August is the month in which the season words pass from summer to autumn, at Risshū, the Beginning of Autumn (around 7 August). The heat goes on, but from Risshū the words are autumn's, and after Shosho, the End of the Heat (around 23 August), haiku speak of the autumn gale and of lightning.
Our company renku circle (社内連句会) gathered these words month by month, to choose the season word of a renku's opening verse. The old haiku are by poets of the Edo period to the Taishō era; the English versions are ours, kept close to the Japanese.
The season 時候
- 晩夏Summer
- Late summer banka The last part of summer, when within the heat the first signs of its waning begin to show.
- 秋近しSummer
- Autumn is near aki chikashi A word said at the end of summer, sensing that autumn is almost here. 秋近き心の寄や四畳半BashōAutumn near, / hearts drawing close — / a room of four and a half mats
- 秋立つAutumn
- Autumn begins aki tatsu Risshū, the Beginning of Autumn, one of the twenty-four solar terms that divide the year, falls around 7 August; by the calendar, autumn begins on this day.
- 残暑Autumn
- Lingering heat zansho The heat that remains after Risshū, the Beginning of Autumn; at this time people send letters of late-summer greeting, zansho mimai, asking after each other's health.
- 新涼Autumn
- First cool of autumn shinryō The coolness felt at the start of autumn, the freshness that comes after the heat of summer.
Sky and weather 天文
- 秋の風Autumn
- Autumn wind aki no kaze The wind of autumn, written of with a lonely feeling and a chill that goes to the bone. あかあかと日はつれなくも秋の風BashōRed, red, / the sun without pity, / and yet the autumn wind
- 星月夜Autumn
- Starlit night hoshizukiyo A moonless autumn night made as bright as a moonlit one by the light of the stars.
- 天の川Autumn
- Milky Way ama no gawa The countless stars that cross the night sky like a band; they show most clearly on autumn nights. 荒海や佐渡に横たふ天の河BashōThe rough sea — / lying across to Sado, / the Milky Way
- 稲妻Autumn
- Lightning inazuma The flash of lightning in the autumn night sky; it was long believed to make the rice ripen, as its name, "spouse of the rice", tells. 稲妻や闇の方行く五位の声BashōLightning — / going off into the dark, / the cry of a night heron
- 野分Autumn
- Autumn gale nowaki A strong autumn wind that parts the grasses of the fields as it blows; it is what is now called a typhoon. 鳥羽殿へ五六騎いそぐ野分哉BusonTo Toba Palace / five or six horsemen hurry — / the autumn gale
Land and water 地理
- 花野Autumn
- Field of flowers hanano A field where the autumn flowers bloom everywhere in profusion; for all its brightness, a loneliness drifts through it.
Daily life 生活
- 夏休みSummer
- Summer holidays natsuyasumi The long holiday that schools and others give in the hot weeks of summer.
Observances 行事
- 七夕Autumn
- Star Festival tanabata Tanabata, the star festival, when the Herdsman and the Weaver, two stars parted by the Milky Way, are said to meet once a year. It was held on the seventh day of the seventh month of the old calendar, and so it is an autumn word.
- 盆Autumn
- Obon bon The festival at which families welcome back the spirits of their ancestors and honour them; in most regions it is held from 13 to 16 August.
- 墓参Autumn
- Visiting the graves hakamairi Visiting the family graves at Obon; in haiku, a grave visit named with no other word is an autumn word.
- 盆踊Autumn
- Bon dance bon odori Dancing in a ring on the nights of Obon; it began as a way to comfort the spirits of the ancestors.
- 終戦記念日Autumn
- Anniversary of the war's end shūsen kinenbi 15 August, the day in 1945 on which the war ended for Japan: a day to remember the war dead and to pray for peace.
Animals 動物
- 蜩Autumn
- Evening cicada higurashi A cicada that sings at dusk from late summer into autumn, in a clear voice: "kana-kana-kana".
- 法師蝉Autumn
- Monk cicada hōshizemi A cicada that calls "tsuku-tsuku-bōshi" from late summer into early autumn, and so is also called tsukutsuku-bōshi; hōshi, or bōshi, is a Buddhist monk.
Plants 植物
- 朝顔Autumn
- Morning glory asagao A flower that opens on summer mornings and fades by noon; the saijiki counts it as an autumn word. 朝顔に釣瓶とられてもらひ水Chiyo-joBy the morning glory / the well bucket taken — / borrowed water
- 西瓜Autumn
- Watermelon suika Loved as a fruit of summer, but the saijiki counts it as an autumn word.
- 鬼灯Autumn
- Chinese lantern hōzuki A plant whose round berry sits inside a calyx like a little bag that ripens red; it is also used among the decorations for Obon.
- 桔梗Autumn
- Balloon flower kikyō A plant with star-shaped blue-violet flowers in early autumn, one of the seven flowers of autumn.
- 木槿Autumn
- Rose of Sharon mukuge A shrub with white or pale pink flowers in early autumn; each flower fades within a day.
The seasons follow the old calendar, as Japanese books of season words (saijiki) divide them. Around Risshun, Rikka, Risshū and Rittō, the first days of spring, summer, autumn and winter, one month holds the words of two seasons.
To count the sounds of a haiku, try the Haiku Sound Counter.
