Micro-Season: “White Dew On Grass” (2023)

September 07 – September 11 is the micro-season of “White Dew on Grass”.  This is the first micro-season of the season of White Dew.  All the micro-seasons within White Dew are:

• White Dew on Grass (Sep 07 – Sep 11)
• The Wagtail Calls (Sep 12 – Sep 16) 
• The Swallows Leave (Sep 17 – Sep 21)

These seasons were established in 1685 by Japanese astronomer Shibukawa Shunkai. While they are specific to Japan, you can use them as a starting point to explore your environment.

To celebrate this season, we will learn a little bit about dew and then read haiku by Issa, Basho, and Buson.

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What Is Dew

“Dew” is the term used to identify “the moisture that forms as a result of condensation”⁽¹⁾. Dew typically forms in the morning on objects near the ground.

The “dew point” is the temperature at which water vapor turns into water droplets. Generally, a lower dew point feels more comfortable. To illustrate this a little more, a dew point in the 50s feels pleasant, while a dew point in the 70s is unpleasant and indicates high humidity.

For more information about dew and humidity, check out our recent post on “Damp Earth Humid Heat“.

How Dew Is Formed 

Dew forms on objects that don’t conduct heat well. This happens because these objects lose heat rapidly and cool the air around them. This cooling effect causes water vapor to condense into water droplets on the surface of these objects.⁽²⁾

Air temperature and humidity are very important for the formation of dew.  Optimal conditions for dew formation include:

• Warm days
• High humidity
• Light winds
• Moisture in the soil, and 
• Clear night skies that allow for cooling

Conditions that can disrupt the formation of dew include:

• High winds –  High winds have the potential to mix air masses with different moisture contents.
• Cold temperatures – Once the temperature reaches 32 °F (0°C) the condensing water turns into frost instead of dew.
• Arid/dry climates –  Regions that have low humidity are less likely to have enough moisture in the ground or air to create dew.

The Symbolism Of Dew

In the World Kigo Database, Dr. Gabi Greves writes about the potential meaning of dew in Japanese literature. She explains that dew “has been used as a symbol of autumn in Japanese poetry since the Heian period. . . .Since it refers to something that loses its being when the sun starts shining, it is a symbol of the fleeting life itself. In Buddhism, death is just a step to another way of being, and the time spent with the ancestors is so much longer than the time spent here on this earth. Dewdrops are the perfect metaphor for the changes in the natural circle of all things, like the shells of cicadas.”⁽⁴⁾

Similarly, Leanne Ogasawara writes in 3 Quarks Daily

“In Japan, these pearly gems are not only treasured for their gem-like beauty, but they are also appreciated for their fleetingness; which, like scattering cherry blossoms, are likened to the transience of our human existence. For life, like the disappearing dewdrops in the morning sunlight, is too often cut short. In this way, dewdrops have been considered, since ancient times, along with “scattering flowers and fallen leaves” as a poetic metaphor for impermanence, or mujo.”

Ogasawara also writes, “That everything is in flux and that all must eventually perish is a sad but inevitable fact that somehow seems all the more apparent in this season of sparse autumn grass, disappearing dewdrops and sudden, passing thunderstorms.”

Who knew there was so much meaning in a tiny drop of water!

To read Leanne Ogasawara’s full article visit: “The Time Of White Dew (白露)” on 3 Quarks Daily.

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Seasonal Haiku

The World Kigo Database tells us that “Dew” (tsuyu) is a general kigo for autumn. However, there are some variations including “first dew”, which references early autumn, and “frozen dew” or “cold dew”, which are associated with late autumn.

Dew can also be found in other seasons when placed next to different seasonal references like “winter” or “summer” and thus “dew” becomes “winter dew” or “dew in summer’.

In A Dictionary of Haiku, Jane Reichhold tells us that “morning dew” is an autumn kigo.

In The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words as selected by Kenkichi Yamamoto, “dew”, “dew chill”, or “dew frost” are also listed as potential autumn kigo.

Now, with all this in mind, let’s read some haiku.

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Issa

happily watching
the dewdrops forming...
a frog
(Translated by David Lanoue)

not thinking that
tomorrow I'll be smoke...
grassy dew
(Translated by David Lanoue)

this world of dew-
is yes, a world of dew
and yet…
(translated by Patricia Donegan)

This last haiku was written shortly after the death of Issa’s one-year-old daughter.

Leanne Ogasawara writes the following about on this poem, “I really like the translation since she emphasizes the sorrow of things. ‘Yes,’ says Issa, life is fleeting and precarious. filled with sadness. Like dewdrops fated to fade away in the morning sunshine, our lives are all too fragile. Yet even in knowing this, still the poet whispers ‘and yet…'”

Basho

trembling feeble
yet even more so with dew
lady flowers 
(translated by Jane Reichhold)

first mushroom-
just a few days into the season,
autumn dew. 
(translated by David Landis Barnhill)

without dropping 
its bright white dew, 
a bush clover sways 
(translated by David Landis Barnhill)

Buson

The dewy grass
silently cries
in the sunset
(translated by Allan Persinger)

I lift the lit
lantern up three times
amidst the dew
(translated by Allan Persinger)

A flash of lightning!
The sound of dew
Dripping down the bamboos
(Translated by R. H. Blyth)

R. H. Blyth writes this about this last haiku: “As Buson stands in the bamboo forest in the early morning, there is a flash of lightning; the whole of nature seems in a state of tension, the mind of the listener with it. At this moment of suspense, the drip-drip of dew falling through the bamboo grove is felt so deeply, it can hardly be called hearing.”

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A Haiku Invitation

This week’s haiku invitation is to write a haiku or senryu using “dew” as inspiration.

Share your haiku in the comments below, or post on your own page and link back. I can’t wait to read what you write!

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Thank You!

Resources:

1. “Dew”; National Geographic
2. “Dew”; Wikipedia
3. Jeff Haby, “The Forecasting Dew”; Weather.gov
4. “Dew (tsuyu)”; World Kigo Database
5.  Ogasawara, Leanne; “The Time Of White Dew (白露)” . 3 Quarks Daily 
6. “Heart Sutra”; Encylopedia of Buddhism

Issa’s haiku were retrieved from HaikuGuy.com by David G. Lanoue and “The Time Of White Dew’ by Leanne Ogasawara.  Basho’s haiku was retrieved from Matsuo Bashō’s haiku poems in romanized Japanese with English translations. Buson’s haiku was retrieved from Foxfire: The Selected Poems of Yosa Buson and Haiku Vol. III By R.H. Blyth