Kannazuki 神無月-- There is an old belief in Japan that during the Tenth Month, all the gods from the various provinces come together in Izumo to discuss affairs of state. And with all the gods of the land away from home on business, the Tenth Month has come to be known as "Kannazuki" ("the month of no gods").
Despite the absence of gods, the Tenth Month still manages to awe, arriving as it does wrapped in a glorious cloud of fragrance. At least in Tochigi-- for almost as soon as October rolls around, the sweet perfume of the fragrant olive blossoms overwhelm.
Sweet Osmanthus, in English, it is also known as the fragrant olive. In Japanese, it called kinmokusei 金木犀 --that is, "golden," "tree," "rhinoceros." Why rhinoceros? Well, apparently the ancients felt that the tree's gray mottled bark resembled the hide of a rhinoceros. An evergreen shrub or tree, kinmokusei is native to China and the Himalaya, and for many people the fragrance is more a symbol of October than even the chrysathemums.
My friend Chieko often complained about the gloomy "northern country" skies of Paris. Autumn in Paris must be beautiful, I always thought. No, she said, it's too far north. There is no beautiful autumn foliage: no clear, blue autumn skies; no celebrated mid-autumn moon and no kinmokusei!"
They also love kinmokusei in Hong Kong and the flowers are used in jams and sweets, and dried osmanthus flowers are infused with oolong and green teas to produce what Hong Kongers call, 桂花茶-- katsura blossom tea. I sent some to Chieko in Paris for her morning tea and she cried saying, "Oh the fragrance makes me long for our home in Mejirodai."
In China, where the tree is native, there are many varieties. Most are also known by the same chinese characters 金木犀 , or 木犀 (mùxī). The flowers of the tree, however, are referred to as guì huā (桂花, in English, "cinnamon flower" or "cassia flower"). And, it is the blossoming of this flower that was posited as one of the possible causes for why the moon is so particularly beautiful in Autumn. For the ancient Chinese believed that the "katsura" trees on the moon blossomed during the fall and it was their luminous color which caused the "harvest moon" to glow orange.
This idea, then, filtered into Heian Japan and so we find one of my all time favorite waka from the kokinshu:
久方の月の桂も秋はなほもみじすればやてりまさるらむ ただみね
Might it be because
The cinnabar tree on the moon
changes colors in autumn
that the autumn moon shines so brightly-- Tadamine
Interestingly, though, it wasn't until way into the Edo period that the trees even arrived in Japan, so the above poem was based purely on imaginative transmission-- like the wood carvings of elephants created at Nikko created by sculptors who had never seen such an animal.
And speaking of those blossoming lunar trees, in China, a beautiful young man 桂男-, who lives on the moon-- was thought to be responsible for having planted the trees up there. The monster-loving Japanese, however, believed that the man on the moon was an incredibly elegant and handsome demon, and women were cautioned to never look too intently at the moon, otherwise the katsura-moon man would steal their souls! So beware!
**
Painting top by Le Thanh Son.
I just saw your gracious reply re what i forget (maybe i wanted to share a kyouka w. Ogasawara in it?) but delighted you got the Dolphin, read by maybe one-person a year & New Year bk (for what was about 1/10th of the ku/themes that might have been finished to replace Blyth's seasons of haiku but for circumstances in life requiring concentration on humor AND lack of support=reviews/$ from the world of haiku as William Higginson, who alone among the big wheels realized I was doing what no other could and not competition, passed away) maybe seen by two people a year.
I, too, dreamed in Japanese -- as well as English -- and love yr attitude/s and interests. Re the man in the moon, I thought he was supposed to have been more busy pruning that tree than planting, though the moon sure cudda used a johny appleseed! I had no idea about the olive bloom and must reread to fix it in my memory. I do not believe I have used "cinnabar" for the katsura but i like that it sounds fragrant as lady's men were said to be so and Katsura-o or otoko was supposed to be like Narihira -- and may substitute it for whatever i wrote in scores of translations. I am unsure how you taxed such a guy as a "monster" though you are correct re warnings as men do not like ma-otoko (pro paramours & maybe cheaters as well) seducing their women for uwaki. Among the countless ku and kyouka, I particularly like all the nostril hair reading AND the Narihira connection turning him into a bi or trans w/ help from the tree as katsura homophonically puns a wig or rather and extension (as court women also used) -- what the hell is the correct word for THAT? Let me c+f Katsurao amd give you a few of whatever pops up first in my huge file
世の人に後ろを見せぬ月なれば一分も跡へ引かぬ桂男 花江戸住E3-5 1787
As the Moon is known for not showing us earthlings its backside,
Katsurao won’t retreat even a moment (an Edoite in his pride?)
若衆の尻つきを見て離れえぬ念者や桂男なるらん 貞富T1672 FB
If the moon is like a gay youth’s rump, those glued to the sight
who stay up all night might one & all best be called Katsurao!
月見魔は、稚児や若衆に惚れ惚れに成る念者の如くかと。
Let us call men drawn to buns the shape of which puns “moon,”
Katsurao after that lunar tree-man said to love girls & wakashu.
若衆も女の子も求愛する人を桂男とも称しすれば良いと。
He belongs with those enthralled by the sight of a wakashu’s bum,
shaped like the moon in this pun – Sir Katsura was the first one!
桂男は初若衆好き、か稚児愛念者という発想が可笑しい。
桂雄の色におされて大空にひとつも見えぬ夜這星かな みしか(みじか?)栗花集
Overwhelmed by moon-man Katsurao’s beauty, in the whole sky
not one of those so-called falling stars can be seen out swiving.
角力より晴天十日かつら男を相手にくまん此月見酒 柳百朶e7-2-114
After Sumo, facing a clear tenth-day sky, lover-boy Katsurao
and I had ourselves a drinking bout of moon-viewing sake.
秋の夜の月のかつらの長かもじ女とも見えつ男なりひら 月洞軒 元禄
Katsurao, Moon-man of Fall – his name sounds like “wig” or “tress”
so, he must be Narihira, a man known to wear a dress!
おじゃれ女のように尾花に招かせて桂男の宿をする露 朝雲K1822 薄=Miscanthus
Attracted by beckoning tail-flower plumes, that tease Miss Canthus,
Katsurao, our moon-man, often stays over in the Dew-drop Inn.
I'll stop at a handful -- online i would guess poems by Chie no naishi & Yomo no Akara are easiest to find. None of the above is typical but the typical ones are maybe 10% of the total. NONE, however, are monsters.
You neglected to mention 桂皮...