Takase: Fine Japanese Calligraphy

V HOW AND WHEN TO VIEW CHERRY BLOSSOM

Black-and-white photograph looking along a narrow stretch of calm water that runs from the lower center away to a pale haze, with banks lined by trees whose branches arch over it. A branch covered with blossoms slants down from the upper center toward the right, ending just above the water. A dark bank edge runs along the water at the right, and reflections lie in the water at the lower right. — A picturesque cherry avenue along the Kaji-kawa embankment

The ideal time to see cherry flowers and fully appreciate their beauty is decidedly the early morning hours—of a fine day, of course. Cherry flowers look most beautiful when viewed from the sunny side, with the morning sun shining behind the viewer, and with the flowers basking in its warm mild rays. Only at such a time and in such environment do the sakura flowers fully manifest their beauty. The following short poem by Moto-ori Norinaga expresses the quintessence of the beauty of the sakura trees:—

[p. 47]

Black-and-white photograph of a wide mass of pale, blossom-covered treetops across the lower half, with a dark band of trees beyond them and a steep mountainside rising behind under haze. Gullies run down its face, and a pale wedge-shaped patch lies near the center right. — A view of a cherry grove at Kowakudani, Hakone

Shikishima no Yamato gokoro wo

Hito towaba

Asahi ni niou

Yamazakura bana

Isles of blest Japan!

Should your Yamato spirit

Strangers seek to scan,

Say—scenting morn’s sunlit air

Blows the cherry wild and fair!

—Nitobe’s Soul of Japan

The cherry flowers under a moonlit sky, cherry flowers in breezy weather, or cherry flowers in rain, which are very frequently adopted as the subject of

[p. 48]

Black-and-white photograph of a row of low, spreading trees with dark trunks across the upper left and center, standing in an open field whose ground is thickly strewn with small pale flecks. More trees recede in rows toward the right. At the lower left a patch of water reflects pale branch shapes and streaks of light. — Cherry blossoms at Sanrizuka—as seen after spring showers

poems or of paintings, may sound very poetical and may indeed be lovely and fascinating, yet nothing can compare with the unforgettable sight of cherry flowers glowing in the morning sun. The scene borders on the sublime.

Cherry flowers look most beautiful, not when they are in full bloom, but when some six-tenths or seven-tenths of the flowers have burst forth, with the rest still in bud. This is particularly so with mountain cherries. The sight of a mountain cherry putting on its robe of snow-white flowers fringed with lovely, tender, young, crimson-coloured leaves is indeed beautiful, and nothing can excel it.

A single branch of flowering cherry in a vase does no justice to the real beauty of the flower. The oft-

[p. 49]

Black-and-white photograph of ground under trees, with a trunk that forks in two at the center front and roots spreading over the ground at its foot. The ground is thickly speckled with small pale flecks and has low dark mounds. More trunks stand behind, under branches with blossoms. — After their short life the cherry blossoms fall like snow-flakes

quoted maxim “you may know the lion by his claw” does not apply to this flower, the real pageant of which can be realized only when we look at the whole tree fully dressed in its floral robe of transcendental beauty. Especially is this so with mountain cherries, which display their floral beauty to the best advantage in their native haunts, where they are in harmony with the scenery of the surrounding wooded hills. The rare beauty of the cherries on Arashiyama (Kyoto) is largely due to the fine scenery of the surrounding mountain gorges.