Saijiki for February

These are some poetic words to use for gomei for the month of February:

• Setsubun (節分): last day of winter in the traditional Japanese calendar (usually February 3 or 4); holiday for end of winter (accompanied by a bean scattering ceremony)
• Risshun (立春): first day of spring (according to the traditional lunisolar calendar, around February 4th)
• Usui (雨水): “rain water” solar term (around February 18th or 19th)
• Soushun (早春): early spring
• Haruasashi (春浅し): early, superficial indications of spring, when it still remains cold
• Shunkan (春寒): cold weather that lingers into early spring
• Shunsetsu (春雪): snow that falls in spring
• Zansetsu (残雪): winter snow that does not disappear, even in the spring
• Yukima (雪間): a patch of ground not covered in snow, indicating that spring is coming, because the snow is starting to disappear
• Usurahi (薄氷): the thin ice of early spring
• Yukige (雪解): melting snow; the water from melting snow
• Suguro (末黒): “black powder” produced from the burning of fields in the spring
• Yakeyama (焼山): a mountain off of which the dried grass and scrub has been burned
• Agematsuba (上げ松葉): pine needles laid on top of moss to prevent it from freezing (I believe this word refers to the way these pine needles stick up out of the snow as it melts)
• Haruarashi (春嵐): a spring gale blowing in February or March that makes us momentarily forget that it is spring
• Nehan’nishi (涅槃西風): a westerly wind blowing from the Pure Land around the time the Buddha ascended to nirvana (or died), around February 15th
• Kaiyose (貝寄風): west wind in the early spring (traditionally on the night of the 20th day of the second month of the lunar calendar); wind that blows seashells ashore
• Kochi (東風): rough wind blowing from the east in early spring
• Fukyounohana (不香の花): a nickname for snow; literally “doesn’t smell like a flower”
• Hananoani (花の兄): a nickname for plums; literally “brother of the flower”
• Konohana (木の花): another nickname for plums; “tree flowers”
• Konohana (此の花): an elegant name for the plum