Vocabulary

forget-me-not blue

transverse section

life cycle; life history

Zygnematophyceae (class of green algae)

Closterium (genus of algae)

near summer; end of spring

morning of the New Year

loess; yellow sand; bai; dust from the Yellow River region (China)

southerly wind that blows when the cherry trees are in bloom

equinoctial tide; equinoctial spring tide

bamboo garden

bare ground revealed by melting snow

autumn floods

spring shower; spring rain

spring hail

pickled buds of chocolate vine, Japanese pepper tree, etc.

pickling of unopened rape blossoms

soup with basket clams (usu. miso soup)

salad of fish and vegetables, dressed with crushed mustard leaves and greens seasoned with sake lees, miso and vinegar

pieces of young pepper tree branch (used medicinally or for pickling)

rice-cake sweet sandwiched between two camellia leaves

common species

spring staple shortage (before the harvest of rice, wheat, barley, etc.)

lamps lit at night in spring

kotatsu not put away but used in spring

fireplace used in springtime

brazier for warming one's cold fingers, esp. in spring

square latticed wooden frame for a kotatsu

closing of the winter hearth

opening the winter hearth

iron kettle suspended on a chain

releasing livestock to graze in spring

removing the weather stripping in spring

breaking and removing frozen snow to expose the ground

New Year's eve

many islands

Settsu (former province located in the northern and central parts of present-day Osaka and the southeast of Hyogo prefectures)

Late Middle Japanese; medieval Japanese; mediaeval Japanese

Tetradium ruticarpum (species of deciduous trees)

itinerant monk