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Like wild cherry blossoms
Glowing in the morning sun
Motoori Norinaga
On a journey
Resting beneath the cherry blossoms
I feel myself to be in a Noh play
Matsuo Basho
You've got to believe it. Well, otherwise you couldn't possibly believe that cherry trees could bloom so beautifully. I've been out of sorts these past two or three days, because I couldn't believe in such a beauty. But now I've finally understood it: there are bodies buried beneath the cherry trees.
Kajii Motojiro, Beneath the Cherry Trees
This year has been cool and the cherry blossoms came into bloom very late. Today it is raining. The rain is beating the blossoms from the trees. Petals are lying everywhere on the wet ground. The cherry blossoms may be gone by tomorrow.
The year is divided by events of nature. Cherry blossoms. Fireflies. The autumn moon. The changing colours of the leaves. Japanese people admire these signs of change in nature and celebrate them. The ohanami or hanami - the o is an honorific prefix - cherry blossom viewing party is a significant event in the calendar. The end of winter and the beginning of spring. And sometimes perhaps also a celebration of graduation or the start of a new academic year or a new job. After the beauty of the heavy clouds of cherry blossoms on the trees the petals blowing in the wind are like the transience of life. I have a great memory of an aikido dojo hanami party in Maruyama Park in Kyoto.
Cherry blossom parties are especially important this year. In 2011 many parties were cancelled because of the Tohoku earthquake. Last weekend I saw cherry blossom parties still going on even in the almost freezing dark of evening.
And the next day when it did start to become warm I did go to a dojo hanami party. But it was at night. In a Japanese pub. So there were no cherry blossoms. And no viewing. So ohanami had become an abstract concept. But everyone was happy that it was held.
I have an essay in a charity e-book put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.
04-14-2012 05:00 AM 
