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

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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)

O the brightness when March’s voice calls.Fusei Tomiyasu

Here is a haiku by Tomeyasu Fūsei, a poet active from the Taishō to the Shōwa era.

“In March— a voice calls out— how bright it is.” This haiku evokes the gentle, warm signs of spring felt in March.

Until February, the wind can still be cold, and some regions may see snow.

Unlike February, which still carries traces of winter, March brings a feeling that everything around us seems brighter.

It’s curious, isn’t it, that simply turning the calendar to the next month can make such a difference.

Perhaps we feel this way thanks to Japan’s four distinct seasons.

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Nakajima Junko

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Coming along the mountain path, I feel a curious longing—violets.Matsuo Bashō

Matsuo Bashō was a haiku poet who represents the Edo period and a great figure who elevated haiku to an art form on par with waka.

Bashō led a life of traveling and composing haiku.

It is said that on one occasion, while making his way from Kyoto through Fushimi to Ōtsu, he happened to notice violets blooming by the roadside and composed this verse.

In modern phrasing, it would be: While walking along a mountain path, I saw violets blooming by the roadside.

Somehow, they drew my heart.

Though not a showy flower, seeing it bloom modestly may have soothed the weariness of walking the mountain trail.

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kojifumi

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Every year, when the equinox begins, it’s cold.Masaoka Shiki

This is a haiku by Masaoka Shiki, a representative poet of the Meiji era.

There’s a saying, “Heat and cold last only until the equinox,” and this poem describes the beginning of the spring equinox period.

In modern terms, it means, “At the start of the equinox, the cold still lingers as it does every year.” It’s said to have been inspired when Shiki remarked to his mother, “It’s the start of the equinox, yet it’s cold,” and she replied, “It’s like this every year.” Thinking that even a great figure of modern literature like Masaoka Shiki had such everyday conversations somehow makes him feel more relatable.

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kojifumi

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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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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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