Autumn is near. It’s hard to tell from the temperature (at least where I am), but we can definitely notice a faint nip in the air. The other day I was at the local shrine and wrote this.

Komainu are the lion-dogs that guard Shinto shrines in Japan in pairs. They are silent guardians, watching, ready to prevent evil from entering what is considered holy ground. I visit the local shrine often enough that the komainu there are like old friends.

Higanbana are flowers of the equinox; their name literally means that. Whatever the weather may be, they always seem to emerge at the right time — just in time to greet the equinox. Maybe that’s one reason they’re so central in Japanese mythology, where they grow on the far side of the River Sanzu,[2] the boundary of the afterlife.

They need a lot of water, so they usually grow near rivers and other places that flood, like rice paddies. But you can also find them around temples or shrines — or cemeteries.

Spooky mythology aside, they are a striking flower. Their delicate stems and blossoms spread into thin curling petals that resemble spider legs. That’s where their English name comes from: red spider lilies. You can find white ones, and I swear I’ve seen yellow before as well, but red is by far the most common variety.

For this haiku, I found a few of them growing at the local shrine, near enough one of the komainu statues that I imagined the old boy had been patiently watching them grow from the moment they appeared above the ground.

David is an American teacher and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Bluesky. 【Support @dbooster with Hive SBI】