There are many places in Japan which are famous for fireflies,--places
which people visit in summer merely to enjoy the sight of the
fireflies. Anciently the most celebrated of all such places was a
little valley near Ishiyama, by the lake of Ōmi. It is still called
Hotaru-Dani, or the Valley of Fireflies. Before the Period of Genroku
(1688-1703), the swarming of the fireflies in this valley, during the
sultry season, was accounted one of the natural marvels of the country.
The fireflies of the Hotaru-Dani are still celebrated for their size;
but that wonderful swarming of them, which old writers described,
is no longer to be seen there. At present the most famous place for
fireflies is in the neighbourhood of Uji, in Yamashirō. Uji, a pretty
little town in the centre of the celebrated tea-district, is situated
on the Ujigawa, and is scarcely less famed for its fireflies than for
its teas. Every summer special trains run from Kyōtō and Ōsaka to
Uji, bringing thousands of visitors to see the fireflies. But it is
on the river, at a point several miles from the town, that the great
spectacle is to be witnessed,--the _Hotaru-Kassen_, or Firefly Battle.
The stream there winds between hills covered with vegetation; and
myriads of fireflies dart from either bank, to meet and cling above the
water. At moments they so swarm together as to form what appears to the
eye like a luminous cloud, or like a great ball of sparks. The cloud
soon scatters, or the ball drops and breaks upon the surface of the
current, and the fallen fireflies drift glittering away; but another
swarm quickly collects in the same locality. People wait all night in
boats upon the river to watch the phenomenon. After the _Hotaru-Kassen_
is done, the Ujikawa, covered with the still sparkling bodies of the
drifting insects, is said to appear like the Milky Way, or, as the
Japanese more poetically call it, the River of Heaven. Perhaps it was
after witnessing such a spectacle that the great female poet, Chiyo of
Kaga, composed these verses:--
Kawa bakari,
Yami wa nagarété--?
Hotaru kana!
--Which may be thus freely rendered:--
"Is it the river only?--or is the darkness itself drifting?... Oh, the
fireflies!..."[4]