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]

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)
• Mistral (wind)
• Piteraq
• Santa Ana winds
• Williwaw

Notes

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. ISBN 978-0-8248-1705-3; OCLC 645187818
• Simpson, John E. (1994). Sea Breeze and Local Winds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521452113; OCLC 243798029