black-and-white photographs

black-and-white photographs

There are two black and white photographs that I treasure as shining souvenir ,taken by an American photographer, Ansel Adams. (1902~1984)

One of the two is taking two of dog wood trees in a forest.

from web site

In this photo the dog wood trees are giving a glimmer of light in a dark forest.

It is said that dog wood trees came to Japan in 1915 for exchanging with cherry trees that mayor of Tokyo sent to US in 1912.
In Japan they are generally planted along streets or in gardens, besides in US where the trees came from, many of them grow wild.

Several years ago I had a chance to visit Yosemite National Park in US, famous for rocky mountains represented by Half Dome that was shaped during Ice Age, and falls, Yosemite Falls, Bridalveil fall and so on which have abundance of water especially in April, there I saw many wild dog wood trees were covered with boom. Many were much taller than those in Japan and they had their glorious flowers on the high branches.

Ansel Adams' museum is in the huge park that makes it look tiny.

Dog wood is called Hana-mizuki in Japan.

This is my favourite tanka poem by contemporary tanka poet.

青春は水木のしたをかよう風　あるいはとおき線路のかがやき
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　高野　公彦

( Adolescence, it is a breeze which comes and goes beneath a dog wood tree, or is a mail off shining of silver train tracks Kimihiko Takano 1941~)

In the tanka poem, Takano doesn't mention any substance of youth but floral-fresh breeze
and far-flung shining of rail road.
Thinking of it I remember the very short period time of staying at the magnificent park, Yosemite.
Definitely I was several years younger than I am.



The other one is this.
I've heard that Ansel Adams was influenced by the painters, impressionists, who brought their canvas into the sunshine from their darker ateliers, and depicted subtle change of sunlight on objects.



via here
The little prince in "Le Petit Prince " by Saint-Exupéy saw one day, the sunset forty-four times ,　rawing back his chair by inch on his small planet.
The sun in this photo might be going to set in, though I keep me it in suspence whether it is rising or setting in, because to see the sunset many times is too sad.

モノクロームの大樹の向こう　のぼるとも沈むとも見え白き太陽

The sun shining whitely

over a large-boughed mighty tree

looks setting in

and also rising up

or going to do in parallel (haricot)

I see the photos again and I feel the fragrance of that April.

Ode to cherry blossoms ( sakura )

振り向かば枝にはじけて開くらむ さくらさくらは夢に見るごと

Cherry blossoms will burst out blooming

on each of the branches

as though I will see them in a dream,

　　　　　　if I'll look back just now (haricot)

Once a cherry blossom starts to open up, all of blossoms will be at their peak before long, and it gives us somehow unreal state of mind.

And, even when people undergo their hardship, looking up to see these transient blossoms brings brightness into their hearts and appreciating their short lives makes people feel special sentiment.

Cherry Blossoms ( sakura ) have been one of major material of Tanka poem from ancient days in Japan, e.g. being expressed in "manyo-shu"The Anthology of Myriad ［Ten Thousand］ Leaves, compiled in the 8 century. And of course it is still continuing to be written suggesting some theme in genre of modern tanka.

In this time of year I often remember a tanka composed by Kanoko Okamoto(1889~ 1939), about 100 years ago.

桜ばないのち一ぱいに咲くからに生命（いのち）をかけてわが眺めたり

岡本　かの子

　　　　　　 ( As cherry blossoms bloom their full of lives with all the strength they have, I gaze them with my tremendous dignity and utmost power of my life.)

( image from website)

This tanka expresses not only nature of cherry blossoms but also Kanoko's passionate life. I've ever read that when she faced with her quite difficult situation, her partner and a cartoonist, Ippei Okamoto, let her intimate two boyfriends live with them to encourage her. Their intense way of living exerted influence on their youngest son, Tarō Okamoto, by necessity.

As an avant-garde painter,Tarō Okamoto designed 「太陽の塔」,( Tower of the Sun ) for a symbol tower of world exposition that was held in 1970 in Japan.

This year(2011) is 100th anniversary of his birth.

(image from website )

Ten years later of the event, so-called "Bubble economy " term started and it lasted nearly a decade in Japan. In the midst of the bubble economy, Machi Tawara(1962~ ) who is a forefront of colloquial tanka poem wrote about transient nature of cherry blossoms like this.

さくらさくらさくら咲き初め咲き終わりなにもなかったような公園

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　俵　万智

　　　　　　　　　 ( Sakura sakura, their floral term broke out and came to an end,

then the park stays totally as it used to be.)

Since the period of bubble economy terminated, in Japan people have struggled with prolonged recession.

And now, aftermath of the unprecedented earthquake and tsunami, including trouble of leak of radioactivity from power plants, makes people get to grips with new phase of difficulties.

New term of challenge ourselves has begun.

Prayer

My husband , my second son and I visited our family's grave on March 20Th,one day earlier of the spring equinox day, as one of family events, as weather forecast said it was going to rain on the following day.

According to Buddhism, it is said that on the spring equinox day people pray praising nature and for living people, besides on the autumnal one they pray for ancestors and the deads' souls.

I don't think so many Japanese are serious believers of Buddhism,including my family, though there are many who visit their family graves on the day of both of equinox.

This time I also couldn't help praying for numerous disaster victims by the biggest recorded earthquake and Tsunami unleashed by it on March 11Th in northen area in Japan.

There are often snow damage in some parts of the area, and they got hit by the devastating disaster when the long winder is at last going to over.

Our grave yard is located to near a temple, Byakugou-ji(白毫寺）, where we dropped in.
This small mountain temple is famous for a camellia tree that has five different coloured flowers, red, white, pink, white with red stains and red with white stains, as a result of graft in the tree.

Unfortunately the buds of it are not yet loosen, though some other sorts of camellia blossomed out in various ways.

And a sort of cherry tree, Kan-zakura, which flourishes in a cold season"Kan", had some white serene flowers.

雪消（け）ぬとう訳にはゆかぬ北方の被災思えり寒桜咲き

A cherry tree has its flowers like some snow flakes

in a cloudy morning

that let me think about the sufferers in the boreal

whose untold disasters are like huge icy rocks

It is my sincere wish that a speedy restoration and support will bring back the victims their peace and normal days sooner.

Nocturnes

The vernal equinox is getting nearer and the day has lengthened cock-stride day by day.

隣家との境に草の花あおく　きのうより少し長い夕暮れ

Some growth of weed
has its tiny sky blue flowers,
They are still clear
as dusk is a little longer today
than it was yesterday

(haricot)

Recently I reread a story in "Nocturnes",published 2009, which I read just in this season of last year. It is written by Kazuo Ishiguro(1954 ～), consisting of five short stories, regarding music, love, and the passing time, as though they are packed in a music album.



The story which I reread is the second, "Come Rain or Come Shine".
This one is like a light music, a little up-tempo, compared to the tune of other four stories.


Charlie, Emily, and the narrator Raymond are life-long friends since they were university students in London, mainly had shared their time on talking about music.
Charlie and Emily got married and stay in London. Besides Raymond is a sort of nowhere man who is teaching English in Spain as of now.


One day Raymond was invited by Charlie and was asked something about a favour for him, for passing time with Emily while Charlie's absence for a couple of days on his business. Raymond, hesitating to do the offer, admits the reason that he is the oldest friend for them.

Some fiddle things gradually tell that something wrong with Charlie and Emily, then Raymond starts to have knot on his stomach. He struggles to solve something invisible, though his clumsiness seems to make things worsen and tighten the knot. And then...




I will watch the dance of tea leaves for a couple of minutes, remembering the last scene of this story.

Dusky light is getting to ebb.






P.S.
Emily and Raymond had been preoccupied by their own matters ,then suddenly she noticed that theirs were somehow overlapped.

She invited him to dance with her on the balcony of nightfall and they did dance as though it would win back their mutual subtle misunderstanding, and even would make up for the lost time.

"Come Rain or Come Shine" You Tube

Monthly market

Monthly market, a sort of flea market, is held on the temple ground, of Tohji (東寺）in Kyoto.

Many places like station squares have flea markets occasionally, besides this is a typical case that is held on a temple ground.

On the 21 of December and of January the scenes of the market are shown on TV as signature event.

Tohji was built in 796 and later on it became a popular temple with priest Kukai's principal that addressed not only to priests and academic people who could read the doctrine of Buddhism but to ordinary people to be secured.
In 1994 the temple was designated officially as a cultural asset of world heritage.

It is said that such monthly market started on 1239, after it had been held as annual event.

Tohji is also famous for some sacred statues, though some of them are not allowed to open to the public except to do it periodically.

仏像は厚き扉のむこうにて　うすむらさきに線香燻（くゆ）る
between ulterior sacred statues
and some sticks of incense
A thick door exists,
a faint smoke is fizzling out on this side of the world

haricot

On my way to go back, I looked at mountain range surrounding Kyoto over the pagoda of Tohji from a window of a train.

It is yet too early as the season for the word, Yama-Warau which is used in the genre of Haiku;Yama means mountain and Warau is smile rather than a laughter in this case, that refers the season when some young leaves on branches just start to growing.
Yet the mountain gave me such impression as it was smiling gently and beholding on the small market.

Herald of spring


Ume(Japanese plum) blossoms are herald of spring.

Peculiarly when I see some crimson ones which are just at beginning to bloom, I cannot help imaging of them to start to set fire on the top branches of various sort of trees to open up one after another.





And in this season I remember this tanka poem in which the writer Fujiko Ishikawa(1933~ )expresses her excessive desire for seeing some crimson plum blossoms.

紅梅が見たしと思ふ　唐突にせつぱつまりし如くに見たし　石川不二子
(Abruptly a feeling came to me; an eager hope to see some red plum blossoms now.)

White plum blossoms seem to flourish more quietly.

Here is a plum garden which is nearby my living quarter, where various coloured plum blossoms can be seen.

These darkened trunks with bright blossoms remind me of a picture, one of Ukiyo-e

, by Hiroshige Utagawa.(1797~1858)(from website)



And the one by Van Gogh(1853~1890) being influenced with the former picture.(from website)





There are two types of plum garden; one is for pleasure of viewing flowers like this garden and the other is for gathering plum fruits as well as for flowers which has been done from olden days.





Toyohiro Utagawa(1773~1828)(picture from website)

Later I called in a park, man made but looks quite natural, being located not far from the plum garden.
I came here last spring as well, to see wild white plum blossoms that have another effect.

去年（こぞ）も来し疎林の奥の明るめり　一歳老いて咲ける白梅
I came to see you,

a wild plum tree

You brighten the depth of the bush just as the last year

despite of you're one year older

haricot

Birds

:::::::::::::::

This is the fourth time for me to visit Koya pond

（昆陽池）, in Itami city in Hyogo prefecture.

嘴を羽にうずk 嘴を羽に埋めて眠りたる鴨の群にも雪ふりきたり眠りいる鴨の群にも雪ふりきたり

There is snow falling
in canards' wings and feathering
when they are sleeping
with their nibs into their own wings

When I came here for the first time, there was snow fall, and a flock
of gulls, a sort of gull called yuri-kamome in Japanese, soared up into the gray sky all together suddenly.
The white plumage with faint gray parts mingling with snow flakes gave me a lasting impression.

This pond which was made under leadership of preast Gyoki over1,200 years ago,is a famous stopover for migratory birds now.

I have visited in cold season and saw various birds, gulls, cormorants, many sorts of ducks and geese, swans and so on here.
In spring, swans deposit their eggs and it is said that people can see some swans swim with their chicks in early summer.

the islands in the pond

Koya-pond has artistic islands in the midst of it. The shape, looks like Japanese archipelagos, is observed like the photo(by Wikipedia) shows from air plane which has got departure from Osaka International Airport(Itami Airport) that is located near the pond.

In dairy life I enjoy to see the birds which come to visit my yard.
A lot of bush near my residence gradually have decreased because of becoming cut-over, therefore the birds need to search for their food in the residential area.

I found this You tube,"El Cant des Ocells"「鳥の歌」 by Pablo Casals.
The plaintive and delicate melody by a cellist makes me think of birds' difficult and fragile lives.

Their lives are not easy.

The old man , in "The Old man and the Sea", recognises a bird came to be close to his vessel long time after when the shore became to be unseen.
He talks to the bird which teetered on a line for fishing, having gripped it with his feet without examining it well,
"It's steady.""It's too steady. You shouldn't be that tired after a windless night," said he.


The old man's mind keeps tense throughout the story like the fishing line which is an unwashed one in daylight and a phosphorescent one at night.

It was the moment when he talked to the bird was the moment when his mind winded down unusually in the story.