April 24, 2021

Shidare-zakura (Cerasus spachiana ‘Pendula’) flowers: Engaku-ji

Shidare-zakura (Cerasus spachiana ‘Pendula’) flowers: Engaku-ji


Every flower blooms beautifully, but when its short lifetime ends, it must decay and lie on the ground like displeasing debris. It is sorrowful to see this decay of a flower, because I know how graceful it was until yesterday. 

For example, the pearl-white flower of Haku-mokuren (white magnolia) is magnificent and dazzling, but at the end of its brief life, its petals become sadly ugly like the dirty rubbish that has turned rusty.

The virtue of a Sakura flower is the elegance and splendor at the end of its life. Its delicate petals fall quickly like the snowflakes fluttering in the wind and retain their beauty without looking miserable until they disappear completely. 

The petals that fall to the ground like fragments of snow are thin and small pieces, which are quickly decomposed into dust and never reveal their pitiful decline.


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