初日【はつひ】 hatsu hi first sun [that is, New Year's Day sunrise]
- 初日影【はつひかげ】 hatsu hikage first sunshine
- 初日の出【はつひので】 hatsu hinode first sunrise
天文【てんもん】 tenmon The Heavens
初空【はつぞら】 hatsuzora first sky [that is, on New Year's Day]
- 初御空【はつみそら】 hatsu misora first sky [御「み」 -mi- is honorific, but carries also the notion of beauty by way of homonym 美【み】mi]
The sky on the New Year's Day is perceived as being special because it signifies all that is fresh
and new. The honorific form of "first sky" (初御空 [はつみそら] hatsu misora) reflects
the urge to worship the sky.
[There is a pun on the "returning", which literally means "standing and returning"; the poet is standing
too as her thoughts make a loop back to the past.]
The beach in this poem must be a scenic place particularly known for its quaint purity. The
"blue pine trees and white sand" (青松白砂 [せいじょうはくさ] seijou hakusa) is appropriate
for this setting and all the more so under the (freshness of) first sky.
立ちかへる思ひ一入や初御空
徳永夏川女
tachikaeru omoi hitoshio ya hatsu misora
how intense
the returning thoughts,
first sky
Tokunaga Kasenjo
初空もはや半日や藪騒ぐ
但馬美作
hatsuzora mo haya hannichi ya yabu sawagu
as if to say the first sky
is already half gone,
the unquiet bush
Tajima Mimasaka
初御空わが手に風のとどまれり
石原君代
hatsu misora waga te ni kaze no todomareri
the first sky,
I felt on my hands
the wind repose
Ishihara Kimiyo
初空や青松白砂ところがら
尾崎迷堂
hatsuzora ya seishō hakusa tokorogara
oh how the first sky,
the blue pine trees, and white sand
can be seen, only here
Ozaki Meidō
淑気【しゃくき】 shakuki pure air / pristine air [as a congratulatory welcome to the New Year]
初凪【はつなぎ】 hatsunagi first calm [wind and sea on New Year's Day]
御降【おさがり】 osagari first precipitation [on New Year's Day]
