Clement, Ernest W.

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THE JAPANESE ELORAL CALENDAR.BY ERNEST W. CLEMENT, M. A.IX. THE NANAKUSA.'"T^IIE word iiaiiakiisa is the name of three categories in Japan.JL It means hterally "seven grasses" and is sometimes apphedto seven kinds of grasses occasionally r.sed together. It is also thename given to the seven vegetables or "greens" eaten on the sev-enth day of the New Year. And the same name is applied to sevenkinds of "flowers" which are used for decorative pnrposes on thespecial occasion of "moon-viewing" on the fifteenth day of theeighth month (d. c. ) or abont the end of September. It will thusbe seen th.at for the present nnml)cr we have been unable to selectany one "flower" as pre-eminently appropriate, although there areplenty of blossoms; and also that this time the "flowers" (which,in this case include "grasses") are a suliordinate element in thegreat festival of viewing the harvest moon.The authorities difi^er as to the flowers included among theiiaiiaku.^a ; but we have chosen the following list:I-Ia!j;i ( les])edeza or bush-clover) ; Obaiia (eulalia) ; Kitzn(pueraria ) ; Xadcshiko (jiink) ; niiiiacshi (patrima) ; Fiiji-bakaiiia(eupatorium) ; .Isir^ao (wild morning-glory).This list has been put into \'erse* b}' an ancient poet, as f( )ll()ws :"]Iagi ga lianaObaiia, A ».c!/-liana,Nadcshiku noHana, omiiiacslii.Mata Fuji-bakaina,Asagao no liana."This verse is meaningless except as a catalogue of the nana-*Chaniljcrlain's I'liiiigs Jal^aiicsc.Till': TAI'ANKSIi FLORA!, CALENDAR. 555kiisa: it cont^iins incrcK their names, witli the repetition oi the \ve)rdluiiuf (blossom) and llie nse ol llie neeessar\- eonneelions.*AUTUMN GRASSES.In spite of the fact that these flowers are used at the autumn^Another list substitutes kikyo (platycodon) for fuji-bakama, and re-arranges the order.i5^> III': (H'EN COURT.moon festival, the //(/<^/ and the siisiiki {^obaiia) are, according toMr. Cinder, amoni^' "flowers prohibited for anspicious occasions."Of the A^arieties of lespedeza the red ranks first.FLOWER VENDER.The hagi (bush-clover) is said to have attached to it several"fables, chief amongst them being that in which it is represented asTHE JATANESE FLORAE CALENDAR. 55/a maid beloved by a stai;-.""'=It also fig-ures, somewbat more per-baps tban tbe otbers of tbis category, in Japanese literature. Tbefollowing" poems are examples:'"The bush-clover wavers tenderly in the mcirnin.u- I)reezc,But the pearls on the leaves enjoy safely iheir brief happiness,"or, concisely :"Ah ! the waving lespedeza.Which spills not a dropOf the clear dew.""The rotten Inish-clover is gathered together,In order to construct the fence of the Imperial palace."f"The deer lying on the bed made of bush-clover,Cries out full of pathos and tenderness.We can not see the form of the lovely creature.But the voice is clear and fascinating.""The sound of the wind is dull and drearAcross Miyagi's dewy lea,And makes me mourn for the motherless deerThat sleeps beneath the Hagi tree."* It is also associated with the sleeping wild boar.t A satire on the men of Hagi in Choshu, because they took a prominentpart in the Restoration of 1S67-8.

The Japanese Floral Calendar. IX. The Nanakusa.

https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1797&amp;context=ocj

The Japanese Floral Calendar. IX. The Nanakusa.

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