08/10/2024
A haiku about the seasonal persimmon...
The signs of autumn are gradually deepening.
This is the season when fruits such as pears, grapes,
and apples are delicious.
Among the fruits of autumn, the persimmon is
Japan's national fruit.
Speaking of persimmons, the haiku poem "If you eat
a persimmon, the bell will ring at Horyuji Temple"
by the haiku poet Masaoka Shiki is famous.
This is a haiku that Shiki, a haiku poet in the early
Meiji period,
wrote when he visited Horyuji Temple in
Nara Prefecture.
(At the time, Shiki was suffering from illness, and
it is said that"he did not actually visit Horyuji Temple
and wrote this haiku, but wrote it while lying in bed.")
And this haiku about persimmons was written
on October 26th.
This is also the season when various types of
persimmons ripen bright red,
so the National Fruit Tree Research Association
established it as "Persimmon Day."
Sweet persimmons are available in stores,
but up until the Kamakura period,
the word "kaki" meant astringent persimmons.
The history of persimmons in Japan is long, and
persimmon seed fossils
have been excavated from Jomon and Yayoi period ruins.
Persimmons were in circulation during the Nara period,
and were used in rituals and eaten as an important source
of sugar in the winter.
However, the only persimmons in circulation
at the time were astringent persimmons,
and people ate them as ripe or dried persimmons.
Sweet persimmons were created as a mutant variety
of astringent persimmons during the Kamakura period.
In the Edo period, they were repeatedly improved,
and now there are more than 1,000 varieties of
persimmons in Japan.
Dr. Karl Baer Thunberg, the discoverer of persimmons,
gave them the scientific name "Dios (god) pyros (food)
Kaki" in Greek.
Persimmons are rich in vitamins and minerals, and
have long been considered
an important source of nutrition in Japan.
Furthermore, the old belief that eating nutritious
persimmons will make youhealthy has even led to
the proverb "When persimmons turn red, doctors turn green."
Persimmons may have truly been "food of the gods" to
the people of the past.
Masaoka Shiki, known to be a huge fan of persimmons,
left many other haiku about persimmons.
Persimmons fall, dogs bark in the side streets of Nara.
A bitter persimmon falls, and on the stone it is stepped on.
It might be a good idea to write a haiku while eating
a persimmon in season.
