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I've stumbled upon the word 火垂る, meaning firefly, in the Japanese title for
Grave of the Fireflies. The thing is, there's already a kanji (蛍), pronounced
the same way. The other weirded thing is that I can't find 火垂る in most
dictionaries. On Jisho.org there's [an
entry](https://jisho.org/search/%E7%81%AB%E5%9E%82%E3%82%8B) but it's for the
whole title, 火垂るの墓. There's even another, obsolete, kanji for ホタル, 螢, so I
don't think it's merely an old writing.

What's the deal with these kanji? Why do every occurrence seem to be linked
with the movie? Is it a novel, play-on-word writing or an older one? And why
is it so hard to find in dictionaries?
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2021-09-15T08:37:43.860
90341
2021-09-15T10:13:00.007
20551
question
kanji kanji-choice
What's 火垂る and why is it so rare?
The word "火垂る" in "火垂るの墓" is just an
[ateji](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ateji).

The meaning is somewhat clear from the movie itself, which is a visualization
of the [Kobe Air Raid during World War
II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Kobe_in_World_War_II). In the
film, there is a scene where the main characters, a boy and a girl, are
watching the bombs of the Kobe air raid burning beyond the window of a train.
This is the "火垂る". The word "火垂る" comes from bombs(=things that creates
fire:火), dripping(垂[れ]る) down from bomber.

That's all it means. As far as I know, it's not actually used in real life to
describe fireflies.

_**Edit:**_ Looks like it wasn't complete creation of the author, and was
actually used to describe fireflies during Edo period.

It seems that the light of the fireflies was compared to fire, and the way the
fireflies were floating was described as "fire dripping" - "火垂る". It has a
very literary feel to it.
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answer