148 - Water Mirage

【逃げ水、nigemizu】

[Lit. running (away) water.]

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.

120 - Lunar Calendar

【太陰暦、taiin-reki】

An ancient alternative calendar whose origins trace back to Sumer, Mesopotamia.

It converted a year into 12 months with 354 days, and a month into 29 or 30 days, according to the lunar, or moon, cycle.

However, this calendar system caused a discrepancy between the calendar and the actual seasons, so around 4245 B.C., a lunar-solar calendar was established, incorporating the "solar calendar", which converted the year into 365 days based on the solar cycle, which was said to have been used in ancient Egypt.

Based on the lunar calendar, another calendar was established with 7 intercalary months every 19 years for the sake of adjustment, said to have been created in ancient Babylonia.

This lunisolar calendar was employed for the old Japanese lunar calendar, Jewish calendar, Greek calendar, and Chinese calendar.

However, as is well known, the solar calendar is currently used in most parts of the world.

The Islamic Hijri calendar system is the only current calendar that uses the lunisolar calendar as its official calendar.

The fact that the solar calendar has months of approximately 30 days is thought to be a remnant of the lunar calendar.

100 - Hex

【呪詛、juso】

Also called "Jun", "Shuso", or even "Zun". A hex is a so-called curse that inflicts misfortune on a person against whom one has a grudge by praying or performing a specific ritual.

Hexes have been widely practiced since the Nara period (710-794), especially by those at the center of the state in their struggle for supremacy.

The roots of this practice can be found in a Chinese Taoist secret rites known as "Jugondou (lit. the way of vanquishing spells)".

Jugondou was originally a way to protect oneself from natural and supernatural disasters, but at the same time, it had the aspect of cursing others.

Among them, there are famous rites such as "kodoku (蠱毒)" and "enmi (厭魅)".

In "kodoku", insects are placed in a container and forced to eat each other without being fed, and the soul of the one remaining insect is manipulated and used as a cursing tool to bring misfortune to the target.

In addition, "enmi", also known as "cursed straw dolls", is said to be a kind of sorcery in which a doll is made to resemble the person to be cursed, and by hurting the doll, the target suffers the same amount of damage.

The Shoku Nihongi, an official historical chronicle compiled in the 8th century, contains numerous descriptions of people who were condemned for hexing, and of decrees that were issued to prohibit such practices, which confirms that such rites were often performed.

These hexes didn't cease in the Heian period (794-1185) and were later passed down by the onmyouji.