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Kigo Quiz: Test your Knowledge of Poetic Season Words

Season words (kigo) are of central importance in Japanese poetry such as haiku. Often it is clear what season is intended: ‘swimming’ indicates summer; ‘snow’, winter. But sometimes it is less than obvious: ‘moon’, for example, indicates autumn, because this is the traditional season for moon-viewing parties; and sometimes it is downright counter-intuitive – there’s an example of one of those in the quiz below, so I’ll say no more about that ? This is a fun quiz. Have a go even if you never read a poem in your life!

It may help to know that in the Japanese poetic calendar, the seasons are allocated approximately as follows:

Spring: February–April; Summer: May–July; Autumn: August–October; Winter: November–February.

If you like this quiz, be sure to check out my 99 Amazing Quizzes on a Wide Variety of Topics! – “Guaranteed to make you smarter!” 

  • Question of

    Cherry blossom-viewing (hanami)

    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
  • Question of

    Fallen leaves (ochiba)

    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
  • Question of

    Air conditioning (reibo)

    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
  • Question of

    Peach (momo)

    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
  • Question of

    Milky Way (amanogawa)

    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
  • Question of

    Hazy moon (oborozuki)

    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
  • Question of

    Warm (atatakashi)

    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
  • Question of

    Basho’s Memorial Day (bashoki)

    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
  • Question of

    Withered pampas grass (kareobana)

    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
  • Question of

    Waterfall (taki)

    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
  • Question of

    Frogs (kawazu)

    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
  • Question of

    Blowfish soup (fugujiru)

    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
  • Question of

    Cool (suzushi)

    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
  • Question of

    Nap (hirune)

    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
  • Question of

    Red leaves (momiji)

    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
  • Question of

    Calendar vendor (koyomiuri)

    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter

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24 Points

33 Comments

  1. You got 13 out of 16 right!

    Perfect. You rock!

    Excellent quiz. Milky Way and calendar vendor were really tough to guess and i got them both wrong. Loved it!!

    1
    • That’s a very valid point, Trenna. These season-words were codified in Japan, but even there, because the country extends quite far from north to south, they had to agree that it was the situation in Kyoto that would define the validity and value of any kigo. I’ve been involved for years in international collaborations involving seasonal poetry; you can’t even begin to imagine the amount of ‘ironing-out’ and heated disagreements I’ve had to deal with 🙂
      Glad you had fun!

      2