The light has changed in the last few weeks, everything is sharper, coming to life. Not least the cherry blossom.
Cherry Blossom and Wabi Sabi
The beautiful yet momentary nature of cherry blossom is at the heart of this fascination. The blossom becomes simultaneously as sign of spring and life and yet passes so quickly. Cherry blossom is something to admire, reflect on and celebrate. The simple frothy beauty of a blossoming cherry is by its nature wabi sabi - ordinary, wonderful, impermanent. Sitting under a sakura tree, it is impossible not to be reminded that these fluttering confetti petals are not only a beautiful natural spectacle but a metaphor for life itself.
Last week looking at it through the window when I'm writing, I see it is the whitest, frothiest, blossomest blossom that there ever could be, and I can see it. Things are both more trivial than they ever were, and more important than they ever were, and the difference between the trivial and the important doesn't seem to matter. (Dennis Potter)
Cherry Blossom in Britain
It seems that in the UK we have begun to adopt the Japanese celebration of Hanami Sakura, or Cherry Blossom Festival. In Birmingham the National Trust has planted 600 trees to create a ring of blossom around the city called the Birmingham Blossom Programme. The National Trust has started the Blossom Watch campaign and has committed to planting 4 million blossoming trees by 2030.
We’ve been admiring cherry blossom in the UK for quite some time and with the same sense of fleeting beauty and the passing of time.
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.Why the fascination with cherry blossom?
(Loveliest of trees the cherry now: A Shropshire Lad, A.E Houseman)
Hanami in Japan
Hanami (花見) literally means "flower viewing", however, it commonly refers only to cherry blossom viewing. Hanami can be just a stroll in the park, but it traditionally also involves a picnic party under the blooming trees. Hanami parties have been held in Japan for many centuries, and today are held in public and private gardens and parks across the country.
As early as the Nara period (710–794 CE), people in Japan celebrated the arrival of spring with cherry and plum blossom-viewing parties. Members of the imperial court at that time would gather to appreciate the fleeting beauty of the delicate pink and white sakura.
Haiku and Cherry Blossom
Haiku, Japan’s succinct literary gem which I’ve written about previously, is known for packing a wealth of meaning into just 17 syllables and for its intrinsic ties to the seasons. Said in a breath it contains the essence of a moment in time and reading it you should be transported to that very moment. More often than not, the season isn’t spelled out, but rather signified through a kigo (seasonal keyword). For spring, the kigo is often cherry blossom.
Saigyo Hoshi was a 12th-century poet who became a Buddhist monk. During Saigyo’s time, instead of a stand-alone poetry form, haiku was part of longer poetry chains or essays. He wrote about mono no aware (the bittersweet transience of all things), wabi-sabi and loneliness. One of his topics was the heartache he felt when cherry blossoms bloomed and his wish to die them. It’s a wish that came true.
the spring wind
scattering blossoms
I saw it in a dream
but when I awoke the sound
was still rustling in my breast
And
The cherries’ only fault:
the crowds that gather
when they bloom
Japan’s most famous haiku poet Matsuo Basho popularized haiku as a stand-alone form. Basho lived and wrote in the early Edo Period (1603-1867).
A Spring breeze is blowing
I’m bursting with laughter
— wishing for flowers
Kobayashi Issa was a poet and a Buddhist priest living and writing in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was one of the most humorous haiku poets of the times, writing about lover cats, snails climbing Mount Fuji and about living in poverty. He was also one of the most prolific haiku poets, with more than 20,000 haiku poems.
Issa also wrote about the beauty of cherry blossoms and their effect.
Under the cherry blossoms
strangers are not
really strangers
And
without you–
the cherry blossoms
just blossoms
Gratitude
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This is the first time I've read Wasi Sabi Life and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Thank you!