Oroshi

The Oroshi wind which causes unpredictable damage -- Mafū (魔風, lit., devilish wind^?, 1853)

Oroshi (颪, lit, down wind^?), is the Japanese term for a wind blowing strong down the slope of a mountain, occasionally as strong gusts of wind which can cause damage.^[1] Oroshi is a strong local wind across the Kanto Plain on the Japan Sea side of central Honshu.^[2] This term identifies a katabatic wind.^[3]

Literary references

The Oroshi wind is mentioned in Japanese poetry, including a poem which is included in the Hyakunin Isshu.^[4]

ukarikeru hito wo hatsuse no yama-oroshi yo hageshikare to ha inoranu mano wo — Minamoto no Toshiyori[4]

Make that heartless woman, O mountain storm     of Hatsuse Temple, crueller still!"– this is not what I prayed for, and yet ...

An impression of Futen the Wind Deity by Hanabusa Itcho, late-17th–early-18th century.

Many versions of this poem which were published during the Edo period have yama-oroshi instead of yama-oroshi yo, but the meaning is equivalent: the poet cries out to the wind; and he the cold down-draft to the heartless woman.^[5]

See also

• Bora (wind)
• Santa Ana winds

Notes

1. ^ Kishō Kenkyūjo. (1969). Papers in Meteorology and Geophysics, p. 126 at Google Books, citing "Dissolution of Separation in the Turbulent Boundary Layer," Papers in Meteorology and Geophysics (気象研究所研究報告^?), Vol. 20, No. 2, 1969, pp. 111-174, 126.
2. ^ Simpson, John E. (1994). Sea Breeze and Local Winds, p. 70 at Google Books
3. ^ Haggett, Peter. (2001). Encyclopedia of World Geography, Vol. 24, p. 1052 at Google Books
4. ^ ^{a b} Mostow, Joshua S. (1996). Pictures of the Heart: The Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image, p. 361. at Google Books
5. ^ Mostow, p. 47. at Google Books

References

• Kishō Kenkyūjo (気象研究所^?). (1969). Papers in Meteorology and Geophysics (気象研究所研究報告^?), Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 111-174, 126 Tokyo, Meteorological Research Institute. OCLC 1761858
• Mostow, Joshua S., ed. (1996). Pictures of the Heart: The Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 10-ISBN 0 824817052; 13-ISBN 9780824817053; OCLC 645187818
• Simpson, John E. (1994). Sea Breeze and Local Winds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10-ISBN 0521452112/13-ISBN 9780521452113; OCLC 243798029