Above: Matsuyama Castle in the fog of Tsuyu or rainy season.

In Japan, there's a certain period of time termed "Tsuyu" or rainy season. The region of Matsuyama has already plunged into the rainy season, and we can see a number of people with umbrellas in their hands in every morning when businessmen are going to their work.

Above: Ohori (The remnant of Matsuyama Castle's water trench) in the shallo fog.

There are actually two ways to refer to the season - "Tsuyu" and "Baiu"; both of them carry the same notion and use the same kanji "梅雨." However, when people refer to Baiu per se at a colloquical level, they usually prefer to call it "Tsuyu." By contrast, when a weather reporter refers to the season at the end of a broadcasting news, she is more than likely to use "Baiu" instead of "Tsuyu" as in saying "The front line of Baiu is approaching to Shikoku pretty quickly, and you are advised to carry an umbrella for possible sudden raining."

Left: The water of Ohori; it is dirty and needs some clean-up. It must be deleterious to the turtles, carps and other living organisms in the water.
Right: A picture from a Japanese home's porch. Tsuyu is especially welcomed by the green.

Japanese language has a myriad of these kinds of synonymous words which are pronounced subtly differently, however, these two are particularly distinct in the difference in the pronounciations. I do not know the origin from which this irregular discrepancy was begotten, however, the language is invariably a first-hand tool to evaluate the country's culture. I surmise the reason to be that there were two kinds of clans which called the rainy season differently from the other, and even when Japan was united as a nation, the two clans continued to use the pronounciation of their own.

The Beautiful amongst the Dark: The water Tsuyu supplies re-invigorates the previously withered red camellia. Camellia, by the way, is the flower symbol of Matsuyama city.

It is undeniable that most Japanese people associate the period of Tsuyu with melancholy because of the invariably dark sky. However, Japan definitely needs enough water to survive the scorching summer which is imminently comming up.

(Editor: iku_yuki)

投稿者 sophia : 2006-6-25 15:31 | コメント (0) | トラックバック (0)