Read leaf hunting

Hiroshige, People under maple trees by a stream

Ahh, October, the changing leaves.

Update 5/11: new post on how I worked haiku into the music and lyrics.

Where I lived in Japan people seemed to generally call it Kōyō, which is one reading of the characters 紅葉. Another reading is Momijigari (紅葉狩) or literally 'read leaf hunting,' which is a pretty fair indication that leaf viewing is not just a nice thing to do but a serious business. The counterpoint to cherry blossoms in spring, the changing leaves herald the peak of autumn and another of those seasonal markers that everyone looks forward to in Japan.

One time I visited Tōfukuji, a temple in Kyoto, in late October or early November, and witnessed near mosh-pit-like behaviour, in some cases from pretty elderly folk. Tōfukuji is considered one of the top five temples to visit in Kyoto and we were advised by friends that it was a good one for the leaves, in fact for a particular view from a famous bridge. (Like, very famous: it features in a Hiroshige woodcut). Despite arriving at a reasonable time in the morning, as we walked from the station along the alleyways to the temple, we thought "Hmm, there are quite a few people here." Then, as we neared the bridge it dawned on us that this was more like people queuing for tickets to the last ever Glay concert. Then, as we realised that the path we were taking meant that the flow of people was narrowed to AN OLD BRIDGE about three-people-wide, we thought perhaps we should make our way out but "ARGH, NO WAY BACK AGAINST TIDE..." And of course every bugger going along the bridge wants to stop and take a photo, despite the men in uniform shouting at regular intervals: "Please do not stop; keep moving." So half the people (the ones three-deep anyway) don't even see the bloody view with their own eyes, just through their phone or camera at the end of their raised arm, stretched above the heads of those in front of them.

Ah, well. The leaves were very pretty - what we saw of them.

Haiku, the October track from Setsu, is my homage to the insane beauty of red leaf hunting. More on the tune itself in the next post.