Here from the viewpoint of a Korean teacher who teaches and studies Japanese waka poems, I will explore sentiments behind the two poetical season words, "autumn plants" and "the sounds of insects." The season words came directly from the popular culture of the early modern times. In the Edo Period, people bought wild flowers and insects from "grass vendors" and "insect vendors" to enjoy the beauty of flowers and the sounds of insects. The subject of autumn plants was popular also in drawings and craft works. The non-Japanese like me may have difficulty to fully appreciate cultural implications in the words. In the first place, it seems extremely hard to distinguish varieties of flowers or kinds of insects' sounds sung in waka poems. In Korea, for example, there is no custom to appreciate wild flowers in this way. The plants frequently used in Korean poems are plums, orchids, chrysanthemums, bamboo and spruces, all of which symbolize the essence of Confucianism. In spite of this cultural difference, Sochu-zu by Shinshi-Nindo has much in common with the Japanese view of plants and insects. As is shown in this essay, this is owing to the author's femininity.
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