Saijiki

For music album, see Saijiki (3776 album).

A saijiki (歳時記, lit. "year-time chronicle") is a list of Japanese kigo (seasonal terms) used in haiku and related forms of poetry. An entry in a saijiki usually includes a description of the kigo itself, as well as a list of similar or related words, and some examples of haiku that include that kigo. A kiyose (季寄せ) is similar, but does not contain sample poems. Modern saijiki and kiyose are divided into the four seasons and New Year, with some containing a further section for seasonless (無季, muki) topics. Each seasonal section is further divided into a standard set of categories, each containing a list of relevant kigo. The most common categories are the season, the heavens, the earth, humanity, observances, animals and plants.

Japanese seasons

In the Japanese calendar, seasons traditionally followed the lunisolar calendar with the solstices and equinoxes at the middle of a season. The traditional Japanese seasons are:

• Spring: 4 February–5 May
• Summer: 6 May–7 August
• Autumn: 8 August–6 November
• Winter: 7 November–3 February

In categorising kigo, a saijiki or kiyose divides each season into early, middle, and late periods, as follows:

• Early spring: 4 February–5 March
• Mid-spring: 6 March–4 April
• Late spring: 5 April–5 May
• Early summer: 6 May–5 June
• Mid-summer: 6 June–6 July
• Late summer: 7 July–7 August
• Early autumn: 8 August–7 September
• Mid-autumn: 8 September–7 October
• Late autumn: 8 October–6 November
• Early winter: 7 November–6 December
• Mid-winter: 7 December–4 January
• Late winter: 5 January–3 February

Bibliography

English

• The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words, selected by Kenkichi Yamamoto, on Renku Home
• William J. Higginson, ed. Haiku world: an international poetry almanac. Kodansha, 1996. ISBN 978-4-7700-2090-1
• The Japanese Haiku Topical Dictionary at the University of Virginia Japanese Text Initiative
• World Kigo Database, worldwide saijiki

French

• LE SAIJIKI: Ephéméride poétique à l'usage des poètes composant des haïku en langue française (in French) - Le Saijiki, the French version of the Saijiki by Seegan Mabesoone, has been available since 1998.

Japanese

• Masaoka Shiki, ed. Kiyose. 1930 (Japanese: 正岡子規 編『季寄せ』（三省堂、1930）)
• Kyoshi Takahama, ed. A New Saijiki, 1934 (Japanese: 高浜虚子 編『新歳時記』（三省堂、1934）)
• Teiko Inahata, ed. The New Hototogisu Saijiki, 1996 (Japanese: 稲畑汀子 編『ホトトギス 新歳時記』（三省堂、1996）＆ CD版（1998）)

External links

• A Dictionary of Haiku, Classified by Season Words with Traditional and Modern Methods, by Jane Reichhold (AHA Books)

See also

• Haiku in English
• List of kigo
• Renga, an older form of poetry employing kigo
• Renku, the poetic form from which haiku derived, also using kigo