Snowman (yukidaruma)

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Snowman (yukidaruma, Japan)

***** Location: Japan, other countries
***** Season: Late Winter
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation

snowman, yukidaruma ゆきだるま,雪だるま、雪達磨
..... sunooman スノーマン
. Yuki Daruma　雪だるま Museum .

To make a snowman, you have to make round balls of snow first.

yuki maruge 雪丸げ (ゆきまろげ) a big round ball of snow
... yukimaruge 雪まるげ（ゆきまるげ) -
yuki maruboshi 、雪まろばし（ゆきまろばし）
yuki korobash 雪ころばし（ゆきころばし）
yuki kokashi 雪こかし（ゆきこかし）

and more

yuki asobi 雪遊び（ゆきあそび）playing with snow
yuki nage 雪投げ (ゆきなげ) throwing snow (balls)
... yuki tsubute 雪礫（ゆきつぶて）
yuki gassen 雪合戦（ゆきがっせん）snowball fight
Schneeballschlacht



Other forms of the Japanese snow figures are

snow rabbit, yuki usagi 雪兎, 雪うさぎ



snow lion, yukijishi 雪獅子
..... Lion Dance, shishimai 獅子舞


snow "Hotei", yuki hotei 雪布袋
..... Hotei, one of the seven gods of good luck
Children in northern China make snowmen modeled after Maitreya, in his incarnation as Pu Tai/Hotei.



setsuzoo 雪像 (せつぞう) snow statue, snow figure
setsuzooten 雪像展（せつぞうてん）exhibition of snow figures


Sapporo yukimatsuri 札幌雪まつり（さっぽろゆきまつり）
Sapporo snow festival
. . . CLICK here for Photos !


Das Schneefest von Sapporo
Anfang Februar zieht dieses Fest immer viele Besucher an, es ist eine wunderbare Art, sich eine kalte Woche im hohen Norden Japans zu verschönern. Hunderte von Schnee- und Eisfiguren zieren den Park Oodori Koen, die 105 Meter „lange Straße“ im Zentrum der Stadt. Ursrpünglich als Niemandsland zur Verhütung von Bränden zwischen den nördlichen und südlichen Stadtteilen geplant, ist dieser Park heute der Mittelpunkt vieler sozialer Aktivitäten. Außer dem Schneefestival findet hier im Sommer auch ein großes Sommerfest statt, bei dem das lokale Bier im Mittelpunkt steht. Im Mai werden die Lilien gefeiert, im Augst das O-Bon-Fest für die Ahnenverehrung.

Manche Schneestatuen sind so groß, dass das Militär anrücken und beim Bau mithelfen muß. Nachts ist alles in bunten Farben beleuchtet und viele Live-Konzerte und andere Veranstaltungen finden statt.
Der Ausstellungsteil in Satoland ist besonders kinderfreundlich, mit Schneelabyrinthen, einer Eisbar und der Möglichkeit zu einer Fahrt mit dem Heißluftbalon.
Im Suskino-Viertel bauen die Künstler ihre indivituellen Schnee- und Eisskulpturen mit Kettensägen und viel Muskelkraft.

Das Schneefest in Sapporo findet seit 1950 statt, nachdem einige Schüler von sechs örtlichen Oberschulen im Park Schneeskulpturen bauten, um die Bürger in den kalten, langen Wintertagen der Nachkriegszeit zu erfreuen. Inzwischen kommen mehr als zwei Millionen Besucher aus ganz Japan zu diesem Fest.


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snowman Daruma -
the kids love you
until you melt

............... Everyone knows a snowman, but
why do the Japanese call it "Snow Daruma"?

. yukidaruma ゆきだるま "Daruma from Snow" .

The word yuki daruma might have come to common use around the same time when the red Daruma dolls became more popular in the town of Edo and the rest of Japan. That was maybe toward the beginning of the Meiji period, when the sericultural industry hit the silk market and many Daruma dolls were used as protective talisman of the silk cocoons.

A Japanese snowman is usually made of two large balls (like a Daruma Doll, without legs), whereas one in Europe and America has three snowballs piled on each other, feet, body and head.

Snow Man, Yuki Otoko,　雪男 is a kind of monstrous man-beast, for example like the Yeti in the Himalayas. He is known in Japan too in areas with a lot of snow.


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Snow Buddha, yuki-botoke, yukibotoke (yuki no hotoke)
ゆきぼとけ、雪仏、雪佛

This word was already used in the Essays in Idleness,　Tsurezure Gusa 徒然草 by the monk Yoshida Kenkō around 1330.

"On a spring day, we made a snowman ..." (haru no hi ni yukibotoke o tsukurite 春の日に雪佛を作りて).
Passage 66.

Kobayashi Issa uses this word, which was common at his time, when Daruma was not popular yet.

Snow Buddha, since the figures of two snowballs on each other with a simple face somehow remind the Japanese of the stone statues of Buddhist deities at the roadside.

In Japanese it was a normal way to express what we call "SNOWMAN" in English, so the translation of "snow Buddha" might carry too much religiously tainted weight ... ?
Translating Haiku Forum
How to translate: yukibotoke ?


Other Japanese words with this use of HOTOKE are:
stone Budda, stone stele, ishibotoke 石仏
Buddha statue in the fields, nobotoke　野仏

... ... ...

toru toshi mo anata makase zo yuki-botoke

growing old too
I trust in a Buddha
of snow

Shinji Ogawa paraphrases, "On my growing old too (like anything else) I trust in you... Snow Buddha." He comments, "Issa's object of prayer is the Snow Buddha which is nothing but a snowman made by some kids." See more below.
http://cat.xula.edu/issa Tr. David Lanoue

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うす雪の仏を作る子ども哉
usu yuki no hotoke o tsukuru kodomo kana

he rolls thin snow
into a Buddha...
the child
(Tr. David Lanoue)

children -
they make a snowman
out of thin snow
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

Read a discussion of these translations !　


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Worldwide use

Different names for our SNOWMAN

Czech: sněhulák m.
Danish: snemand c.
Dutch: sneeuwpop
Finnish: lumiukko
French: bonhomme de neige m.
German: Schneemann m.
Icelandic: snjókarl m.
Italian: pupazzo di neve m., fantoccio di neve m.
Korean: 눈사람 (nunsaram)
Latvian: sniegavīrs m.
Polish: bałwan m.
Romanian: om de zapada= man of snow
Slovak: snehuliak m.
Swedish: snögubbe c.

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Lithuania

In Lithuania, a snowman is called "a man without brains". As a sign of protest against their government, in the winter of 2005, Lithuanians made 141 snowmen near their parliament—one for each member of Parliament.

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Russia

Snowwoman
We Russians make snowwomen in winter.

Zhanna Rader

снежная баба (snéžnaja bába) f.
снеговик (snegovík) m.

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Things found on the way

"Snow lady, snow woman", yuki onna 雪女

This is a kind of monster of Japanese legends. It might also be the "fairy of snow", so to speak, the personification of the soul of the snow, for the Japanese reader.

She is often seen on full moon nights and around the New Year.

Some say this expression refers to a particular physical quality of the snow of Northern Japan, when the conditions of humidity, coldness and moonlight are just right.

Lafcadio Hearn also wrote about this "Snow Woman".

Gabi Greve

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A Snowman playing with Water
yukibotoke no mizu asobi 雪仏（ゆきぼとけ）の水遊び

This is a Japanese proverb pointing at a person who behaves in a way dangerous to himself.


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HAIKU


. WKD : Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 .

雪礫投る拍子にころぶかな
yuki-tsubute naguru hyoushi ni korobu kana

he finishes
throwing the snowball
sitting on his behind
Tr. Chris Drake

This hokku was written in the intercalary 11th month (December) in 1813, when Issa was visiting other haikai poets and his students in the area around his hometown in the snow country. The translation add a little to the original, though it may get close to the humorous implication in Issa's words. Of course he could be she.
These versions are more literal:


in one motion
he throws the snowball
and falls down

the moment
he throws the snowball
he's falling down

Issa may have pronounced the verb in the second line nageru, since in his time the classical attributive form, naguru, was beginning to be replaced by the colloquial nageru, the form now used in modern Japanese.

Chris Drake


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o-hiza ni suzume naku nari yuki-botoke

a sparrow chirping
in his lap...
snow Buddha

There are 21 haiku with this kigo in the Issa archives.
http://cat.xula.edu/issa/searchissa.php?a_id=144&show_e=T&colors=T

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. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


Basho was having a visitor, Sora, on a winter evening. They were good friends by that time, so before Basho went outside, he instructed his friend:


君火を焚けよきもの見せん雪まるげ
きみ火をたけよき物見せん雪丸げ
kimi hi o take yoki mono misen yukimaruge / yuki maruge

well, you make a fire !
then I will show you something nice -
a big snowman

Matsuo Basho, age 42 - 貞享3年- 1686


source :　www9.plala.or.jp/juken1/haiku 2

We can imagine the two sipping tea and enjoying the sight afterwards.



. Sora, Kawai Sora 河合曾良 .


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the snowman
on his wrinkled hat
a bread crumb

Geert Verbeke

Read more of Geert's Snowman Haiku here:
http://happyhaiku.blogspot.com/2004/01/friends-geert-verbeke.html


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Related words

***** Snow
http://worldkigodatabase.blogspot.com/2006/07/snow-yuki.html


Enjoying Snow Viewing (yukimi)
and more KIGO


***** (WKD): Dead Body (hotoke)


***** . KIGO with Daruma San


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