Oroshi

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 Pacific Ocean side of central Honshu.^[2] This term identifies a katabatic wind.^[3]

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

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 mono 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 compares the cold down-draft to the heartless woman.^[5]

Oroshi is also a character in "La Horde du Contre-vent", an adventure book written by Alain Damasio, a French writer. In this story, Oroshi is the name of a wind mistress, she can read the wind as it is paper.

See also

• Halny – Foehn wind that blows in Poland and Slovakia
• Piteraq – Cold katabatic wind in Greenland
• Santa Ana winds – California weather phenomenon
• Williwaw – Sudden blast of wind descending from a mountainous coast to the sea