Showing posts with label yama-zakura. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yama-zakura. Show all posts
April 7, 2023
April 26, 2022
Yama-zakura (mountain cherry) flowers and Engaku-ji : Kita-kamakura
The small valley thickly covered with trees, where the temple buildings of Engaku-ji are situated, is finely adorned with the subtle and calm colors and forms of spring.
On the fresh-green hillside, the countless mountain-cherry flowers are blooming and shining in the bright fertile sunlight as if to celebrate this season of rebirth and growth.
The tender chirping songs of birds are echoing throughout the valley to express their joy in the arrival of long-awaited spring. The colorful new leaves of various plants are creating an elegant mosaic ornament to this tranquil landscape.
No matter what is happening in the human world now, every living being earnestly goes on with its life in the ceaseless stream of seasons.
Yama-zakura (mountain cherry) flowers: Kita-kamakura
The Yama-zakura (mountain-cherry) tree is a general domestic plant variety of Japan and has been long admired by Japanese people since ancient times as the principal object of our Hanami (cherry blossom viewing) tradition.
This native cherry tree has been described in many "Waka" poems (classic Japanese lyric verse), in which its elegant and short-lived flowers are regarded as one of the essential symbols of "Mono no aware."
"Mono no aware" (the pathos of earthly things) is the most typical concept in Japanese aesthetic sense and represents our traditional emotion of finding profound beauty in transience. This sentiment is influenced by Mujo-kan (Buddhist concept of the impermanence of worldly things).
The Yama-zakura tree bears numberless snow-white or pale-pink flowers from March to April. Unlike familiar Someiyoshino (Japanese cherry) tree, its new leaves appear at almost the same time with its flowers. The basic color of the young leaves is rosy, but some leaves may be tinged with various green or yellow colors.
April 24, 2021
April 8, 2021
Yama-zakura (Cerasus jamasakura (Sieb. ex Koidz.) H.Ohba) flowers: Kita-kamakura
"Yato" is the valley-like landform made by the longtime erosion of the hillside and is one of the geographical features peculiar to Kamakura region.
The gradual upward arrangement of buildings from the San-mon gate to the Buddha hall and Hojo (the main hall) along the quiet valley makes the subtle and profound view which deserves the place where ascetic exercises are practiced in order to reach spiritual enlightenment.
Yama-zakura (Cerasus jamasakura (Sieb. ex Koidz.) H.Ohba) flowers: Kita-kamakura
A fine pointillist picture of spring is painted on the sunny hillside with the tiny colorful dots of young leaves and Yama-zakura flowers.
Spring is the season of spectacular flowering, in which plants and trees bloom one after another to earnestly get a chance to be pollinated for their propagation.
Flowering is the colorful manifestation of the hidden life-force which is quietly stored in plants and trees. By blooming vividly, the inconspicuous and unnamed green plants and trees, that are usually overlooked and unnoticed except in the time of flowering, let us know their precious presence clearly.
Before long, a high wind of spring will suddenly cause the pale white flowers of Yama-zakura to scatter like a snowstorm and disappear like a daydream.
The hillside will transform into a glorious mosaic which is made by the pieces of greenness in various shades and tones.
April 16, 2020
March 29, 2020
April 23, 2019
Yama-zakura (Prunus jamasakura) blossoms: Mt. Yoshino (Nara prefecture)
I recently visited Mt. Yoshino (Nara Prefecture of Japan), which is the most renowned place for magnificent cherry blossoms in Japan.
Mt. Yoshino is also one of the most important places of mountain worship in Japan, where the ascetic practices of Shugendo (Japanese mountain asceticism-shamanism comprised of Shintoism and esoteric Buddhism) have been continually inherited from the remote past.
Kinpusen-ji temple, which is located in the center of this sacred mountain area, is said to have been founded by En no Gyoja, who was a legendary holy man known for his practice of mountain asceticism during the second half of the 7th century.
For over a thousand years, numberless "Yama-zakura" cherry trees have continued to be planted in this area as the sacred trees dedicated to Zao Gongen which is the principal image of Kinpusen-ji temple and the highest object of worship in Shugendo.
(Additional new photographs of the cherry blossoms of Mt. Yoshino and Kyoto are uploaded to my another photoblog, "Like floating clouds and flowing streams.")
Yama-zakura (Prunus jamasakura) blossoms: Jochi-ji
With the deepening of spring, the splendor of life is gradually overflowing in the gardens.
It is one of my greatest pleasures in spring to see countless cherry blossoms fully blooming again. Cherry blossoms gloriously bloom in unison as if to muster up all their vigor and soon scatter all at once like a brief daydream in the sudden sweep of warm wind.
According to the teachings of Buddha, what has a form is just a fleeting illusion which must pass into nothingness, no matter how beautiful it is. Each mid-spring, I am awoken to this eternal truth under the splendid cherry blossoms.
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