夏の音「ざあざあ」A Summer Sound "Zaa-zaa"
今週のテーマは「夏の音」です。
日本には夏を連想させる音、つまりこの音を聞けば夏が思い浮かぶ、という音がいくつかあります。
例えばセミの声、花火、そして夕立や雷。
今日はこの大雨の音「ざあざあ」について。「ざあざあ」は大雨の音を表します。
なので夏だけの音ではないのですが、夏には夕立（日中とても暑くなった後に、夕方ごろに急に雷雨になること）が多いので、「ざあざあ」のイメージがあります。「ざあざあ降りの雨」という言い方もします。
また「ザーザー」とカタカナで書くと直線が多くなり、雨足に似ているため、漫画の背景に書かれていたりもします。
元々漢字はモノの形から作られたものが多いですが、それが変形していったカタカナやひらがなでも、日本人は絵のようにして使ってしまう。日本人の絵と文字に対する感覚って面白いなと思います。
いろは
This week's theme: the sounds of summer.
Japan has sounds that are inseparable from summer — sounds that, the moment you hear them, bring the season rushing back. The cry of cicadas. Fireworks. The sudden crack of thunder, and the downpour that follows.
Today's sound: zaazaa.
Zaazaa is the sound of heavy rain — a word that captures the relentless pour of it. It isn't exclusive to summer, but summer in Japan brings yuudachi — those sudden, dramatic evening storms that erupt after a day of intense heat — and zaazaa is the sound at the heart of them. You'll also hear the phrase zaazaa buri no ame: rain that just keeps coming down.
There's something else worth noticing. When you write the same sound in katakana — ザーザー — the characters themselves become almost visual. The straight lines and angular strokes of katakana look remarkably like rain falling in sheets. In manga, you'll often see ザーザー written into the background of a rainy scene, not just as a sound but as texture, as atmosphere.
Kanji were originally derived from pictures of things, and somehow that visual instinct has carried through — even into hiragana and katakana, which evolved from those original forms. Japanese people still reach for the image inside the letter, almost without thinking.
I find that fascinating.
Iroha
