[For Seniors] Summer Haiku: Ideas to Feel the Season

Basket-covering, evening rain at the ground cherry market

In addition to this verse, Shūōshi wrote other lyrical and bright haiku such as “When the pears bloom, the fields of Katsushika are somewhat overcast” and “The scent of the home village’s marsh—snake strawberries.” Although he studied haiku under Takahama Kyoshi, he went beyond merely following tradition in his work.

This particular poem depicts how, while strolling through the cheerful Hozuki (Chinese lantern plant) market, one is suddenly caught in an evening rain.

“The basket seller is shielding his baskets,” it says, broadly observing how different people face the rain and weaving that into the scene.

There are various theories about the ‘basket,’ and interpretations differ; if you’re curious, please look into them.

It’s a model example of modern haiku.

The rough sea— across to Sado Island stretches the Milky Way.

What comes to mind when you think of Sado Island? Gold, the Geopark, the Sado-Yahiko-Yoneyama National Park.

Reading this haiku makes you want to travel to Sado, doesn’t it? Believe it or not, Sado Island was connected to Honshu 16 million years ago.

They say the island is still rising due to ongoing crustal movement.

Bashō likely composed a verse while gazing across the sea toward Sado, thinking: the Milky Way spans the sky—measured against the vastness of the universe, this sea and land are but small things.

We can’t say for sure whether his thoughts reached all the way to the cosmos, but there’s no doubt it’s a poem of sweeping scenery.

It’s romantic, isn’t it?

A thin-moon night—the scent of gardenia flowers drifts.

Masaoka Shiki, famous as a haiku poet and man of letters, was also apparently a great baseball fan.

His position was catcher.

It was Shiki who proposed the Japanese translations “dasha” (batter), “sōsha” (runner), and “shikyū” (base on balls) for the foreign terms batter, runner, and four-ball.

Now, to haiku.

The gardenia flower that appears in haiku gives off a jasmine-like fragrance and is a favorite among horticulturists.

The content “On a night when the moon does not shine brightly, the scent of gardenias drifted in from who knows where” is easy to grasp yet quietly profound.

Isn’t the idea of an unseen scent wafting in truly haiku-like?

For lasting use—the spring wanes into dusk—changing of clothes

Do you know the TV drama Kōshoku Ichidai Otoko starring the comedian Sanma Akashiya? Ihara Saikaku, who lived in the Edo period, is actually the original author.

Even though it’s arranged in a modern style, a good story is beloved in any era.

The “nagamon” that appears in the haiku is like what we would now call a clothing chest or storage case.

While switching out seasonal clothes, the entire spring day slipped away.

It feels like warmth will soon turn into heat—this is a quietly reflective verse that contemplates the coming summer.

Cloud peaks—how many crumble into the mountain of the moon?

A clear blue sky is a scene that strongly evokes summer, and you can’t do without those great towering cumulonimbus clouds drifting overhead.

Here’s a haiku by Matsuo Bashō that seems to imagine both the changing size of such a cloud and the passage of time leading up to it.

He describes the cloud’s shifting shape as a mountain collapsing, and that grand choice of words conveys the cloud’s powerful presence.

The way it invites us to ponder how long it has taken to become its current form, and how it has changed along the way, also carries a sense of longing for summer.

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