A lone plum blossom, one of the first of the season. I added the texture to isolate it and highlight its beauty.
Japan loves the cherry blossoms the most, and one can get a good idea why—it's usually warmer, for one, as the cherry blossoms are around April but the plum blossoms are around Feburary—but for my money, the plum blossoms are best. They have a delightfully sweet fragrance, the flower itself is lovelier, and it is often less busy outside to see them.
Japan didn't always love cherry blossoms best. The plum blossoms (or ume blossoms) are the favorite in China and are one of the country's most beloved symbols. They are so loved in part because they bloom when it is still winter and are seen as a symbol of the coming spring. They symbolize perseverance and hope, beauty, purity, and the transitoriness of life.
Early Japan copied this love of the plum blossoms, but around the Heian Period (794–1185) things started to change and the cherry blossoms gradually became more popular.
Many of you may be familar with hanami (花見, literally flower-viewing). It is almost always used to mean cherry blossom viewing, or in otherwords, going out and enjoying the cherry blossoms (often with snacks and alcohol). Although not as common, you will also see people going out to enjoy the plum blossoms on days when the weather is a little warmer.
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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. |
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I love how they make a tradition out of viewing the blossoms - it's a reverence for nature we culturally lack in Australia as a whole. Of course, many of us love the wilderness, but it'd be nice to have a communal ritual we could share.
There's not much more magical than blossoms confetti'ing in the breeze...
It's one we also lack in the US, unfortunately. Maybe that's one of the reasons I really enjoy the traditions like this in Japan.
I agree—when they start raining down in the wind, that is the most magical moment of all. I will be sharing some photos of that soon enough.
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It is true that the plum blossoms are the favorite in China, especially in the literature. There are a lot of poems about plum blossoms.（Chairman Mao, being a lover of plum, once wrote a famous poem --Ode to the plum blossom. )However, it is really interesting to know that the plum blossoms were popular in Japan until around the Heian Period，gradually replaced by the cherry blossoms. Thank you for sharing it so much.
Glad you enjoyed it! I'm glad to know I was correct about China's love of them. The plum blossoms are still popular in Japan, but the weather is more gentle for the cherry blossoms, making it more comfortable to have parties while viewing them, so they win.
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I think there is a fairly big difference between where you are and where I am. But yeah, they have been coming out in this area for a few weeks. Slowly, but here and there. The weather here is a bit confusing. It will be warm one day and snow the next, back and forth. In all my years here I haven't seen as much snow as this year, which is quite interesting. Hopefully March will bring more consistent warm weather, for both of us.
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