On a sunny day, there appears to be a puddle of water ahead on the road, but when you approach it, the puddle isn't there, and now the puddle appears to be far away.
No matter how hard you chase after it, the puddle remains in the distance and you cannot catch up with it. This phenomenon is called a "water mirage".
A water mirage is a type of mirage called an inferior mirage.
Under the summer sun, the temperature near the ground surface increases due to the heat reflection from the road, which causes the density to increase, resulting in the refraction of light due to its propensity to move toward denser materials.
This causes images that would normally be seen in the distance to appear closer, i.e., lower than their original position, thus creating the phenomenon of water mirage, a type of inferior mirage.
This phenomenon can be seen relatively frequently today because many roads have been paved with asphalt, but it seems to have been seen in the past as well, as described in "The Pillow Book" by Sei Shounagon.
Especially in Musashino, this water mirage was even said to be a specialty of the area.
In the world of haiku, the word "nigemizu" is used as a seasonal term for spring.
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