As the warm weather continues into December, a kigo (season word) for this type of weather comes to mind. Let's look at a haiku I enjoy using it.

The teabowl in question, tenmoku, is a fairly high-end and expensive tea bowl, literally sky-eye. You can maybe get a feeling as to why it's called that by looking at it. Here's one:

The poem is open to interpretation, but I'd say Kikusha-ni is paying a compliment on the teabowl, saying the design is suggestive of the "little spring" weather. The tea itself is then suggestive of clouds moving around. It feels to me like this haiku was written as a compliment to the tea master who led a tea ceremony she attended. Kikusha-ni was a accomplished tea master herself, so she might have been the one hosting a tea ceremony and was instead complimenting the tea bowl maker.

Little spring is when it gets warm again during the beginning of winter. In English we sometimes say Indian Summer for this period. This is a kigo (season word) for early winter, roughly 11/8~12/6. We are past that point now, but this year I feel this fits quite well with right now. Just the other day we had 18 degree (64°F) weather! If this keeps up, this entire winter could be a little spring.

Kikusha-ni was one of the few female poets of pre-modern times. She married at 16 but her husband soon died and she returned home. Shortly after, she began her study of haiku and quickly became very skilled at it. Later in life she became a nun of the Pure Land sect, the same that Chiyo-ni had joined a half-century before.

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.

1. That is, me! If you like this translation, feel free to use it. Just credit me. Also link here if you can. ↩