's loyalty, fame comes naturally in the wake, for there is hardly anyone now who does not honor him as the flower of chivalry.

It was already close to noon when I left the shrine. I hired a boat and started for the islands of Matsushima.

Matsuo Basho, Tr. Britton

Izumi no Saburo 泉三郎 was the third son of Fujiwara no Hidehira 藤原秀衡 (?-1187) who built the powerful Fujiwara presence at Hiraizumi in the late Heian period. From there he ruled the north. Hidehira opposed Minamoto no Yoritomo and favored Yoshitsune. On his death bed Hidehira ordered his sons to protect Yoshitsune from Yoritomo. Saburo tried to do so and was murdered by his treacherous older brother. He died at the age of 23.


The Stone Lantern from Izumi no Saburo
source -　PHOTO Bashouan

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黒漆ひかりの春の神輿発つ
kuro urushi hikari no haru no mikoshi tatsu

the palanquin of black laquer
shines in the spring sun -
and then starts moving

Kashiwara　Minu　- NHK Haiku July 2007


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Shiogama Minato Matsuri 塩竈みなと祭 Harbour Festival

Shiogama Festival (Shiogama matsuri)

***** Location: Shiogama, Japan
***** Season: Late Summer
***** Category: Observance

Shiogama matsuri 塩釜祭 (しおがままつり)

mizukae shinji 水替神事（みずかえしんじ）
ritual of changing water
Shiogama minatomatsuri 塩釜港祭 Shiogama harbour festival

Main festival at Shiogama shrine, on July 10.

The water of the sacred salt chauldron is exchanged for fresh one, to honor the deity Shiotsuchi no oji no kami 塩土老翁.

other sources quote July 4 - 6 for the festival

Moshio yaki shinji 藻塩焼神事 Ritual of making Moshio salt
On July 4 the seaweed MO is harvested, on the 5th it is washed in the high tide. On July the water of the chauldron is changed and poured over the seaweed.



source : Shiogama Museum Treasures


芭蕉翁見文治灯籠図

Basho visiting Shiogama
painting by Koike Kyokukoo
小池曲江（こいけ　きょくこう）

. WKD : moshio, mojio 藻塩 Salt with seaweed .


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Related words

. Bonten　梵天 　
at the New Year

***** Ceremonies and Festivals Saijiki


. shiogamagiku 塩竈菊 (しおがまぎく)
"chrysanthemum like a pot to boil salt" .
Pedicularis resupinata
and more shiogama flowers


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Shiogama and the long Sanriku coast have been badly damaged by the earthquake
on March 11, 2001.



. Japan after the BIG earthquake March 11, 2011

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