Just four poems in the Hyakunin Isshu are classified under "summer" — the smallest season of all. Yet they are among the most familiar poems in Japan, learned by every schoolchild: Empress Jitō's "Haru sugite," the cuckoo of Go-Tokudaiji no Sadaijin's "Hototogisu." Summer's arrival and its end, and the summer night that is over almost before it begins — here the four are grouped into those two scenes, each with its meaning and background, and the song we made from it.
Poems that have become songs link from their row to the song page — meaning, the story behind the poem, bilingual lyrics, and the music video.
| No. | Poem | Poet | Meaning | Kimariji |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Haru sugite natsu kinikerashi shirotae no koromo hosu chō Ama no Kaguyama♪ Listen: “Haru Sugite” | Empress Jitō | Spring has passed and summer seems to have come — for there on heavenly Mount Kagu, they say, pure white… | harusu |
| 36 | Natsu no yo wa mada yoi nagara akenuru o kumo no izuko ni tsuki yadoruran♪ Listen: “Natsu no Yo wa” | Kiyohara no Fukayabu | The summer night ended while I still thought it early evening. Where in the clouds is the moon lodging now? | natsu |
| 81 | ほととぎす 鳴きつる方を ながむれば ただ有明の 月ぞ残れる Coming soon | Go-Tokudaiji no Sadaijin (Fujiwara no Sanesada) | I looked toward where the cuckoo had sung, and all that remained there was the pale moon of dawn. | ho |
| 98 | Kaze soyogu Nara no ogawa no yūgure wa misogi zo natsu no shirushi narikeru♪ Listen: “Kaze Soyogu” | Fujiwara no Ietaka | On this evening when the wind rustles the oak leaves by the Nara brook, autumn already feels near — only the… | kaze so |
Four poems are classified under "summer," the fewest of the four seasons. The imperial anthologies themselves gave summer only a single volume, against two each for spring and autumn, so it was always the least-sung season.
Just one: No. 81, "Hototogisu nakitsuru kata o nagamureba," by Go-Tokudaiji no Sadaijin (Fujiwara no Sanesada). The hototogisu, a small cuckoo whose call announces early summer, was the season's signature bird; Heian poets would sit up until dawn hoping to catch its first song of the year.
The Nagoshi no Harae, the purification rite held on the last day of the sixth month to wash away the impurities of the half-year just ended. In the poem, Fujiwara no Ietaka watches that rite at dusk beside the Nara no Ogawa, the stream that runs through the Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto, and finds in it the last trace of summer.