Japanese having moment to relax in coolness in autumn

Sept. 22, 2009

Japanese having moment to relax in coolness in autumn


Autumn has come quickly this year to Japan. The mercury rises to about the same level as in summer in the daytime, but it is much cooler early in the morning and in the evening. Japan had a politically hot summer this year, paving the way for the first party-to-party transfer of power in 50 years. But voters are turning their eyes back to their busy daily life.
“Summer heats and the cold in winter linger, but only until the equinox days,” a Japanese proverb says. The autumnal equinox and the vernal equinox represent the full start of autumn and spring for Japanese, with Buddhist services held for ancestors during the equinoctial weeks.
The sky in summer was occupied by big columns of cumulonimbus or thunderheads, but they have been replaced by fleecy clouds on gentle autumn winds.
A waka poem included in the Kokinwakashu poem anthology of the Heian period goes:

There is no visible sign that autumn has clearly come,
but the sound of winds tells me so.
(A personal translation)

The poem, which leads the autumn section of the anthology, was composed by Toshiyuki Fujiwara, the poet who was active late in the ninth century. The poem depicts thin signs of autumn on a cool windy day, and it has been loved by many Japanese because of its intellectual but refreshing tone and rhythm.
Autumn has many faces for the season-conscious Japanese. Autumn is a season of art, a season of appetite, and a season for thinking calmly. People come up with the results of their studies during the hot summer.
As the dust of the crucial elections at the end of August is settling down, Japanese people are concerned now about the resumed spread of swine flu throughout the country. The death of a seven-year-old boy was linked to the epidemic this week, becoming the 18th fatal case in Japan. People should be busy watching the news about the flu and the course of new Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s initiative to revamp Japan’s politics in the months ahead.