Week 25: “Summer Solstice”

June 17- June 23 is the 25th week of 2024.  This week, we enter the Solar Term of Summer Solstice (June 21 – July 06).  “Plums Turn Yellow” (June 16 June 20) and “Self-Heal Withers” (June 21 – 26) are the micro-seasons for this week.

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⁾

Summer Solstice

Summer Solstice is the tenth Solar Term of the year and the fourth Solar Term of Summer. Xiazhi (夏至) is the Chinese name for this season. Xiazhi means “heat is to come”,⁽²⁾ which acknowledges that Summer Solstice is just the beginning of the warm weather, the real heat comes mid-July to mid-August.

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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  “Plums Turn Yellow” (June 16 June 20) and “Self-Heal Withers” (June 21 – 26).

Japanese Plum

The Japanese plum (Prunus mume) is a deciduous tree in the Rosaceae (Rose) family. Other fruit trees in this family are plums, cherries, peaches, and nectarines.

The fruit of the Japanese plum tree begins to develop shortly after the flowers drop and will continue to grow until it is ripe in mid-June or July.  The ripening of the fruit coincides with the beginning of the rainy season known as meiyu or plum rain. In most regions, plum rain lasts from early June to mid-July. 

The fruit of the Japanese plum is a type of drupe or stone fruit.  A stone fruit “is derived from a single ovary of an individual flower. The outer layer of the ovary wall is a thin skin or peel, the middle layer is thick and usually fleshy (though sometimes tough, as in the almond, or fibrous, as in the coconut), and the inner layer, known as the pit, or putamen, is hard and stony. The pit, which is often confused with the seed itself, usually has one seed or, rarely, two or three, in which case only one develops fully.”⁽⁶⁾

While the fruit of the Japanese plum is edible, it is considered too bitter to be eaten right off the tree.  It can, however, be used to make plum wine, salted plums, and tea syrup. The fruit is also used in various jams and preserves. 

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Astronomical Season

June 23, the last day of week 25, is three days past the June Solstice (June 20, 2024).  

The June Solstice

In the Northern Hemisphere, the June Solstice, also referred to as the Summer Solstice, marks the time when the Sun reaches its highest point in the sky. At this time we experience the longest day and shortest night of the year. In contrast, the Winter Solstice, which happens at the opposite time of the year, brings the shortest day and longest night, or the least amount of sunlight in a 24-hour period.

The summer solstice also marks the beginning of astronomical summer. This year, the summer solstice took place on June 20, 2024, at 4:50 PM.

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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 “hot”, “summer-like”, “mid-summer rain”, and “plum rain/rainy season” are all potential kigo.

 In Jane Reichhold’s A Dictionary of Haiku,  “sun”, “hot day”, and “long day” are all relevant summer kigo.

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

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Basho

Pouring the hot day 
into the sea– 
Mogami River 
(translated by Haruo Shirane) 

a falling sound 
that sours my ears 
plum rain 
translated by Jane Reichhold)

path of the sun 
the hollyhock leans into 
early summer rain 
(translated by Jane Reichhold)

Issa

shaking her body
in the summer rain...
maiden flower
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

in the hot day
what's buried there?
crow
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

Buson

A summer rain--
the terraced rice fields
have become dark
(translated by Allan Persinger)

In the hot day
a sword is changed
for a fan
(translated by Allan Persinger)

Reichhold

long day
waiting for the cove
to fill with water

without wind
desert sun slides into
the narrowest crack

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Haiku Invitation

This week’s haiku invitation is to write a haiku or senryu about the June Solstice or Summer Solstice.

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

Formatting Note:  To eliminate the spaces between the lines of your haiku, hit shift-enter at the end of the line.  For example,

one (shift-enter)
line two (shift-enter)
the third line (shift-enter)

Thanks to LaMon for sharing these instructions!

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Thank You!

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. Jane Reichhold’s haiku were retrieved from the Dictionary of Haiku. 

1. “The 24 Solar Terms”; China Educational Tours
2. “6 Solar Terms of Summer”; China Educational Tours
3. 72 Seasons App
4. “Japan’s 72 Microseasons”; Nippon.com
5. “Prunus mume”; Wikipedia
6. “Drupe; Brittanica