[For Seniors] Haiku for March: Enjoying a Spring Moment with Famous Verses

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I worked as a physical therapist at a general hospital for about four years. I’ve supported a wide range of patients, from those needing emergency rehabilitation to those doing rehabilitation at home at a comfortable pace. As a writer, I’d be happy to share health-related information with many people. Thank you, and I look forward to working with you!

As March arrives, the days gradually grow warmer, and there are more moments when we can feel the coming of spring.

Haiku that capture these seasonal changes in the 5-7-5 form are perfect for recreational activities for older adults.

Famous verses that depict March’s unique scenes—such as the Doll’s Festival, fields of rapeseed blossoms, and the song of the bush warbler—carry a comforting warmth that soothes the heart just by reading them.

This time, we will introduce March haiku, focusing on approachable poets like Kobayashi Issa and Masaoka Shiki.

Why not savor a spring moment while recalling nostalgic landscapes?

[For Seniors] Haiku for March: Enjoying a Spring Moment with Famous Verses (21–30)

Dejectedly, stumbling as I pluck—horsetails.Takarai Kikaku

The seasonal word is “tsukushi,” read as “tsukushi.” For many people, spring immediately calls to mind tsukushi, doesn’t it? You can play with them, and they’re delicious simmered in soy sauce, too! This poem is a spring verse with tsukushi as its theme, but it doesn’t feel particularly cheerful.

Because of the word “sugosugoto,” which conveys a plodding, quietly persistent manner, it gives the impression of someone gathering tsukushi as if it were mere labor.

It makes you wonder why they’re picking tsukushi, doesn’t it?

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sasashina

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In both hands, peach and cherry, and kusa-mochiMatsuo Bashō

A verse in which Matsuo Bashō feels the delights of spring just as they are.

In spring, as he takes in the beauty of peach and cherry blossoms in full bloom, Bashō feels as if he is cradling spring’s fragrance and colors in both hands.

The kusa no mochi that appears here is a spring wagashi made with mugwort, embodying the very essence of spring in both scent and taste.

Kusa-mochi has long been eaten during spring festivals and seasonal observances and is a familiar seasonal word.

Reading this verse, you can sense spring’s joy gathering in your palms, as if savoring at once the blossoms’ hues and aromas and the gentle flavor of kusa-mochi—an uplifting, buoyant feeling.

Bashō gently wrapped the blessings of spring he saw and felt in simple, tender words.

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kepiko

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Hometown—whichever way I look, the mountains smile.Masaoka Shiki

Let me introduce a work that evokes a bright spring scene.

This haiku is said to have been composed by Masaoka Shiki as he thought of spring in his hometown.

The seasonal word is “yamawarau” (“the mountains smile”), which conjures a warm landscape brimming with life, as if the grasses and flowers on the spring mountains are sprouting all at once.

The phrase “whichever way you look” tells us that you can feel the signs of spring no matter where you look.

Spring is a season that makes everyone’s heart dance; Masaoka Shiki, who composed this poem, surely felt the same.

It is a piece that makes you recall your hometown’s spring and gently close your eyes.

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sasashina

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Rape blossoms— the moon in the east, the sun in the westYosa Buson

Yosa Buson, one of the three great masters of haiku in the Edo period.

Though a haiku poet, Buson was also a painter, and his haiku are praised for conjuring scenes that rise before the eyes like paintings.

The setting of this poem is Mount Maya in the Rokko Mountains, located in present-day Kobe.

In Buson’s time, Kobe was a major producer of rapeseed oil, and fields of blooming rapeseed stretched as far as the eye could see.

It is said that when Buson climbed Mount Maya and reached evening, he happened to look down and was captivated by the rapeseed fields spread out below, inspiring this haiku.

A vast field of rapeseed lit by the setting sun, and, opposite the sunset, a faintly visible moon—this poem invites even us, who were not there, to imagine that scene.

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kojifumi

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A nightingale— when the shoji slide open, Higashiyama.Soseki Natsume

This is a haiku by Natsume Sōseki, renowned as a leading literary figure of the Meiji era.

“Uguisu ya shōji akureba Higashiyama” evokes a gentle spring day from the opening word, uguisu (bush warbler).

In Kyoto, hearing the uguisu and sliding open the shōji carries a sense of refined beauty.

Beyond the opened shōji, an unexpected vista of Higashiyama must have unfolded.

One can imagine a magnificent scene where blossoming cherry trees mingle with the rivers flowing through the city and its buildings—truly breathtaking.

It seems Sōseki himself was captivated by the beauty.

It’s easy to think this was a moment that prompted him to compose the haiku on the spot.

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Nakajima Junko

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Evening cherry blossoms—today, too, has turned into the past.Kobayashi Issa

Kobayashi Issa is one of the representative haiku poets of the Edo period, alongside Matsuo Bashō and Yosa Buson, and he established a distinctive haiku style known as Issa-chō.

Rendered in modern language, this poem means that even the beauty of the evening cherry blossoms before our eyes is already turning into the past as we look at it.

The present moment does not last; its beauty is fleeting.

It reminds us, even amid our busy daily lives, of the importance of pausing to gaze at the scenery around us and what is right in front of us.

It is a poem that teaches us the value of having that kind of spaciousness in our hearts.

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kojifumi

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Even this humble grass-thatched hut—now time to move; it becomes a doll’s house.Matsuo Bashō

Matsuo Bashō, known as the Saint of Haiku, is the most famous haiku poet in Japan—said to be known by everyone.

From his forties onward, Bashō spent his days traveling and composing haiku, and he had been thinking that once it grew warm, he wanted to journey to the Tōhoku region he had yet to see.

At last, he made up his mind.

He sold the house he had been living in to fund his travels.

The poem he composed at that time is this one.

In modern language, it means: “It’s finally time to part with this shabby little house.

Perhaps the person who lives here after me will someday decorate it with Hina dolls and make it look splendid.” It reflects on the life he had led and imagines the life of a yet-unknown future resident.

Thinking that this decision led to the journey that gave birth to The Narrow Road to the Deep North, one can almost feel a fragment of Bashō’s state of mind.

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kojifumi

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