Plum Blossoms

Hiroshige

Hiroshige

Plum Blossom Viewing

Plum Blossoms at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine

25 February 2012

Seeing the plum blossoms
I wait for the song of the warbler
Spring has come
Veiled in mist

    -Izumi Shikibu (c.1000)

The plum trees are beginning to show their blossoms around Kyoto, though the weather is not particularly spring like most days.  Plum trees were brought to Japan from China, and their blooming is celebrated as a marker of spring.  The trees can be quite ancient.  The zig-zag  pattern made by the branches and trunks (as in the first print above) has a specific name; "fukaku".   Plum blossoms can be red or white, or light yellow. They have a delicate, sweet smell.  Their image represents happiness.  Salted, pickled plums, known as "umeboshi",  ward off danger and are good for health.  Sometimes plum trees are planted at the northeast corner of a home to ward off danger and evil, since here, since before the founding of Kyoto in the 8th century, bad things are most likely to come from that direction.

We enjoyed our trip to the Plum Festival at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine (always 2/25).  We stood admiring the trees, and drank salty tea, in a cool misty drizzle, with a large crowd of others.  All the sweets for sale have suddenly become pink and pale green.  They, like everything, follow the rhythm of the seasons.

Happy end of winter to all.