looking back my days in Golden week

There are three main vacations (not private) in Japan; one is New Year's day,

Obon vacation, traditionally Buddhism custom at the mid of August, and Golden week, the first week in May including the final two or three days in April.

Golden week is over and the ordinary days came back to me.

That of my family was not gilded but really descent; my three sons and his family (one is married and they have a little daughter) visited us ( my husband and I)in turn, and we enjoyed some home made dish together, 

and when we were alone we drove shortly in the countryside avoiding traffic jam, and we spent a day in a town nearby.

This is out of the scenes we saw alongside of a river where we stopped by.

The river, Kizu(木津） river,runs near the border of Nara and Kyoto. 

On the bank we saw some golden yellow area in the field of weed and shrubs.

These flowers which look like rape blossoms are カラシ菜, or Mustarｓ, Brassica juncea.

They were immigrants as edible plants and became wild gradually, and in this season the tiny massive flowers color along some rivers and rail roads.

In autumn this bank is covered with Japanese pampas grass, and I glanced at a bird among dried pampas grass' stalks. I thought it was a lark because I could hear their gentle chirp above me. But it may not be a lark and it flew away soon and disappeared.

The narrow path between Mustards' flowers leads us to the riverside.

When my sons were much younger we occasionally came here for enjoying barbecue.

In those days we took a former dog called Lucky who died at her seventeen years old.

I hesitated to have a dog again but my husband was eager about having one for taking a walk together. Ten years has passed since Daisy became my beloved second daughter taking after Lucky in many ways.

In the river there is not abundant of water because of few rain in recent days.

The sky is pale blue as well as the river, and it let larks' song fall continually.

ふかぶかとあげひばり容れ淡青（たんじょう）の空は暗きまで光の器　高野　公彦

 The pale blue sky

gets some larks into it

and became a vessel of light

 which darkens 

the bottom of my eyes

Kimihiko Takano(1941～)

numerous fresh leaves

Being pleased to the season full of greenery I visited Kyoto last week.

I saw many tourists from foreign countries; some seemed to enjoy walking

and some rested beneath trees which had plenty of young leaves on them.

Among the green foliage I found some red maple leaves which have just opened up. 

Later I checked the name but there are too many to identify it as the same 

species. Do you know its name?

The main purpose to visit Kyoto was to see an exhibition held in Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art (京都市立美術館).

The museum is just next to a great Torii gate of one of most famous shrines in Kyoto, Heian Jingu.

The overwhelming vermilion of the gate made contrast favorably with fresh green leaves around there.

As for the exhibition we could see Vincent Van Gogh' works which were painted during his sejourns in Paris( 1886~1888). At this time Gogh, being supported by his brother, played active roles in colorful works influenced by some artists especially impressionists and in establishing his own style on perspective and also planar composition influenced by Ukiyo-e from Japonism.

It is hard to believe now that his works didn't sell except one in his life.

It is said that he painted some shooting buds represented by wheat as symbol of his inner energy, and the following tableau caught my eye like a ray of hope among his secure jobs.

image from Web site

I also walked nearby the museum and stopped by a temple called Nanzen-ji which has a great two-storied gate.

Between the pillars of the gate the greenery landscape on the temple ground is seen as a tableau.

Some red leaves of maple trees are faintly observed as well.

I carefully took a photo not to bother the girl who looked doing meditation. 

憎しみか官能かふいに燃え立ちて＜万緑叢中紅一点＞　小島ゆかり(1956~ )

I don't know whether 

it would be hatred or sensuality

which flamed up suddenly

but I know that I'm a woman

amid numerous young leaves
Yukari Kojima 

farewell to Sakura

Of Japan's 600 or so kinds of sakura or cherry blossom, around 80 percent are Somei-yoshino', hybrid plants which were interbred around end of Edo and the beginning of Meiji era (1868~).

Somei-Yoshino' (Cerasus ×yedoensis)

This kind of sakura has abundant blooms comparing wildlife species represented by Yama-zakura which blooms at the same time of shooting young leaves.

Yama-zakura (yama=mountain zakura=sakura , Cerasus jamasakura)

Information by the weather bureau  always tells about the blooming of Somei-yoshino' and its front line which goes up toward north along Japanese archipelago.
This year it was told that unexceptionally earlier bloom of sakura in some regions.

Yesterday weather forecast predicted gale-force winds and rain for the following a couple of days and it was right.

Seeing the weather through a window I remember the last viewing of cherry blossom while out for a walk in Nara Park.

I prefer some rustic flavor to stylish man made park, so I mainly walked on a field where many old cherry trees and maple ones are mingled. This field is located next to a small cozy area trimmed by many Somei-Yoshino's.

There we can see many Somei-yoshino' with pinkish white cute blossoms and also some Yama-zakura ,much older species, which  blooms a little quietly.

These are bloom of Somei-Yoshino'

This is of Yama-zakura

Some cherry trees already started to shed petals, and some deer looked as if they were eating fallen ones.

That one which looks like a rabbit is an old trunk

Although I had still much time before dusk I thought of the following tanka poem seeing the boughs above me.

誰かうしろになみだぐみつつ佇つごとし夕ぐれが桜のいろになるころ　花山　多佳子(1948~)

Behind me

someone might stand there

with moistness of eyes

as dusk became to be tinged with

hue of cherry blossoms

Takako Hanayama

around the end of March

On the way from the nearest station to the next one, a Japanese style restaurant with a commodious entrance and garden is observed.

The backyard extends facing a road, and at its corner which looks a wild bush there are some trees of Kobus Magnolia, Kobushi(辛夷).

When there is no flowers this corner is monotone and I do not pay attention, but in March it's different.

As relatively tiny trees of Kobus Magnolia are suitable for garden plants, I can see some of them here and there and enjoy those blooming; besides I seldom see such tall and wild ones.

Being fascinated by the feature I sneaked onto the corner of the backyard from the facing road.

Every year in March I notice the buds of Kobus Magnolia and Lily Magnolia, Mokuren(木蓮) when they begin to swell on the branches which had looked almost bare until not long ago. 

And when they become bigger I always imagine some birds looking up at the sky

all at once with large beaks.

And then they start to open up one by one...

Finally each flower becomes an illuminant.

I stood still for a while, beneath the tall tree with hundred of natural lamps, bathing the emission

 of whitish lights. 

The other day I happened to see some deer trotting in a row alongside a pond in Nara Park.

It made me think as if March proceeding at a gallop.

In fact the most common sort of cherry blossoms began to come out much earlier than usual 

this year. 

By the pond, another Kobus Magnoria was in full bloom.

春あさきそらの通りに枝枝に兆すちからを見留（と）めてぞゆく阿木津　英（１９５０～

Walking　on an airy passage

in the early spring

I recognize the energy

coming to the fore

on this branch and on that one

by Ei  Akitsu

The ideal beauties

More than three decades have passed since I visited Kinkakuji (金閣寺) last time.

This temple left a vivid image on my mind in a positive and negative way; I mean

that it was beautiful enough, bright and elegant, for please my eye, and at the same time it looked too shinny and flamboyant. 

So, I wanted to see it again on a snowy day, in dim light.

However, it was a fine day when my husband invited me to go out, to go to Kyoto for example,

and I said to him, "How about to visit Kinkakuji?, despite myself.

Kinkakuji was there as it used to be, as if it will never be weathered.

It was more than fifteen years ago that I reread the novel, "Kinkakuji",「金閣寺」,

by Yukio Mishima.(三島由紀夫)

In the novel a young monk struggling with his ideal image of Kinkakuji  

feels pressure from becoming a priest as well as from the existence of the temple.

Trying hard to overcome his own complex and to give his life for the temple, he failed

about them and ended up to determine arson on the temple for being free from his 

ideal beauty.

This novel is based on the fact that Kinkakuji was set fire to by a student in 1950.

Five years later it was rebuilt and restored the structure that was arranged under

Shogunate Ashikaga in 14c.

Recently I read a tanka book including following one.

The contemporary tanka poet, Meiko Matsudaira, divorced and moved to France.

Then she released energetically some of her tanka poems that described her new life with her lover.

In the book we are also able to find some tanka poems regarding to her son and daughter whom Meiko had to leave.

They turn up in her dream repeatedly.

In her dream the stained glass window called rosette falls down more than once as well.

How the collapse of the symbol of the beauty and virtue works in the depth of her mind,
I wonder.

仰ぐとき薔薇窓の薔薇いっせいに崩落したりいくたびの夢　松平　盟子(1954~)

Looking up at the Cathedrale

and when I see the petals of glass

The rose of the rosette

starts to scatter over me,

I'm watching it again in my dream

Meiko Matsudaira

Rosette de Notre Dame from Website

early and tiny bloom of cherry blossoms was seen near Kinkakuji 

warmth in the coldness

Yesterday morning I found a quite tiny rose blooming in a pot in my garden which is far from that of multicolor.

The rose looks like burning fire with a match and my cold fingertip touched it in a spontaneous way. 

Yesterday it was Setsubun( 節分), literally means "season division" by lunar calender.

Today, the following day of Setsubun, is called Risshun(立春) that means the very beginning of spring.

It is a little odd that I felt as if spring had already come yesterday, and today we are back to

winter again with cold rain.

Yesterday my husband and I walked with my dog enjoying the blessed sunlight and warmth.

Bamboo grove which was seen in a distance became closer.

Each bamboo must have some new green shoots just like treasure which is still on the inside, and each will shed old leaves when spring has come.

The sunlight looks whitish through the branches of some bare trees.

We have to wait a little longer until the buds will be easy to notice.

There was little water in the pond where we destined for.

My shadow on the dry pond looks bulky compared to that of my husband looking like one of bare trees, strangely enough ... 

「寒いね」と話しかければ「寒いね」と答える人のいるあたたかさ　俵　万智(1962~)

" Cold, isn't it? "

I talked to him,

" It's cold,really"

 his voice sounds alongside me,saying so

and that's warm 

Machi Tawara

May my spirit come to be reborn

Morning sunlight gets into the trees and onto the ground white with frost, and soon the thin layer of frost turns into many twinkle water drops on the tip of grasses which cover the ground.

I'm sensitive to the cold but I don't dislike the morning crisp air.

Seeing the birds on such air makes me feel better and makes me try to get to the pond for migrating ones.

Remembering my first visit here, Koya-pond(昆陽池）in Itami City, when it was falling in flakes that mingled with some soaring birds, I walked around the pond for a while.

There seemed to be fewer birds now , especially on the numbers of gull, maybe due to weather or environmental condition, still their soaring and landing on the water are soothing.

I really hope my spirits rebirth like the birds' landing after flying in the air shining even in dim wintry sunlight. 

ジャンプ台を跳び立ちし影転生の輝きに充ち雪に着地す　栗木　京子（１９５４～）

A figure

on a ski jump

made a momentary soar

and landed on his feet

with spirit of radiant rebirth

by Kyoko Kuriki

...................    ..................    ..................

My problem of PC has barely solved (I hope so.)

Thank you very much for helping and encouraging me a lot.