Hyakunin Isshu Oracle

No.98 従二位家隆(藤原家隆)「風そよぐ 楢の小川の 夕暮は 禊ぞ夏の しるしなりける」

風そよぐ 楢の小川の 夕暮は 禊ぞ夏の しるしなりける

従二位家隆(藤原家隆)

they are washing in the stream — that is how summer starts

they are washing in the stream — that is how summer starts

キーワードKeywords

Purification RiteSmall StreamRustling WindSummer SignEvening
Nature/Seasons Summer

従二位家隆(藤原家隆)Fujiwara no Ietaka — No. 98 公卿Court Noble

A leading poet of the Shin Kokinshū alongside Teika, who kept writing into a life of nearly ninety years.

かぜそよぐ ならのをがはの ゆふぐれは みそぎぞなつの しるしなりける

Kaze soyogu Nara no ogawa no Yūgure wa Misogi zo natsu no Shirushi nari keru

現代語訳Modern Japanese

コンセプトConcept

情景The Scene

Evening at a small stream, oak leaves moving in a light wind, people wading in for the summer purification. The season is not announced by heat but by the fact that the rite is being performed.

日本の美意識Japanese Aesthetic

Kotodama (Ritual as Marker)

A ceremony, not a temperature, is used as evidence of the season. Human ritual can be more reliable as a marker than nature itself — and it dates the moment precisely.