Week 20: “Bamboo Shoots Sprout”

May 13 to May 19 is the 20th week of 2024.  This week, we are in the Solar Term of Beginning of Summer (May 05- May 20), and the micro-seasons of “Worms Surface” (May 10 – May 14) and “Bamboo Shoots Sprout” (May 15 – May 20). 

 Basho, Issa, Buson, and Reichhold wrote the poems selected for this week.  

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The 24 Solar Terms 

The 24 solar terms were created by farmers in ancient China  (206 BCE and 24 CE) to help guide their agricultural activities. Each solar term is 15 days long and is based on the climate around Xi’an, the capital of China during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE to 220 CE). ⁽¹⁾

Beginning of Summer

Beginning of Summer is the seventh Solar Term of the year and the first Solar Term of Summer. Lixia (立夏) is the Chinese name for this season.  Lixia means “the end of spring, and the beginning of summer.”⁽²⁾  

A Focus on Health

The Beginning of Summer brings two traditions related to one’s health: checking your weight and focusing on heart health

• Checking your weight: The tradition of weighing yourself during the Beginning of Summer started during the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280).  It is believed that those who weigh themselves at this time will have good luck for the rest of the year.  Those who do not will suffer illness. 

• Heart Health: The second tradition of Beginning of Summer is to eat foods that will “moisten the heart” and help regulate internal temperatures. Recommended foods for heart health include cucumber, tomato, watercress, watermelon, and strawberries. All these foods are cooling in nature and will help you deal with the increasing heat.

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The 72 Seasons

The 72-season calendar was established in 1685 by Japanese astronomer Shibukawa Shunkai.  Each season lasts for about 5 days and offers “a poetic journey through the Japanese year in which the land awakens and blooms with life and activity before returning to slumber.”⁽⁴⁾

The micro-seasons for this week are “Worms Surface” (May 10 – May 14) and “Bamboo Shoots Sprout” (May 15 – May 20).

Seasonal Food: Bamboo Shoots

Bamboo shoots are the young, edible sprouts of the bamboo plant that grow from the rhizomes. Rhizomes are horizontally growing underground stems that produce roots and shoots.

Bamboo shoots are harvested early in the season. The shoots are tender and crisp, sometimes described as being “roughly as soft as an apple” with a texture that is “very similar to a water chestnut.”⁽⁶⁾  Bamboo shoots have an earthy flavor and can range from sweet to bitter.  The shoots are a good source of fiber, vitamins, and minerals like potassium, and are used in many dishes including stir-fries, curries, soups, and salads.  

Takenoko No Nimono (Simmered Bamboo Shoots)

Simmered Bamboo Shoots or Takenoko No Nimono is a fairly simple way of preparing bamboo shoots. In this recipe, bamboo shoots are simmered in a stock seasoned with soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar.  If you use pre-cooked bamboo shoots, this recipe takes about 30 minutes to cook. 

Takenoki No Nimono becomes Takenoko No Tosani when you add bonito flakes.  Bonito flakes are dried, fermented, and smoked fish filets.

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Astronomical Season

May 19, the last day of week 20.  May 19 is 61 days past the spring equinox and 32 days until the summer solstice (June 20, 2024).  

Moon Phases

The Moon reached its first quarter phase on May 15th. The First Quarter is seven days after the New Moon and marks the first quarter of the Moon’s orbit around the Earth.  After the First Quarter, the Moon shifts to its Waxing Gibbous phase. During the Waxing Gibbous phase, the Moon’s illumination increases until it reaches the Full Moon. On May 19, the last day of this week, the Moon is in a Waxing Gibbous phase with 89% illumination. May’s full Moon will occur on May 23.

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Haiku and Kigo 

The kigo, or season word, is one of the key parts of the haiku.  The Yuki Teikei Haiku Society provides us with the following explanation for why we use kigo in haiku. 

“A kigo is a poetic device used in haiku to denote a season; it’s a powerful word or phrase that can conjure up many allusions, historical references, spiritual meanings, and/or cultural traditions. Its use in haiku, a poem of few words, is especially effective because of this power to expand its meaning beyond the literal and to create a larger aura of seasonal mood, historical/ literary context, and/or cultural implications.”⁽⁹⁾

Visit The Haiku Foundation’s “New To Haiku: What is a Kigo?” for more information

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This Week’s Kigo

In The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words selected by Kenkichi Yamamoto “bamboo shoots” and “young green leaves” are early summer kigo.  Remember, according to the 72 seasons and 24 Solar Term calendar, we have entered early summer.

In Jane Reichhold’s A Dictionary of Haiku, “new leaves”, “roots”, and “saplings” are listed as spring kigo. 

Since Reichhold’s Dictionary of Haiku is written for contemporary English language haiku poets, I assume that her seasons follow the meteorological seasons. Meteorological Spring is March 01- May 31.

Referencing the World Kigo Database by Dr. Gabi Greves, Bamboo (take) is not a seasonal word.  However, bamboo can be associated with a season by adding seasonal words.  For example, “bamboo shoots in spring” is a spring kigo, “bamboo sprouts” is a summer kigo, “Bamboo flowers” is a mid-summer kigo, “cutting bamboo” is an autumn kigo and “bamboo decorations’ is a New Year kigo.

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

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Basho

a cuckoo 
in a bamboo thicket 
leaking moonlight 
(translated by Jane Reichhold)

The bush warbler 
From within a fresh bamboo grove, 
Sings his aged song. 
(translated by Thomas McAuley)

A sad confluence - 
everyone in the end turns into 
young bamboo shoots 
(translated by Sam Hamill) 

Issa

living apart
from the bamboo shoots..
wildflowers
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

scratching the face
of a bamboo shoot...
cat's shadow
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

living too long
a cold night at the gate...
moon in bamboo
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

Buson

Flying through lotuses
and bamboo — the heart
of sparrow parents
(translated by Allan Persinger)

A monk’s nephew 
visits the temple — 
bamboo shoots
(translated by Allan Persinger)

Reichhold

silence
columns of earth sprouting
new leaves

transplanted
saplings from the far ridge
all these thoughts

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Haiku invitation

This week’s haiku invitation is to write a haiku or senryu refrencing sprouts! 

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

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About the Haiku

Basho’s haiku were retrieved from “Matsuo Bashō’s haiku poems in romanized Japanese with English translations” Editor: Gábor Terebess.  Issa’s haiku were retrieved from David G. Lanoue’s Haiku Guy. Buson’s haiku was retrieved from Foxfire: the Selected Poems of Yosa Buson, a Translation by Allan Persinger. Sokan’s haiku was retrieved from Haiku Enlightenment by Gabriel Rosenstock. Jane Reichhold’s haiku were retrieved from the Dictionary of Haiku. Kerouac’s haiku was retrieved from Kerouac’s  Book of Haikus.

1. “The 24 Solar Terms”; China Educational Tours
2. “6 Solar Terms of Summer”; China Educational Tours
3. “24 Solar Terms: 5 things you may not know about the Start of Summer”; ChinaDaily.com
4. 72 Seasons App
5. “Japan’s 72 Microseasons”; Nippon.com
6. Fred Hornaday; “Growing Bamboo for Food”: BambuBatu.com

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