February 3rd is Risshun(the beginning of spring today).  Perhaps many people think that it is a day of Setsubun.  This is because the setsubun for the past 123 years was set to 3rd, except that Setsubun in 1984 was 4 days.  And for the first time in 124 years, this year’s Setsubun was on the 2nd, and today is the rare calendar year of Risshun.  One year of the calendar is 365 days, but astronomically it is 365 days, which is less than 6 hours, so there is a leap year once every four years, and the lunar calendar is involved, so it becomes complicated like this.  In the nearby plum garden, flowers have begun to bloom on the weeping plums, but the hanging young green branches are still conspicuous.

今日２月３日は立春です。多分節分の日だと思っておられる方は多いのではないでしょうか。1984年の節分が４日であったことを除いては、過去123年間節分は３日と決まっていたからです。そして124年ぶりで今年の節分は２日、そして今日が立春という珍しい暦の年に今年はなりました。暦の１年は365日ですが、天文学的には365日と６時間足らずということで、４年に一度閏年があったり、太陰暦も絡んだりで、こういう複雑なことになります。近くの梅園では、枝垂れ梅にも花が咲き始めましたが、垂れ下がった若緑色の枝がまだまだ目立ちます。

February 2nd is Setsubun today and tomorrow 3rd is Risshun(beginning of spring).  Normally, it is 3rd and 4th, respectively, but this year, Setsubun and Risshun have betwbeen advanced by one day for the first time in 124 years.  In 1984, the 4th was Setsubun, so Setsubun and Risshun may change for the first time in many years.  Speaking of Setsubun, Mame-Maki(a bean-scattering ceremony),  was the mainstream a long time ago, but now Ehomaki has become the mainstream.  Ehomaki is more luxurious and worth eating than beans.  I think this is because, in addition to changes in eating habits, the emphasis has shifted to realistic tastes rather than the meaning of traditional events.

今日２月２日は節分、そして明日３日は立春です。例年ならそれぞれ３日、４日なのですが、なんと今年は124年ぶりに節分、立春が１日早まりました。1984年は４日が節分でしたから、この様に節分、立春の日は何年ぶりかで変わることがあるんですね。節分と言えば、一昔前は豆まきでしたが、今や恵方巻きがすっかり主流になりました。豆よりも恵方巻きの方が豪華で食べがいがありますよね。食生活の変化もさることながら、伝統的な行事の意味よりも現実的な嗜好に重点が移ったからだと思います。

When I show you these pictures, many people say, “It’s a beautiful plum and a warbler.” However, this bird is not a warbler, but a white-eye. The warbler has a beautiful cry, but the color is brown, which is close to brown, and it is not a noticeable color. In the first place, the Japanese bush warbler does not come to the prominent flowers such as plum blossoms, and sings in invisible places such as bushes and bamboo grove. The idiom “Uguisu to Ume” is a symbolic word that is representative of spring and is simply a combination of plums with colors and scents and Uguisu with a beautiful cry. There are many such idioms such as “pine and crane” and “autumn leaves and deer”. Even so, most of the things that have a young green color, such as the warbler rice cake and the warbler bun, have “warbler” attached.

こういう写真をお見せすると、多くの人が「綺麗な梅と鶯ですね。」とおっしゃいます。しかしこの鳥はウグイスではなく、メジロです。ウグイスは鳴き声は綺麗ですが、色は褐色に近い茶色で目立つような色ではありません。そもそも鶯は梅のような目立つ花にはやって来ず、薮や竹林のような人目には付かない所で囀っています。「梅に鶯」という常套句は、春を代表する、色と香りの梅と美しい鳴き声の鶯を組み合わせただけの象徴的な言葉なわけです。「松に鶴」、「紅葉に鹿」のようにこうした常套句は沢山あります。それにしても、鶯餅とか鶯饅頭とか、若緑色をした物には大概「鶯」が付いていますね。

The Wolf Moon is the full moon observed in January.  This year’s Wolf Moon is from January 29th to the next morning. It comes from that Indigenous peoples of the United States called the full moon of January the Wolf Moon, because they heard the howls of wolves that were hungry without food and entered the breeding season in January, when the harsh winter continues.  I’m sure people all over the world are watching.  People who are suffering from corona wreckage, hungry people, people who endure loneliness, I think as if  I can hear their voices that are similar to howling a wolf.  In the streets of Japan, the number of people coming and going is reduced at 8 pm.  Ironically, in the night sky of the city where the lights are off, the brighter Wolf Moon illuminates the whole sky and the feet of those who rush the night road.

ウルフムーンとは、1月に観測される満月のことを言います。今年のウルフムーンは１月29日から翌朝にかけてです。厳しい冬が続く1月に、食料が尽きてお腹を空かせたり、繁殖期を迎えたりする狼の遠吠えが聞こえることから、アメリカの先住民達が1月の満月をウルフムーンと呼んだことに由来します。きっと世界中の人が見詰めています。コロナ禍に苦しんでるいる人、飢えた人、孤独に耐えている人、狼の遠吠えにも似た声が聞こえて来そうです。日本の街中では、夜８時にもなれば人の行き来が、さすがに少なくなります。明かりも消えた街の夜空には、皮肉なことに、いっそう明るいウルフムーンが全天を照らし、夜道を急ぐ人達の足元も照らしています。

The best countermeasure for infectious diseases is stay home.  It is the very “infectious disease” because people get in contact with each other and get infected.  At least on Saturdays and Sundays, if all the Japanese people stay home, the effect will be greatest.  Even if it’s going not to work that way, I think that the effect will be improved if everyone is aware of it. So today, I had Zenzai at the shop-style in my house.  By the way, it is said that only non-juicy An(bean paste) is called “Zenzai” in Kanto region while in Kansai, the soup with An is called “Zenzai”.  Kanto-style Zenzai is called “Ogura” or “Kameyama” in Kansai.  Besides, the kanji “Zenzai” can also be read as “yoki kana(good tast)”.  Ikkyu-san named it.

感染症の一番の対策はステイホームです。人と人が接触して感染るからまさしく感染症で、接触しなければ感染らない。せめて土日は日本国民全員がステイホームしたら、効果絶大なんですがねぇ。そう言う訳には行かないにしろ、皆がそう言う意識を持つだけでも効果は上がると思いますよ。と言う訳で、今日はお店仕立てのお善哉。このお善哉、関東地方では、汁気のない餡だけのものを「ぜんざい」と呼ぶそうで、関西では、粒餡の汁物を「ぜんざい」とよびます。関東風の善哉は、関西では「小倉」とか「亀山」と呼んでいます。ちなみに「善哉」は「善きかな」とも読めて、一休さんが命名したとか。

The old plum tree, which the knotted trunks and branches are covered with moss and parasitized by Noxinobu, are blooming beautifully this year as well.  The vitality to make such flowers bloom even when it is old is just amazing.  Even in the same life form, some woody plants are hundreds of years old, and some are thousands of years old, but plums are said to be a few hundred years old at the longest. It is said that the plums that bear fruit are about the same as the lifespan of a person.  Even so, I envy it because it blooms to the end and bears fruit.

節くれだった幹や枝には苔が覆い、ノキシノブが寄生する梅の古木に、今年も見事な花を咲かせています。老いてもこれだけの花を咲かせる生命力には只々驚くばかりです。同じ生命体でも、木本系の植物には樹齢何百年、中には何千年と言う木々がありますが、梅は長くて二三百年と言われています。実を採る梅は人の寿命と同じ位だそうです。それにしても、最後まで花を咲かせ、実を付けるのですから、やはり羨ましい限りです。

Snow covering the town.  A white cloud that floats sideways as if it covers it.  Mt. Fuji towering through the white clouds.  It is a typical winter scenery in Japan.  Even though both the people who live and the house standing under the white clouds change with the times, the towering Mt. Fuji beyond these has not changed.  People’s hearts move in the scenery of the eternity and mutability scenery.  However, those who move their hearts eventually collapse and disappear like the white cloud.  The winter scenery of Mt. Fuji today is also my own mental scenery.

町を覆う雪。それに被さるかの様に横にたなびく白雲。その白雲を抜けて聳える富士の嶺。日本の典型的な冬景色です。白雲を隔てて、住む人と住みかは時代とともに変わっても、その向こうに聳える富士山は今も昔も変わりません。常と無常が綾なす景色に人の心が動きます。しかし、心動かす人もやがては潰え、白雲と同じように消えて行きます。今日の富士の冬景色は今の自分の心象風景でもあります。

Suisen(Narcissus) is in full bloom.  However, the figures are sparse.  Perhaps because it’s cold, or by chance, no one is sitting on the scarlet felt bench with a red umbrella.  After all it is the influence of the corona.  Speaking of which, there are no events having been held every year and the lonely scenery is spreading.  Breaking news that the number of people infected with corona in the world has exceeded 100 million has jumped into my smartphone.  It is said that an estimated 400 million people were infected with the Spanish flu 100 years ago, so it is still unpredictable whether it will continue to spread this time or whether a developing vaccine will stop it.   It is cloudy to see the long awaited daffodils.

水仙が花盛りです。なのに、人影がまばらです。寒いからなのか、たまたまのか、折角しつらえた赤い番傘と緋毛氈を敷いた床几には誰も座っていません。やはりコロナの影響でしょう。そう言えば、例年催される催し物もなく寂しい風景が広がっています。世界のコロナ感染者が１億人を超えたと言うニュース速報がスマホに飛び込んできました。100年前のスペイン風邪では、推定４億人が感染したそうですから、今回もまだまだ拡大していくのか、開発途上のワクチンがそれを食い止めるのか、まだまだ予断を許しません。折角の水仙を見る目も曇ります。

I decorated the room with the plum branches I received.  The room is closed except for the ventilation windows. So the scent of plum blossoms spreads in the rooms, making me feel as if I’m  in a plum garden.  Flowers now mean cherry blossoms, and until the early Heian period, they meant plum blossoms.  For example, the flower that appears most often in the Manyoshu is Hagi, followed by plum blossoms.  Cherry blossoms rarely appear.  I think this transition is an interesting theme in Japanese cultural theory, but I don’t see or hear much about it.  Both plum and cherry blossoms are spring season words in haiku, but the difference is that plum blossoms bloom when it is still cold, but cherry blossoms blossom in the mid-spring.  There is also the difference that plum blossoms are scented flowers and cherry blossoms are flowers seen.  The main character of the flower may have changed due to these differences.

頂いた梅の切り枝を部屋に飾りました。換気窓以外は締め切っている部屋部屋に梅の香りが広がり、まるで梅園にいるかの様です。花と言えば今は桜ですが、平安時代初期の頃までは、花と言えば梅でした。例えば、万葉集で最もよく登場する花は萩で、次が梅。桜はほとんど登場しません。この変遷は日本の文化論として面白いテーマだと思いますが、あまり見聞きしません。梅も桜も俳句では春の季語ですが、梅はまだ寒い頃、桜は春の真っ只中という違い。梅は香りの花で桜は見る花という違い。こんなことから、花の主人公が変わったのかも知れません。

The snow melted completely, and Fukinotoh(butterbur sprout), which perhaps felt the arrival of spring, appeared.  In the past, there were places where it was clustered near the stream, but recently it has become less plated.  Fukinotoh that begins to appear has no lye odor, and the bittersweet taste spreads in the mouth, which is appetizing.  It is already spring when the moss colored the brown gradually begins to turn green.  Ume(Plum) bloom, Hizakura(scarlet cherry) blossoms bloom, many people come and go, and the area begins to make noise.  Well,well, I hope this spring will be the usual spring.

雪がすっかり解けて、春の訪れを感じたのか、蕗の薹が顔を出しました。昔は小川の近くに群生している所もありましたが、最近はめっきり少なくなりました。出始めの蕗の薹は灰汁臭さもなく、ほろ苦い味が口に広がる感触が食欲をそそります。色茶けた周りの苔も徐々に緑味を帯び始めるともう春です。梅が咲き、緋桜が咲き、行き交う人も多くなって、辺りが騒めきはじめます。さてさて、今年の春もいつもの春になって欲しいと願います。