How Aesthetic Senses Shape Names

One of my classmates arranged these flowers using (han-geshou) and nadeshiko (pink dianthus) in a tea ceremony class last week. These delicate white flowers are known as "Lizard's Tail" in English—a peculiar name. The name comes from the drooping flowers that resemble a lizard's tail. In contrast, the Japanese name 半化粧 (はんげしょう) carries a poetic meaning. These slender, white flowers are paired with leaves that feature white splashes, as if a woman had powdered her face to meet her loved one. This leads to the term 'han-ge-shou,' which literally means 'putting on makeup halfway. So romantic, isn't it?

This difference really shows how aesthetic senses can vary, doesn't it?

The fascinating enigma of red spider lilies

 

Red spider lilies, in Japanese, “Higan-bana” (flowers which bloom on and around the Autumnal Equinox) have a very peculiar reputation among the older generation in Japan. My grandma, my mother and my mother-in-law all used to say that you can't grow red spider lilies in your home garden.
The reason being that these flowers were likely to bring unwelcome happenings in families- at least this was what they'd been taught. The flowers were often linked to blood and even fire because of their vivid red color. So where does all this come from?

Somehow spider lilies were considered ominous despite their beauty. This was due to a commonly believed association with “death” stemming from a story way back when people buried bodies in the ground after a funeral. To prevent animals unearthing the ground in graveyards, people planted spider lilies in and around graves. The flowers have poison in their bulbs, petals, stems and leaves and grow in clusters. Thus they kept our ancestors’ bodies from being damaged by animals.
Now due to changes in our lifestyle, we don’t use the flowers for this purpose anymore. Nowadays farmers plant spider lilies simply to protect their products from mice, moles, and insects.

Red spider lilies are now, generally speaking, free from this malicious image. However there are still some people who choose to hang on to fears and superstitions and for them red spider lilies are no exception. Ironically Buddhism has a totally opposite view of the flower and regards it as a sign of grace . In Japanese there are more than 1,000 different names for spider lilies, one is “Manjushage”. Sounds exotic, doesn’t it? It comes from Hindi and means - a heavenly flower which doesn't grow on earth but only in heaven!

Nowadays people enjoy watching these flowers bloom in clusters in parks, gardens, rice fields, and riverbanks. They are delightful to look at and weirdly become even more attractive when we hear about the creepy stories surrounding them!
They are just BEAUTIFUL flowers!

The cutest maching only in spring

It was a beautiful Sunday in the midst of spring.

I could easily imagine that the highway to my mother's was busy with cars--sightseers on their way to see the cherry blossoms. I didn’t want to be trapped in a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam on the way. I gave up on driving and took a train instead.

Soon after the train left, my eyes were caught by the breathtaking view of cherry blossoms in full bloom out the window in the distant mountains, along the riverbanks and the railway lines. I was glad that I had made a good decision.

The nearest station to my mother’s is called “Sakura”, namely “cherry blossoms”. I was most happy when I stood on the platform and saw the sign saying "Sakura" with beautiful sakura at their best in the background. The name of the station perfectly matched the cherry trees that bloomed beyond.

The way we name this little plant

 These flowers are called "lizard's tail" in English. Isn't it a "lovely" name?　
It was named so since the drooping flower depicts a lizard's tail, they say.


On the other hand, 半化粧 （はんげしょう）is a Japanese name for these white, slender and drooping flowers. The most beautiful part of this plant is that some leaves have white splashes on the surface as if a woman were putting powder on her face to meet her loved one. That is why we call it "han-ge-shou", which literally means " putting makeup on halfway" in Japanese.
So romantic, isn't it? They delighted my eyes this afternoon at Shirotori Japanese Garden.

Come in from the rain!

Yesterday evening, when I heard the rain, an idea came to me.  I went outside and from just out the windows picked some Japanese anemone flowers, that were at their best.

The weather report said we would have heavy rainfall all night. I easily imagined that the rain would flatten the tall flowers.

So I saved some, arranged them and left them just by the front door last night.

It was so good to be greeted by them standing up straight in the basket when I opened the door this morning.

What a gorgeous start to the day!

Japanese Anemone Flowers

 Japanese Anemone Flowers are gracefully in full bloom in my garden.

Shirotori Garden as a treasure box of history and culture

 

Let me tell you about Shirotori Garden.
This location was originally a lumber yard dating back to the Edo period in the 17^th century.It had been used as a lumber yard for many years until the Ise Bay Typhoon hit and destroyed this entire area 70 years ago.

 In 1989 when the city of Nagoya hosted the World Design Exposition, the city decided to build a Japanese garden at this site to commemorate the Exposition. 

 So this Japanese garden is relatively young and new when you compare it with the famous ancient Japanese gardens in many other areas. But I personally believe that there is another good reason that Shirotori Garden is located in this place. And that is closely related to our history of the samurai world.

Let me go back to the story that this site was originally a lumber yard 400 years ago.It was a significant period in our history when the outstanding samurai, Tokugawa Ieyasu who was a native of this region won an important battle that finally unified the Japanese society in peace.He opened the government in Edo, the present Tokyo in the east of Japan. 

In order to rule the society and hand down his power to the next generations for many years, he made three of his sons the rulers over important regions in Japan. One of these regions was Owari, the present Nagoya area. Tokugawa Ieyasu put a great importance on the Owari region to protect Edo from a possible attack by samurai warriors. They were against his power and mostly stayed in the west since they lost the war with Ieyasu. Nagoya was a perfect location for a fortress to ward off his enemies. Thus, he ordered to build Nagoya Castle as a symbol of his absolute power.

He handed down the national property of the huge Kiso mountain area to the first landlord of Nagoya Castle, who was his 9^th son, Yohinao.  Kiso was rich and famous for its good quality lumbers and this caused a local economy to flourish.  That way the Owari Tokugawa family became  the largest and influential power out of three branches of the Tokugawa family.

When the second lord of Nagoya Castle, Mitsutomo retired, he left the castle and lived on a vast property where he enjoyed a large scale Japanese garden. As the society became more stable, top samurai called daimyo enjoyed an abundant life rich in culture. Building a garden at their huge properties was one of the examples.

Speaking of Japanese gardens, they are roughly divided into three types
1) strolling garden
2) dry garden
3) tea garden
A daimyo garden is a strolling garden.

They very much loved this type of garden because it was a show of their influence. The gardeners showed great craftsmanship through replicating natural landscapes. The feudal lords spent a huge amount of money and time to complete these vast gardens. Take one of the daimyo gardens the Owari Tokugawa family owned for example, it could compare in size to about 15 baseball stadiums.

I believe it is, for one thing, for their family legacy and for another showing their dignity over other daimyo. They made these gardens not only for their own pleasure but for entertaining other important daimyo. Such events consisted of seasonal viewing, tea ceremonies and traditional dance performances. They occasionally exchanged political talks in the gardens. Having the Shogun at the garden was their greatest honor.

A daimyo garden has distinct elements such as ponds, rocks and stones, mountains, rivers and streams, bridges, arbors, plants, flowers and trees. And at Shirotori Garden, the Kiso mountain area which was exclusively given to Owari Tokugawa family by Ieyasu is faithfully depicted so as to symbolize their strong relationship.
There are many unspoken messages held within the garden. It will be very challenging and exciting for me  to explain the stories behind some interesting spots in Shirotori Garden.
I think a daimyo garden is just like a huge wonderland of those days.
Especially Shirotori Garden will send us various messages  such as the Owari Tokugawa family history,  the history of Nagoya, the charms of Japanese gardens and our tradition and culture.
Although Shirotori Garden does not have a long history but it was designed so carefully and faithfully to show us every features and elements of a traditional Japanese garden.
 
What is lucky for us in Shirotori Garden is that we are able to enjoy all three types of gardens as well.

So let's enjoy strolling around Shirotori Garden and feel the nature just like daimyo and their families and guests once did many centuries ago.

Autumn leaves are at their best

We believe that this year's autumn colors are most vivid that we have seen for years.

Even in Nagoya Castle site which is located right in the center of the city, all the colors of the trees are just stunning. So vivid and colorful enough that they never fail to give us a great admiration to the nature.

It is often pointed out that Japanese autumn leaves are very colorful from green, golden-yellow, orange, brown and red of all brightness.

If you see a picture of Japanese mountains in autumn, it is like a mosaic of different colors.   They say that varieties of deciduous and evergreen trees living together make this colorful foliage possible in Japan.  What a wonderful art work of the nature. 

Now the leaves are at their best colors for some more weeks and soon the grounds will be covered with fallen leaves.