Pleasant at a distance

But you don’t want them hitting you in the face

花鳥風月
ka.chou.fuu.getsu

Literally: flower – bird – wind – moon

Alternately: The beautiful scenery of nature. By extension, the hyper-indolent aristocratic pastime of gazing out at gardens full of carefully-arranged “natural” scenery while composing poetry, drawing pictures, practicing calligraphy, and so on (and probably drinking). Modern usage tends to focus on expressing the beauty of the natural world.

Notes: There are many variants on this theme. Other elements that may appear are morning (朝 or 晨), evening (夕), dew (露), snow (雪), or seasonal words – especially spring (春) and fall (秋).

This particular compound comes to us from the Fuushikaden (風姿花伝), an early-15th-Century CE treatise on Noh drama by playwright Zeami Motokiyo.

FLOWER BIRD CLOUD MOON WHADDAYA WANT

The title of a DVD box set from comedy duo Bananaman

About Confanity

I love the written word more than anything else I've had the chance to work with. I'm back in the States from Japan for grad school, but still studying Japanese with the hope of becoming a translator -- or writer, or even teacher -- as long as it's something language-related.
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1 Response to Pleasant at a distance

  1. Pingback: Mooning over those who are absent | landofnudotcom

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