Before dawn , as a soft spring rain dampened the earth, Mocchi worked alone and in silence at the edge of Amencho Town’s fields, burying seeds.
With the pad of his finger, he opened a small hole in the soil and carefully pressed in one seed at a time. The soil after the rain was cold and heavy, yet it still received each seed firmly.
“…Whoa, that’s huge.”
Walking along the footpath, Kopo stopped in his tracks, noticing a streak of light crossing the sky. His sleepy eyes snapped open, just for a moment. trailing a long white tail, a light was slowly tracing an arc through the haze of spring.
“That’s not… a shooting star, is it? It’s not stopping at all.”
“It’s a comet.”
Sonchō, seated at the base of the weeping cherry tree, spoke without lifting his eyes from his sun-browned weather notebook. “It’s traveled from far, far away, and today alone, it’s come close to the sun. If not for this exact moment, we never would have seen it.”
The three of them watched the sky in silence for a while.
“…It’s leaving, isn’t it.”
Mocchi murmured , resting his soil-covered hands on his knees. The comet’s tail was gradually fading within the rain-scented air.
“Yeah. But maybe something will be left behind, wherever that light falls.”
Kopo said it with an odd air of knowing more than he did.
“Making what remains — that’s our job.”
Sonchō gave a small “Feh” of a laugh. With an old fingertip, he tapped the edge of his notebook. “What’s in the sky passes on by. What’s in the soil takes its time, and sprouts .”
Mocchi nodded quietly and returned to burying his seeds. The Kokū rain fell softly, wetting his back without a sound.
Margin note: That morning, without telling anyone, Kopo buried a small stone in the corner of the field.
【Today’s Drop】
- Comet PanSTARRS: Around 7:00 a.m. Japan time on April 20, 2026, the comet passed its perihelion, the point of closest approach to the sun. It came as close as roughly 0.5 astronomical units from the sun, and the pre-dawn sky around this date offered the best conditions for observation.
- Kokū (Grain Rain): One of the 24 solar terms, falling around April 20th. Known as “the time when spring rain nourishes the hundred grains,” it has traditionally served as a marker for the season of sowing in agriculture.
This is an English translation of “彗星と種の朝”, part of Tales of Amencho Town (蛙鳴町奇譚).
