light seasonings: cherry blossoms (sakura)

[Editor's note: Light Seasonings is a regular bilingual feature of haijinx that consists of a dialog between Takashi Nonin and Carmen Sterba. Carmen's words are in the pink shaded areas.]

(japanese version)

Carmen:

ki no moto ni shiru mo namasu mo sakura kana
	beneath the trees in the soup, salad, everywhere cherry blossoms!
	Bashô (trans. Haruo Shirane)

iriai o sora ni osayuru sakura kana
	evening temple bell stopped in the sky by the cherry blossoms
	Chiyo-nii (trans. Patricia Donegan and Yoshie Ishibashi)

samazama no koto omoidasu sakura kana
	many, many things they call to mind — those cherry blossoms
	Bashô (trans. Makoto Ueda)

Just what kind of things are called to mind by cherry blossoms in Japan? Certainly, it is a time of celebration when they bloom. Their arrival is announced on tv like an event, and adults gather for parties especially at night under the trees. These parties become boisterous with drinking and dancing. There are also many groups, families or couples that go on day-trips for hana-mi (flower-viewing).

In every neighborhood, there are cherry trees in many yards, and often streets are lined with them and parks are filled with them. When it is time for the blossoms to fall, they blanket the streets in pockets, and fall on car windshields as well as people's hair. The delicate pink blossoms can be found mixed in with rice in rice cakes, and floating in cherry blossom tea. Blossom designs are common for the shape of sweets, as well as popular designs for kimono and obi. For two weeks every year the blossoms are so numerous that if you are a haiku poet, there is no way not to write about them.

Takashi, I'm depending on you to share some of your stories and haiku about the ubiquitous sakura in daily life and the literature of your country. First of all, about how many kinds of cherry trees are there, and how old are some of the trees that have become national treasures?

A literary mention on sakura is seen in a famed book, Makura-no-Soshi (circa 1000) by Lady Seisho-nagon (her date of birth unknown). She admires yamazakura or mountain cherry trees by writing, "Their flowers, petals are large; the colour of the leaves is dark green with slender branches in full bloom." The Kokin Waka Shu compiled around A.D. 905 contains waka (tanka) on sakura which have been known to most Japanese.

yononaka ni taete sakura no nakariseba haru no kokoro wa nodoke karamashi	Were it not for sakura in this world, our hearts and minds would not be so serene and peaceful.
Ariwara-no-narihira (825~880) (translated by Takashi Nonin)

miruhito mo naki yamazato no sakurabana hokano chirinan nochi zo sakamashi	There is no one who views the mountain cherry trees; may they bloom after all the others have scattered their flowers.
Lady Ise (translated by Takashi Nonin)

miwataseba yanagi sakura wo kokimazete miyako zo haru no nishiki narikeri	As far as the eye can reach, willows and sakura are mingled and mixed— spring in the City is now in full swing.
Sujo Hohshi (translated by Takashi Nonin)

All those lyrics had been written long before haiku came into being.

There are some 300 varieties of cherry trees in Japan, three species of which are most admired:

Yamazakura or mountain cherry which grows wild.

Shidare-zakura or drooping cherry with slender branches which spread horizontally and hang down vertically.

Somei-yoshino, the most famous horticultural variety created by Somei, the Garden House in the Edo period.

Yamazakura is particularly loved and admired by the Japanese who believe in Japanese aesthetics and Bushido or Japanese samurai arts, because the blossoms are gallant, brave, and pure particularly when they fall in the wind.

shikishima no yamato-gokoro wo hito towaba asahi ni niou yamazakura-bara	Asked what the true Japanese spirit is like, I would answer, it is the mountain cherry blossoms smelling in the rising sun.
Motoori Norinaga (1730~1801) (translated by Takashi Nonin)

Many people here in Japan know this poem by heart.

By the way, the cherry tree which blooms earlier than all the others is Higan-zakura, or the cherry of the opposite shore.

The three great national treasures of old sakura in Japan are:

Jindai-zakura (Higan-zakura) at Mukawa Village, Yamanashi Prefecture west of Tokyo. 2,000 years of age. Located at the Jissoji Temple.

Usuzumi-zakura at Neo Village, Gifu Prefecture north of Nagoya. 1,500 years of age.

Beni (Pink) shidare-zakura at Miharu Town east of Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture in northern Japan. About 1,000 years of age. This cherry tree is especially famous all over the country and visited by a large concourse of viewers from across Japan when it is at its best (around the middle of April). My wife and I went to view this great tree last April and got inspired by touching the flowering twigs in awe and adoration!

Carmen: One of the most beloved songs in Japan is "Sakura." When I first came to Japan at 18, the 3 songs I was taught were the national anthem, the Waseda University song, and "Sakura." Also, the first time I heard koto music, it was the "Sakura" melody. What are the words, Takashi?

"Sakura" is familiar to almost every Japanese and has been sung for over 140 years. Yes, this is one of the traditional koto melodies arranged for beginners. This song symbolising Japan portrays lovely cherry blossoms blooming over hills and dales. By the way, sakura is the national emblem of Japan.

SAKURA SAKURA

Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms,
Across the sky of March
As far as the eye can reach,
They look like haze or clouds —
Sending forth sweet scent;
Let us now go view the bloom.

(translated by Takashi Nonin)

Carmen: The Japanese school year starts in April when most of the sakura are in bloom. Students have their class pictures taken under the cherry tree in their school grounds. A few years ago, when I arrived at one of my colleges for the beginning of classes, cherry tree petals were floating around the campus and some had decorated the hallway.

After composing a haiku about this experience, I sent it to Angelee Deodhar in India and she made a haiga for it.

Yes, Japanese children enter school when the cherries are in bloom (except Okinawa and Hokkaido), and chances are that some of them will be enrolled in a class called: Sakura, Ume (plum), Momo (peach), etc.

At the time when the telegraph was the only means of fast communication, students taking an entrance exam got a wire which said, "Sakura saku" (Sakura blooms) meaning, "You are successful." On the contrary, when "Sakura chiru" (Sakura falls) was wired, it meant "You have failed."

You can enjoy quite a few sakura websites, to some of which English is accessible. If interested in the Three Great Sakura Trees I mentioned above, please click the following sites for virtual hana-mi:

And one more site! The cherry blossoms at Castle Hill, Matsuyama City, birthplace of Masaoka Shiki.

Carmen: Thanks for the information on the sites. In Kamakura, we have a lot of mountains and there are (yamazakura) mountain cherry everywhere. One April, I went to a Christian retreat in the mountains for 24 hours of silence. One of my friends wrote some haiku and put them on the door of my single room. Then I corrected them, wrote some of my own, and placed them on her door. A few weeks later both of us had haiku appear in the Asahi Haikuist Network after sending them to David McMurry. Well, we were silent even though we found a way to communicate. Besides time to pray, the sharing of haiku was very precious for me, and we got some laughs out of our antics, too.

mountainside fruit trees
every shade of pink and white
an eagle soars

at dusk
light-reflecting cherry blossoms
a pine tree darkens

Asahi Haikuist Network, 1999

There are a great number of beauty spots in connection with cherry blossoms across the Japanese archipelago (stretching from Georgia to Maine on the US map), and many visit to view the blossoms (hana-mi) as the Sakura Blooming Front (Sakura Zensen) slowly goes up north. Carmen, you are lucky living in an ancient city of Kamakura adorned with garlands of cherry blossoms in springtime. Takahama Kyoshi, the greatest haiku master after Shiki, dwelled in Kamakura and loved its nature.

saki michite koboruru hana mo nakarikeri	the cherry tree stands in fullest bloom not a single petal falling
Kyoshi (translated by Takashi Nonin)

hana no kumo kane wa Ueno ka Asakusa ka	clouds of cherry blossoms sounds of a temple bell — coming from Ueno or Asakusa?
Bashô (translated by Takashi Nonin)

If you want to view the best of yamazakura or mountain cherry trees, you must go to Mount Yoshino in Nara, where 30,000 trees grow wild and bloom like so many pink clouds.

kumo wo nonde hana wo haku naru yoshino-yama	Swallowing the clouds, Vomiting forth the cherry-blossoms, Mount Yoshino!
Buson (translated by R. H. Blyth)

yama mata yama yamazakura mata yamazakura	mountains after mountains mountain cherry blossoms after mountain cherry blossoms
Seiho Awano (translated by Takashi Nonin)

Why not sit under the flowering cherry trees and eat pink sakura-mochi or cherry rice cakes wrapped with preserved sakura leaves over sakura-cha or cherry blossom tea as you listen to the sound of koto playing Sakura, Sakura?

The cherry blossoms season is just around the corner . . .

yuu-zakura haha no kishin no kane nareri	evening cherry blossoms — the temple bell donated by Mother is now sounding
Takashi

Carmen, what hours of the day do you like to view the cherry blossoms the most, morning (asa-zakura), evening (yuu-zakura), or night (yo-zakura)? And what is your favourite sakura or spot in Japan?

Carmen: Well, I do enjoy admiring the mountain cherries from afar in the daytime, but I prefer the view up close at night in the glow of the moonlight. I also love the stage when cherry petals are swirling from all directions, and end up in all kinds of unexpected places like my cats' water dish.

When I was a student in Tokyo, I saw sakura along the river banks in Yotsuya, so that place is special for me. Last summer, I went to Akita and saw streets lined with 400-year-old drooping cherry trees in front of the restored samurai mansions in Kakunodate. I would like to walk (skip?) under that pink canopy in spring.

Well, I hope that like Chiyo-ni who imagined that even the temple bell stopped to look at the sakura, we will also take a break and delight in all of spring's creations wherever we live even if we end up with more ants in our picnic baskets than petals.