beneath some cherry trees

Some cherry trees started to have their flowers in this district, later than the usual time of bloom.

In Japan, schools and universities usually hold their entrance ceremony at the beginning of April, and then cherry blossoms welcome pupils and students with their  pinkish glamour appearance, though this year some cherry blossoms couldn't appear in time because of lingering cold weather.



 
 Several days ago I went to a city hall in Minoh city in Osaka to help edit of some tanka poems for a tanka festival which will be held in May, sponsored by the Mainichi Newspaper company.
 
 


one week ago

On my way I passed by my old elementary school. I remembered there was a statue of a boy called Kinjirou, the model of a diligent boy, by the gate of the school.

Time fries , but he still stands there reading a text book with a bundle of sticks of firewood on his back, beneath a cherry tree that had barely started to have some flowers.

A lot of tiny plants, wild flowers, ferns and moss, are burgeoning on the ground in this season. Still, many people in Japan, including me, are looking forward to see cherry blossoms impatiently.

And once they have bloomed many people hope to be invited into the territory of the blossoms as if they were mesmerised by it.

A big reason for it is that cherry blossoms are transient, as it is often said.


In fact instability of weather of this season makes me anxious about that the petals might fall too soon.

It was not yet full bloom but I got off the train to see cherry trees along a river in Osaka city when I went back from the city hall.

Can you see Osaka castle over the river?

The contrast of the water and the sunlit bud reminds me of the following tanka poem written by Shūji Terayama(1935～1982).


Poems sometimes make some foggy thought in my mind abruptly clear.

マッチ擦るつかのま海に霧ふかし身捨つるほどの祖国はありや　寺山修司

striking a match

momentarily

I see the fog ocean

is there a motherland

I can dedicate myself to?

translated by Amelia Fielden

And two days later, in Nara Park.



Chaya-machi quarter

時折私は、ウィンドウショッピングのため、またはデパートで開催されたいくつかの展覧会のための買い物、時には大阪、私が住んでいる奈良の次の都市へ移動します。（日本での常設展示があり、いくつかの美術館があります）

日本では、この第二の都市は、各四半期の側面、顔の様々なていながら、大阪の私の一般的な印象は、灰色の都市です。

茶屋町は、（茶屋町）の次の大きな町に位置しています大阪の私のお気に入りの小さな町です梅田。

この四半期であり、かなり古い劇場、秒針書籍やビンテージ芸術の古いお店、また、新しいファッショナブルな建物と居心地のよい新しいレストランやカフェであり、それらの混合物は、この町の具体的な雰囲気になります。

劇場の前で、私たちは述べている俳句の小さな碑を見つけることができます

菜の花や月は東に日は西に

（与谢芜村：与謝蕪村）

太陽は西に位置

月は東にあり

途中でkanolaの花。

（私が翻訳するここ）

Kanolaの花は菜の花を意味し、それを別の名前には菜の花です。

この俳句は茶屋町でここに書かれているのは、町は菜の花の多くは明治時代（〜1912年1868年）の初めのまわり今季栄えたフィールドであるために使用されるということです。

茶屋は（茶屋）緑茶（茶=茶）のカップとお菓子を提供しています日本の古いスタイルのカフェを意味します。それは茶屋がビューを楽しむ旅行者や観光客で菜の花の分野であちこちで見られたと推測される。


これは、フィールド内の茶屋の一例です。これは、しかし、明治時代よりも古い日です。

による広重 

私はいくつかの便利グッズを買って、私はCYA（茶）の代わりに家族経営のカフェでおいしいコーヒーのカップを楽しんだ後に、今日私は私の散歩の延長ここに来た。

私は町を歩いて多くの若者を見ていると私は時代の名残として、いくつかの通りの菜の花側のいくつかの鉢を見ました。

そして、私は店の労働者のための黄色の衣装を見た。

彼らはいくつか菜の花のように明るく見えた。

                                             

                                 

菜の花畑なりし茶屋町去来する若者の数は菜の花のかずインゲン

若者は行ったり来たり

黄色の冠とした

緑が路上で茎

なるように使用されている

菜の花の分野

footbath ( ashi-yu)

It's still cold but it was very fine when I woke up today, so I decided to walk to a place known footbath, ashi-yu(足湯）( ashi=足=foot, yu=湯=hot water), from the nearest station.




On the way I enjoyed seeing some fields and bushes alongside of the road.

Plowed field is bathing in daylight and seems to be waiting to have some nursery plants or seeds planted in it.

 
These bamboos must be ready for defoliating the old leaves.

 

The Ume(plum) blossoms in a field have a different feel from that of Ume in some gardens.

Looking up at the sky which shines sometimes...

  Some tiny wild flowers began to bloom beside the road.

After one hour walk I arrived at a facility of foot bath which is located on a hill side from where we can see a mountain range.

足湯して足拭うとき湯に浮ける春の陽（ひ）が照る油膜のように　haricot

I wiped my feet

after having bathed them,

Spring sun rays

on the hot water

are shining like oil

One year has passed since the big earthquake and Tsunamis strike Northeast Japan.It was reported that around 20,000 people lost their lives or went missing in the disaster, and 230,000 survivors have to evacuate somewhere else or live in some temporary houses even now.

Shortly after the disaster there was few lifeline and many people suffered from the cold temperature as well as from the shortage of water and food.

Some volunteers brought some boxes and plastic bags for making footbath equipment as soon as it was possible for cars and trucks to move in the area. I saw their action on TV.

I suppose that bathing their feet in some hot water must have calmed down their tremors.

Some trees on the mountain might already have some budding leaves.


Mountain looks hazy somehow embracing some such trees and bathing in the spring sunlight, even if it is still cold.

And in my garden...

in two gardens

I attended a tanka poem monthly meeting which was held in a city hall next to this garden,located in Hyogo prefecture, on Feb. 15.

In this garden 190 trees of Ume( Japanese apricots) of 39species, are planted.

 
When a big earthquake attacked Hyogo in 1995. 1. 17. the city hall was half collapsed and had to be rebuilt. In that occasion the garden was redesigned as well and the trees were transplanted from backyard to the front of the hall.

This season it is late in blooming because of lingering coldness.

In fact the cold pierced me to the bone on that day.

one month ago, on a rainy day in a vicinity of my house

Despite of it I could find a few trees that already had some flowers.

ポップコーンがはじけるやうに白梅の花すこし増ゆ今日も曇り日　石川不二子

Like popcorn splitting open

White Ume blossoms

have increased little by little,

on continuous cloudy days  

Fujiko Ishikawa(1933～）

I had written some tanka whimsically until I read the ones by Fujiko, which made me decide to write tanka regularly and attend some study groups. I was 38 years old at that time----more than 20 yeas ago.

Her tanka were never loud but sounded so attractive for me that I felt faint fragrance of
natural aroma that was even sensual for me.

When I feel difficulties about going on writing tanka, I open her book for reviewing my starting point.



Feb. 19th, another garden, this one close to my house, was opened to the public for the viewing of Ume blossoms.

There were fewer flowers here in the garden in Nara than in there in Hyogo, because of the lower temperature.

Almost all the buds were tightly closed.

However, I found a few blossoms among swelling of buds fortunately and it made me very happy.

This path leads to a small museum called Yamato Bunka-kan,

and from the back yard visitors can see a pond which was made as a dam, more than 1,000 yeas ago.

唇(くち)閉ぢて「むめ」と呼ばへばまだ固き梅のつぼみのはにかむごとし 栗木京子

The tightly closed bud of Ume

seems to get shy

When I pucker my lips

and call it
by its ancient name of "Mume"

   Kyoko Kuriki (1954～）

While I gazed on the pond, I imagined the old days when people called plum (Japanese apricot)blossom "Mume" instead of "Ume" as they do now, something I had not known until I read Kuriki's tanka.

After one month later. Through a window of the city hall.

an exhibition

An invitation card for an exhibition arrived one morning, when it was snowing on and off.




It was from my brother, five years younger than I, who was art teacher and retired earlier, and started to enjoy to make some works of etching.



It is the second time for him to put on a solo exhibition of his etching works in a small gallery.

And the theme seemed almost the same as the former works as far as I could tell from the picture on the card.

The works, a little abstract, looked like some exotic or new towns for me.

Or maybe they are some towns in future.

At the first exhibition I asked him which work he had a particular fondness for,

and he said to me that he enjoyed some unexpected effects which were created by some condition of corrosion of copper plates, pointing out some small parts.

Early last autumn I came to know that he was diagnosed with a fatal disease.


After that he had to be hospitalised for a week once a month and it seemed  he worked on his etching when he could while at home.

Maybe he enjoyed this exhibition as much as his first one, considering his diagnosis. I only guessed so, because we did not talk much this time.

Seeing his works I noticed his buildings did not have any escape stairways.

Some time ago, I wrote the following tanka while looking at an escape stairway in a town.

新しきビルと思えど見慣れたる非常階段を脇につけたり

A newly-erected　building,

at least it looks so,

quite familiar-looking it is

on an escape stairway itself 

for my eyes



Without knowing the reason I felt at ease to see his buildings which had no escape stairways but keyboard-like lines in some works.
In addition to it I felt some music seeing his works.


After I came back home I listened to an old CD.
The melancholic voice of Georges Moustaki made me feel fragile, and I cried a little.

It was drizzly day today.

In spite of it,a bird, white eye, which visited my garden did its bathing in

a watering plate. He must want to clean his plumage before returning to a nest.

I saw some Winter sweets( Chimonanthus praecox, 蝋梅）blooming

at back-fence of my neighbour.They are blooming like small yellow lights in dim weather.

In this early evening such tiny matters and faint hint of spring in the air solaced me a lot.

Yamayaki ( burning mountainous herbs)

The event that they put fire the herbs which cover Mt. Wakakusa(342m),
located in Nara city, was held on January 28.

It is called Yamayaki in Japanese.

It started with some fireworks which are hardly seen in winter here in Japan.





It was far away from where I was, so the sound of fireworks reached me slightly later than the works.

When I lived closer to the mountain, central city in Nara, it used to be held on January 15, the end of the term of marking New Year. I think that it was reasonable because many New Year ornaments made of straws which were taken off were burned together.

New Year's ornament called shimenawa

This event, Yamayaki, began in ancient days, more than 1,000 years ago.


Later, after some interval, when it restarted they said several theories about the origin of this custom; to set a boundary for property of temples , to settle down the souls of ancient tomb on the mountain and so on.

Either way, as consequence the mountain comes to have its rejuvenation, and shows a feature fitting the name Mt. Wakakusa(若草　若＝youth 草＝herb) shortly after this event.

And above all, I like to see burning mountain under proper security.

Fire, as primitive element ,let people be evocative somehow and brings sacramental feeling.

taken on New Year's day in a shrine

 Seeing  the flaming mountain range I remembered a tanka written by　Chikashi Koizumi(1886~1924).

みんなみの嶺岡山の焼くる火のこよひも赤く見えにけるかも 　　古泉千樫

Ah, Flames

that is set ablaze

on the Mt. Mineoka

at the South

are seen tonight brightly again

Chikashi raised in Chiba prefecture and later he went to Tokyo and with other members contributed to establish "Araragi school"(アララギ派）which became to be the main stream of genre of tanka during the last hundred years.



In this tanka, young Chikashi is gazing at the flame on the mountain which seems to be a boundary between Chiba and Tokyo, and sings as a tanka with orthodox method for expressing his emotion not subjectively but with particles for exclamation.

another fire in my room