No.24

No.24 6/16/2015

Nagai Botanical Garden,Osaka, June 3,2015

　　　　The Rainy season Sets In

　On June 3, the rainy season set in the Kinki district, which is four days earlier than an average year. Although the setting-in of the rainy season on the calendar is about June 7, the average year is June 11.

　It is a weather phenomenon that is seen in a wide area of East Asia from down stream of Chang Jiang, the southern part of China, Taiwan, the southern part of Korea and Japanese Islands except the Ogasawara Islands and the rainy season comes from late May to July each year. 五月雨Samidare, early summer rain, also 梅雨Tsuyu, rainy season, originally from China, transformed into the word "梅雨 baiu , rainy season" and it came to be called "つゆtsuyu" from the Edo Era in Japan. The rainy season had been called “ 黴雨baiu” which means “ easy growing” mold in China in this season. Because the image of the word mold 黴 kabi is poor, they used the character for plum ,梅ume, for bai and that became " 梅雨 rainy season".　Also, it is considered to be from 露 tsuyu. Since the real plum grows ripe and falls in this season in Japan ( 潰ゆ tsuyu ), there is a theory that it’s associated with the word tsuyuつゆ. Speaking of such a rainy season, Japanese hydrangea, irisis, pickled plums and food poisoning are incidental to this wet season.

　Osaka District Meteorological Observatory is expecting around July 21 to be the end of the rainy season in the Kinki region; depressing rainy season will continue for nearly 2 months. After that, burning summer will visit, the most severe time of the year and the hottest season we Japanese must endure.　

　Although people refer to "no fine three days in the spring”, rainy season is more annoying muggy rainy days continue.　

梅雨入り

　６月３日、平年より４日早く近畿地方は梅雨入りした。暦の上での梅雨入りは６月１１日で、平年では6月7日ごろだ。

　梅雨は、朝鮮南部、中国南部から長江下流域および台湾、北海道と小笠原諸島を除く日本列島などの東アジアの広範囲に見られる。梅雨は毎年５月から７月にかけて巡って来る雨季の気象現象のことで、「五月雨（さみだれ）」、「梅雨（ばいう）」ともいう。梅雨はそもそも中国から「梅雨」という言葉で伝わり、江戸時代より「つゆ」と呼ばれるようになった。中国ではカビ、黴の生えやすい時期という意味で、元々は「黴雨、ばいう」と呼ばれていたが、黴、カビでは語感が悪いため、同じ「ばい」で季節にあった「梅」の字を使い、「梅雨」になったという。日本で「つゆ」と呼ばれるようになったのは「露、つゆ」から来たとも考えられているが、梅の実が熟し潰れる時期であることから「潰ゆ、つゆ」という言葉に関連付けられたとする説がある。そうした梅雨につきものといえば、アジサイの花、花菖蒲、梅干しそれに食中毒などがあげられる。