Battle of the Frogs

…[Yukio Taniguchi] In Japan, frogs are also called Kawazu, and there are many kinds, such as the Japanese tree frog, the red frog, and the Japanese common toad. People have been conscious of the sounds that frogs make since ancient times, and the noise that frogs make when they swarm to mate was thought to be a "frog battle." During the Edo period, it became popular to raise the Japanese frog, which has a particularly good voice among frogs, and enjoy its sounds. It was empirically known that Japanese tree frogs start to croak when the air pressure drops, as seen in the old story of "Rain Frog Filial Filial Frog," in which a riverside man's son, worried that his parents' graves would be washed away by a flood, turns into a frog and croaks. …

*Some of the terminology that refers to the "Battle of the Frogs" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…【谷口 幸男】　日本では，カエルはカワズともいい，アマガエル，アカガエル，ヒキガエルなど種類が多い。カエルの鳴声は古くから人々に注意され，カエルが交尾のため多数群れ騒ぐのを〈蛙の合戦〉と考えたりしたが，江戸時代にはカエルの中でもとくに声がよいカジカガエルを飼育して，その鳴声を楽しむことが流行した。川端の親の墓が大水で流されまいかと心配した息子がカエルになって鳴く〈雨蛙不孝〉の昔話に見られるように，アマガエルが気圧の低下に伴って鳴き出すことは経験的に知られていた。…

※「蛙の合戦」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報