Uejima Onitsura:
In deze Japanse naam komt de achternaam Uejima voor.
Uejima Onitsura (april 1661 – 2 augustus 1738).
Japanse haikudichter uit de Edo-periode.
Prominent in Osaka en behorend tot de Danrin school van de Japanse poëzie, wordt Uejima, samen met andere dichters uit de Edo-periode, toegeschreven aan het helpen definiëren en illustreren van Bashō’s stijl van dichten.
I know well that the June rains just fall.
The meaning does not lie in a profound message hidden behind the words, but rather in the attentive observation of a simple fact. The poet notes that the June rains fall as rain simply falls. There is no complaining about the weather, no explanation is sought, and no symbolic meaning is imposed.
Within the Japanese haiku tradition, this is often interpreted as an attitude of acceptance of reality: things are what they are. The observation is sober, direct, and uninhibited. This aligns with a kinship with Zen Buddhist sensibility, although the haiku itself contains no explicitly religious message.
Origin:
The phrase originates from the classical Japanese haiku tradition of the Edo period (1603–1868). The “June rains” refer to the Japanese rainy season (’tsuyu’), which usually falls in June. In haiku, such seasonal designations function as a so-called ‘kigo’ (season word), an important characteristic of the traditional haiku.
The text has become known through translations and anthologies of Japanese poetry. Outside of specialist studies, the original Japanese verse is less well known than the translated form.
Author:
The poem is usually attributed to Uejima Onitsura, one of the important haiku poets of the early Edo period.
Onitsura was a contemporary of Matsuo Bashō and placed strong emphasis on ‘makoto’ (“sincerity” or “truthfulness”) in his poetics: the natural phenomenon or experience must be depicted as directly and honestly as possible.
Although the attribution is repeated in many sources, it is less well documented than some of Onitsura’s more famous haikus. Therefore, some researchers speak cautiously of a probable or traditional attribution to Onitsura.
