February 24, 2021

Ume (Japanese apricot) flowers: Kaizo-ji

Ume (Japanese apricot) flowers: Kaizo-ji


The orbital revolution of the planet earth makes the seasons keep rotating. As the pleasant manifestations of these ever-changing seasons, the flowers of various figures and colors appear one after another and emit sweet scents in their own way.

The bleak and colorless winter is over and spring has just returned here. In the garden where familiar living things begin to awaken from winter sleep one by one, I realize again that the earth is filled with abundant life force.

The slender twigs of Shidare-ume (weeping apricot tree), which bear cascades of pale pink flowers, are trembling gently in a tender breeze as if to express the joy of spring gracefully.


 

Ume (Japanese apricot) flowers: Engaku-ji

Ume (Japanese apricot) flowers: Engaku-ji


Ume flowers make preparations for blooming in harsh mid-winter and blossom elegantly in spring earlier than any other flower. They are also called "spring-announcing flowers" because they are the first to make us notice the incoming of long-awaited spring by their graceful beauty and fragrance.

In East Asia, the noble flower of Ume symbolizes a pure female child because of its liveliness and pleasingness and is regarded as an auspicious sign. The flower buds of Ume emerge and grow up in the middle of cold winter and bloom vigorously on bare branches before the appearance of young leaves in early spring.

 

Ume (Japanese apricot) flowers: Engaku-ji

Ume (Japanese apricot) flowers: Engaku-ji

 

Sunset seascape: Yuigahama-beach

Sunset seascape: Yuigahama-beach


The sun has just set behind the distant peninsula, and, in the dusky azure sky, the bright afterglow emitted by the setting sun is coloring the cumulus clouds ever-changing gold and crimson.

In the same way as everything in this universe keeps changing endlessly, the sky tinted by the evening twilight is transforming ceaselessly from moment to moment and is showing the delicate transition of hues and gradations which I can only see right now at this moment before darkness comes on.


 

Sunset seascape: Yuigahama-beach

Sunset seascape: Yuigahama-beach

 

Sunset seascape: Yuigahama-beach

Sunset seascape: Yuigahama-beach

 

Ume (Japanese apricot) flowers: Engaku-ji

Ume (Japanese apricot) flowers: Engaku-ji

 

Ume (Japanese apricot) flowers: Engaku-ji

Ume (Japanese apricot) flowers: Engaku-ji

 

Ume (Japanese apricot) flowers: Engaku-ji

Ume (Japanese apricot) flowers: Engaku-ji

 

Kawazu-zakura (Cerasus × Kanzakura ‘Kawazu-zakura’) flowers: Engaku-ji

Kawazu-zakura (Cerasus × Kanzakura ‘Kawazu-zakura’) flowers: Engaku-ji

 

Kawazu-zakura (Cerasus × Kanzakura ‘Kawazu-zakura’) flowers: Engaku-ji

Kawazu-zakura (Cerasus × Kanzakura ‘Kawazu-zakura’) flowers: Engaku-ji

 

Mejiro (Japanese white‐eye) bird: Engaku-ji

Mejiro (Japanese white‐eye) bird: Engaku-ji

 

Ume (Japanese apricot) flowers: Kaizo-ji

Ume (Japanese apricot) flowers: Kaizo-ji

 

Fukujyu-so ((Adonis ramosa) flowers: Engaku-ji

Fukujyu-so ((Adonis ramosa) flowers: Engaku-ji

 

Ume (Japanese apricot) flowers: Engaku-ji

Ume (Japanese apricot) flowers: Engaku-ji

 

January 27, 2021

Mt.Fuji: Inamuragasaki cape

Mt.Fuji: Inamuragasaki cape


The strong north wind has drifted a bank of thick clouds away almost completely.

Far away beyond the azure wavy sea, Mt.Fuji crowned with pure white snow is soaring high into the winter transparent sky like the holy mother mountain which keeps creating all things in the universe. 

The white sea waves are restlessly breaking on the shore of Shichirigahama-beach, which makes me perceive the everlasting undulation of life on this blue planet.


Winter seascape: Inamuragasaki cape

Winter seascape: Inamuragasaki  


High in the boundless blue sky, winter clouds continue to build up from nowhere and then drift and disappear unknowingly in the cold sea wind.

The rotation of the earth and the gravitation of the moon and other planets cause seawater to continue moving eternally. The winds that constantly flow through the atmosphere blow against seawater and create the waves that keep washing the shore ceaselessly.

The seascape of the ocean waving before my eyes makes me awake to the truth that I am standing here in the infinite vastness of the universe.


Winter seascape: Yuigahama-beach

Winter seascape: Yuigahama-beach


In the pale winter sky above me, as the sun gradually lowers and cold sea wind gets intenser, a cluster of gray stratocumulus clouds, which dominated the sky of Sagami Bay, drift away in the wind, while continuously collapsing their shapes.

Soon they will melt away into thin air before the sun sinks with a deep red glow in the west.


Winter seascape: Yuigahama-beach

Winter seascape: Yuigahama-beach


When the temperature of the air falls and the amount of water vapor the air can hold decreases, the water vapor transforms into water droplets or ice crystals and makes up the clouds in the sky.

When the air receives high pressure and there is a downward flow or wind, the air moving downward becomes warmer. Because of this temperature rise, the water droplets or ice crystals return into water vapor again and the clouds disappear.

Clouds appear and drift in the sky, change their shapes constantly, scatter and disappear in the wind, and emerge again out of nowhere as if by magic.


 

Winter seascape: Yuigahama-beach

Winter seascape: Yuigahama-beach


 

Winter garden: Engaku-ji

Winter garden: Engaku-ji

 

Ume (Japanese apricot) blossoms: Engaku-ji

Ume (Japanese apricot) blossoms: Engaku-ji

 

Robai (Chimonanthus praecox) flowers: Engaku-ji

Robai (Chimonanthus praecox) flowers: Engaku-ji

 

Manryo (Ardisia crenata) fruits: Kaizo-ji

Manryo (Ardisia crenata) fruits: Kaizo-ji

 

Suisen (narcissus) flowers: Kaizo-ji

Suisen (narcissus) flowers: Kaizo-ji