＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49) on X
(Reference) Original article in Japanese
I previously wrote an article on the “History and Evolution of Seasonal Words,” and some seasonal words include phenomena, events, or plants and animals that are rarely seen today and are no longer even mentioned by people.
The popular young storyteller, Kanda Hakuzan, famously called storytelling an “endangered profession,” and indeed, many things are naturally selected out due to changes in social lifestyles, the decline of customs and annual events, and changes in the natural environment.
When listening to classical rakugo (traditional Japanese comic storytelling), professions unfamiliar to us today, such as “ikakeya” (metal repairman), often appear. In such stories, the storyteller sometimes provides an easy-to-understand explanation in the “makura” (introduction) before the main story begins.
Similarly, some seasonal words are like fossils that are forgotten and decay with the passage of time—”ancient seasonal words.”
Therefore, this time, I would like to introduce some rare seasonal words that are unfamiliar to us today, although they are not quite “ancient seasonal words.”
1. Kamaitachi (sickle weasel)
鎌鼬（かまいたち）
“Kamaitachi” is a seasonal word for “winter.” A related seasonal word is “Kamakaze” (sickle wind).
“Kamaitachi” refers to the phenomenon where, when a sudden, cold whirlwind blows, a vacuum is created in the air. When a person comes into contact with this vacuum, the air inside their body tries to quickly equalize, causing the skin to tear and bleed as if cut by a sharp blade.
It’s as if cut by a sharp sickle, and people in the past believed it was the work of a mythical creature resembling a weasel, hence the name. This phenomenon is common in the Tohoku and Hokuriku regions during winter.
I live in the warm Osaka prefecture, so I’ve never experienced a “Kamaitachi,” but I imagine it feels like cutting your finger with new paper.
There’s a comedy duo called “Kamaitachi” that won “King of Comedy 2017.” They initially wrote their name as “Kamaitachi.” The intention was to “use kanji that are difficult to read at first sight, hoping to become so popular that everyone will be able to read them,” but it was too difficult to read and people couldn’t remember it, so they apparently changed their duo name to one in hiragana.
Examples of haiku include the following:
* A sickle weasel falls over, carrying a pile of reeds – Mizuhara Shūōshi
* The hoe he was carrying is thrown, but it misses the sickle weasel – Tsuchiyama Sanhumei
* The sickle weasel makes the Grim Reaper fall on his backside – Hayashi Shō
* Selling books, a sickle weasel lingers in the back of my mind – Akao Tōshi
・鎌鼬萱（かや）負ふ人の倒れけり 水原秋櫻子
・擔（かつ）ぐ鍬（くわ）投げて當（あた）らず鎌鼬 土山山不鳴
・死神に尻餅つかせ鎌鼬 林翔
・本を売り心の隅に鎌鼬 赤尾兜子
2. Kusurigari（Medicinal Herb Hunting）
薬狩（くすりがり）
“Kusurigari” (薬狩り) is a seasonal word for “summer.” Related seasonal words include “Yakusō no Hi” (薬の日), “Yakusō Tsumi” (薬草摘), “Hyakusō Tsumi” (百草摘), “Kusurigari” (薬猟), and “Yakusō Karu” (薬草刈る).
“Kusurigari” refers to “the act of going out into the mountains and fields on May 5th, the Tango no Sekku (Boys’ Festival), to collect medicinal herbs, roots, and bark.” The medicines collected on Tango no Sekku were believed to have special efficacy. This custom originated in China. This custom seems to have completely disappeared today.
Women would go out into the fields to collect medicinal herbs, while men would hunt deer and use their antlers as medicine.
Example haiku include:
* Medicinal herbs, kept secret from the medicinal hunter – Fujita Shikaku
* On the day of medicine, without even laying down a mat to dry mugwort – Kawahigashi Hekigoto
・薬狩人には秘めしいかり草 藤田子角
・蓬（よもぎ）干す莚（むしろ）ものべぬ薬の日 河東碧梧桐
3.Kokuzō（Grain Elephant）
穀象（こくぞう）
“Grain weevil” is a seasonal word for summer. Related seasonal words include “grain weevil,” “elephant trunk beetle,” “rice weevil,” “rice bug,” and “night bug.”
A grain weevil is a small, dark brown beetle, 2-3 mm long, belonging to the family Curculionidae. It bores holes into rice embryos to lay its eggs, and the larvae feed on the rice, making it a pest of rice. It gets its name from the way the tip of its head protrudes like an elephant’s trunk.
When I was a child, I occasionally found them in the rice bin, but nowadays, rice sold in 5kg bags at supermarkets is treated with pesticides, so grain weevils are no longer seen at all.
Example haiku are as follows:
* The slow escape of the grain elephant is not disliked – Naonori Hayashi
* The grain elephant shakes its head as it swims over the rice – Koji Kobayashi
* Drying rice like a desert for the grain elephant – Kyoko Matsubara
* The grain elephant hurries like an old woman – Chikuson Fujioka
・穀象の遅き逃足憎まれず 林直入
・首振って穀象泳ぐ合（ごう）の米 小林康治
・穀象に砂漠の如く米を干す 松原恭子
・穀象が老婆のごとく急ぐなり 藤岡筑邨
4. Shimi（Silverfish）
紙魚（しみ）
“Silverfish” is a seasonal word for “summer.” Related seasonal words include “clothing fish” and “mica beetle.”
A “silverfish” is a general term for primitive insects of the family Lepidophoridae. They are covered in silvery scales, move quickly, and are pests that feed on anything with starch, such as clothing and paper. They are rarely seen these days.
When I was a child, I lived in an old Kyoto townhouse built in the 1880s. On the second floor, there was a dimly lit storage room called the “ochima.” It took courage to go in alone at night, shining a flashlight.
Inside, there were old chests and screens containing old kimonos used by people of the past, old tools whose purpose I didn’t know, and old books.
One afternoon during summer vacation, I opened an old book in that ochima and was surprised to see a small, silvery-white insect, like a deep-sea fish, emerge. That was a “silverfish.” It was a strange, slightly creepy insect.
Here are some example haiku:
* Fleeing, even among the silverfish, there are parents and children. – Kobayashi Issa
* A photograph of a dead face appears, and the silverfish hide. – Watanabe Suiha
* After the silverfish, the eaves form the shape of a hi (fire) or shi (earth) character. – Takahama Kyoshi
* The silverfish’s offspring are the same silver as their parents. – Yamaguchi Hatsume
・逃るなり紙魚の中にも親よ子よ 小林一茶
・死顔の写真出でて紙魚かくれけり 渡辺水巴
・紙魚のあとひさしのひの字しの字かな 高浜虚子
・紙魚の子の子として親と銀同じ 山口波津女