The water-grub, which subsequently becomes a musquito, moves about by the rapid vibration of its tail. Hence the name "club-shaker." To the Japanese it is an emblem of the mischievous boy who is destined to develop into a wicked man.
There are far more of you
Than ever I saw growing on the trees!"
Which meets my eye when I wake
And when I lie down."
The following characteristic specimen of this kind of poetry is quoted in Mr. B. H. Chamberlain's Handbook of Colloquial Japanese:—
Tsurube torarete,
Morai-mizu!"
Literally, "Having had my well-bucket taken away by the convolvuli,—gift-water!" The meaning, as Mr. Chamberlain not unnecessarily explains, is this: "The poetess Chiyo, having gone to her well one morning to draw water, found that some tendrils of the convolvulus had twined themselves around the rope. As a poetess and a woman of taste, she could not bring herself to disturb the dainty blossoms. So, leaving her own well to the convolvuli, she went and begged water of a neighbour. A pretty little vignette surely, and expressed in five words."
The Haibun is a kind of prose composition which may be conveniently mentioned here, as it is a sort of
