Autumn is near. It’s hard to tell from the temperature (at least where I am), but we can definitely notice a faint nip in the air. The other day I was at the local shrine and wrote this.
狛犬や無言に見つむ彼岸花
komainu ya mugon ni mitsumu higanbana[1]
komainu —
silently watching them grow
red spider lilies
—Tenjōka[2]
Komainu are the lion-dogs that guard Shinto shrines in Japan in pairs. They are silent guardians, watching, ready to prevent evil from entering what is considered holy ground. I visit the local shrine often enough that the komainu there are like old friends.
Higanbana are flowers of the equinox; their name literally means that. Whatever the weather may be, they always seem to emerge at the right time — just in time to greet the equinox. Maybe that’s one reason they’re so central in Japanese mythology, where they grow on the far side of the River Sanzu,[3] the boundary of the afterlife.
They need a lot of water, so they usually grow near rivers and other places that flood, like rice paddies. But you can also find them around temples or shrines — or cemeteries.
Spooky mythology aside, they are a striking flower. Their delicate stems and blossoms spread into thin curling petals that resemble spider legs. That’s where their English name comes from: red spider lilies. You can find white ones, and I swear I’ve seen yellow before as well, but red is by far the most common variety.
For this haiku, I found a few of them growing at the local shrine, near enough one of the komainu statues that I imagined the old boy had been patiently watching them grow from the moment they appeared above the ground.