the autumn moon お月さまの仁徳

名月を取ってくれると泣く子かな　一茶
Grab it, cried the child, pointing up at the full moon- Issa

Tonite a substantial portion of the world's population-- concentrated mainly in Asia-- will collectively turn their eyes up toward the moon. Yes, the Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋節 is upon us again-- this year falling tonite, on September 14.

The appreciation of the mid-autumn moon is a custom dating back at least to Han dynasty China-- probably even earlier.Indeed, for at least 2000 years now, it has been the full moon of the Eighth Month (present-day September) which has been considered the most beautiful moon of the year.

In Japan, the custom of moon-viewing was adopted from China during the early Heian times and great moon-viewing parties were a celebrated part of court life from these early times. The aristocrats would drink plenty of rice wine and floating lazily on their dragon boats they would drift around man-made ponds as they gazed at the moon (perhaps composing poetry and snacking on mooncakes).

K-sensei-- who also loves this time of year-- sent me an essay he had written the other day for a local newspaper. He writes,

秋の長夜、お月さまを仰ぐたび、日本人に生まれてよかったと思う。稲田をわたる秋風を淋しくて、どうにも身にしみるが、コオロギが競って鳴くころのお月さまなんとも味わいがある。
"On long autumn nights, gazing up in awe at the moon, I feel glad to have been born Japanese. On those nights, as the sad, lonely autumn wind blows across the rice fields and the sound of the singing crickets seems to penetrate me, I feel something deeply meaningful as I look at the moon."

It's true. Most of my Japanese friends feel something along the lines of aesthetic and spiritual awe when they gaze at the moon. K-sensei, in the grand tradition of nihonjin-ron, then goes on to compare the Japanese experience of moon-viewing with that of the West. 

In the West, he explains, the full moon has long been associated with insomnia and insanity. The night of the full moon was a night to ward oneself against evil or lunacy. We see this aspect of the Western tradition perhaps in our word "lunatic," which, of course, comes from "luna." Indeed, the full moon has long been associated we are told with everything from vampires to excessive dog bites. 

K-sensei gives the example of, "Oh, she's on the moon."

In contrast, he writes,

東洋人の心の中に月は、あくまでやさしさと純粋さを映し出すもの、人間の良心を引き出してくれるあいじょうのようなものを持つ。西瓜畑の泥棒がお月さんがじっと見ているので、恥入って西瓜を盗むことなく退散した話がある。
"The moon that lives in the hearts of those in the East, if anything, possesses a kindness and purity which has the ability of bringing out the best in humans. There is a story of a thief in a watermelon field. The moon shining down on the thief made him feel so ashamed about what he was about to commit that he left the field unable to touch even one watermelon."

The moon, then, is like a brilliant mirror reflecting back the purist and most beautiful parts of our hearts. It is another instance of the Japanese belief in the power of beauty*

Finally, K-sensei writes,

また中国では、お月さまを玉兎とも形容した。そこから、兎が住み餅をうくというコミカルな発想に結びつく。そうしたイマジュネーションは、東洋人のつきに対する思いの表れであり私たちの心をどんな平和にしてくれることか。
"The Chinese believe that a jade hare  (玉兎) is pounding mochi rice cakes (In China, medicine to help the sick) up on the moon. This comical story of a rabbit pounding rice cakes has long been associated with moon viewing, and this type of imaginative story-telling about the moon is an expression of the way in which the moon lives in the hearts of the people of the East. Images such as this, unfold within our hearts a feeling of peacefulness and happiness." 

**

 So, this year, we too-- along with millions of other people-- will celebrate the beauty of the moon. In Hong Kong and Kaoshiung-- everything was so lit up and my memories of mid-autumn festivals spent in those cities are less about the beauty of the moon as they are about delicious dinners and mooncakes, lanterns and lights, and the great festivity that transformed the streets. (I remain a sucker for a good mooncake).

Here, it is quieter, but, I think, no less enjoyable. 

Like last year, I'll put pampas grass 薄 in a tall bamboo basket and set it out on our red deck (which, in autumn, we call our "the moon-viewing platform" or tsukimi-dai). We will probably drink beer and eat o-manju and just sit there quietly looking at the sky. Last year was cloudy and the moon just wouldn't show her face, so Adonis (being a feisty six year old) growing frustrated, grabbed the pampas grass out of the basket and waving the branches at the sky yelled, "Come out, come out, o-tsuki-sama!" 

We trained our eyes on the brightest part of the sky, knowing the moon to be hiding there behind the thick clouds, and sure enough, after maybe 20 minutes, out slipped the brilliant full light of the moon. The clouds were in constant motion up above, making the moon itself look like it was rolling on a great ocean of dark waves. Everytime the moon would slip out past the clouds, we would gasp, and I could hear the neighbors voices, "Look, the moon!" "It's out from behind the clouds, look!"

Andrew Leonard over at salon.com-- who is interested in such matters-- will perhaps smile when he learns that the the Japanese have two moon-viewing festivals. In addition to the mid-Autumn moon of the Eighth Month (September by the current calendar), the Japanese do it all over again-- with a slight twist-- in the Ninth Month (October).

It's said it all started when Emperor Daigo, who ruled during the Engi Period (around 900 a.d.), up and decided that he preferred the late Autumn moon. And, from that time onward, it came to pass that Japan celebrated the autumn moon twice: once during the spectacular full moon of the Eight Month, and then again when the moon was not quite full on the 13th Night of the Ninth Month

It's hard to say why the Emperor preferred the three-quarter moon over the full moon of the previous month, but perhaps the appeal has something to do with the Japanese aesthetic preference for the slightly imperfect over the perfect. Or maybe it is due to the ancient Taoist idea that the perfectly full moon is already in a state of decline. I've also read that the Japanese take pride that this 13th Night Moon of the Ninth Month is their original invention-- and not yet another custom imported from the continent.

**

Thanks to MWN for another beautiful photograph of the moon.

*Although a central focus of tea ceremony and Japanese aesthetics in general, the ethical (spiritual)  aspect of beauty is not a Japanese predeliction alone, as it is found probably in most cultures around the world. From Plato to Indian aesthetics (probably almost all cultures and civilizations have embraced it?) This, for example, is from an essay about Alchi (about the unforgettably murals; conrad might say that the idea is not all that different from what Plato said):

In the Indian philosophy of aesthetics, it is believed that the ecstasy we experience on seeing something truly beautiful, whether it be in nature or in art, is akin to Brahmananda itself, which is the final bliss of salvation. The moment of the experience of beauty is one of the highest states, in which man senses his kinship with the whole of creation: a state in which the soul shakes off its material attachments and feels the bliss of unity with the divine. Thus, the ecstatic response to beauty was seen as a glimpse of the realisation of truth itself. This philosophy was most fully developed in Kashmir. In the 10th century, around the time of Rinchen Zangpo's visit to the valley, the great aesthetician-philosopher of India, Abhinavgupta, lived in Kashmir. In that period, Shaivism and Vajrayana Buddhism in Kashmir were deeply permeated by the philosophy of aesthetics. The surviving art of the trans-Himalayan monasteries brings us some of the most sublime manifestations of this philosophic outlook.