Sweet transience of life
Comments: 7
This picture is from Aoyama Cemetery where I attended a wonderful flower-viewing party last Saturday. This shot is from a previous visit because I haven’t even had time to sort through the shots from the party to see if there’s anything there.
A wonderful new friend of mine told me a story about a woman who always maintained she never had time for flower viewing. Year after year they bloomed and rained from the trees without her, and then — the story is not clear why — she realised: “I may only have 30 chances left!” and the flowers had spoken their message yet again.
There seems to be so much going on and we’re never quite sure what to pay attention to but when you walk into an office building and a petal falls from your shoulder, a calming sense of perspective suddenly returns.
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Posted to Oh, the Humanity • 2004.03.31 (Wed) • 21:31
Comments
Posted by Anita Rowland 2004.03.31, 22:26
“flower viewing” is exclusively cherry blossom viewing? Or would other blossoms be included?
Posted by jh 2004.03.31, 22:38
People certainly make an effort to visit parks when the plums are in bloom, for example, and then there are the hydrangeas and irises further on towards summer. So viewing flowers is by no means limited to the cherries.
I’m trying to think whether I’ve heard the term for flower viewing —- hanami (hana is flower and mi is looking or seeing) —- applied to anything other than the sakura but I don’t believe I have. Certainly they’re the flower that gets all the attention.
Other flowers may be viewed, but cherries are partied under (and how!).
Posted by Sinta 2004.03.31, 23:17
What a beautiful and thought provoking entry :) Not to mention a beautiful picture to go alon with it. There’s a strong warrior philosophy behind watching flowers fall.. especially cherry blossoms :)
Posted by kevin 2004.04.01, 09:17
I’m always reluctant to take photos of temples and the likes, thinking them “cliche”, but that photo is the best “cliche” Japan photos I have ever seen! So much so, it trancends clicheness. :)
I’m glad to hear the womans take on the meaning the cherry blossoms “transience”. I always hear how the main point is that they are only there for two weeks, and then gone… that the transience we are lementing / celebrating is the blossoms’.
I have always felt, however, that transience we lament is not the blossoms’, but our own, thinking exactly the same thing that woman said “I only have 30 more chances to do this”. Or, if I am enjoying them (or any other annual event, such as Christmas) with an elder loved-one, I think about how I may have fewer opportunities than that.
Posted by Chris Hester 2004.04.04, 05:39
In anime, I believe the cherry blossom falling signifies losing virginity. Maybe that is a general perception too.
Posted by Oli 2004.04.11, 22:01
Here’s a passage from “Tsurezuregusa” (Essays in Idleness), by a Japanese Buddhist priest named Kenkou, written about 1330. I read it in an essay called “Japanese Aesthetics” by Donald Keene, who discusses suggesion, irregularity, simplicity and perishability:
“If man were never to fade away like the dews of Adashino, never to vanish like the smoke over Toribeyama, but lingered on forever in this world, how things would lose their power to move us! The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty.”
I think the Japanese passion for ‘four seasons’ is another expression of the appreciation of transience or perishability. Keep those cliche photos coming - they’re great! ;-)
Posted by Derrick Kuang 2004.12.15, 13:26
Transience of life brings out the nature of one’s appreciation in life itself. As passages from “Tsurezuregusa” (Essays in Idleness) imply, the beauty of life is its uncertainty. “The things you have counted on goes amiss, and the things you had no hopes for is the only one to succeed.” Freeing yourself from anticipation and enjoying life as if you have only moments left to live brings out the true admiration of things around us.
Cherry blossom viewing is enjoyable due to its short time span in bloom and subtle change which occurs when the flower falls. This activities brings out a nostalgic feeling of past moments. Oh, how wonderful it is to live through those enjoyable times again.
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