Azusayumi
Encyclopedia
An is a Japan
ese bow
made from the wood of the catalpa
tree (azusa, 梓). Playing an azusayumi forms part of some Shinto
rituals.
In Japanese poetry
, the word azusayumi functions as a makurakotoba
("pillow word").
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese bow
Musical bow
The musical bow is a simple string musical instrument most archaic cultures as well as in many in the present day. It consisting of a string supported by a flexible stick 1.5 to 10 feet long, and strung end to end with a taut cord. Usually made out of wood...
made from the wood of the catalpa
Catalpa
Catalpa, commonly called catalpa or catawba, is a genus of flowering plants in the trumpet vine family, Bignoniaceae, native to warm temperate regions of North America, the Caribbean, and East Asia....
tree (azusa, 梓). Playing an azusayumi forms part of some Shinto
Shinto
or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...
rituals.
In Japanese poetry
Japanese poetry
Japanese poets first encountered Chinese poetry during the Tang Dynasty. It took them several hundred years to digest the foreign impact, make it a part of their culture and merge it with their literary tradition in their mother tongue, and begin to develop the diversity of their native poetry. For...
, the word azusayumi functions as a makurakotoba
Makurakotoba
, literally "pillow word", are figures of speech used in Japanese waka poetry, where epithets are used in association with certain words. Their usage is akin to “grey-eyed Athena” of in the Ancient Greek epics of Homer...
("pillow word").