Shidare-zakura: Oku-fukai
Yae-zakura
Every year I am drawn to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to search out the emerging spring flowers. Snowdrops, forsythia, daffodils, plum blossoms—all build to a crescendo in April, with a stunning display of cherry blossoms. Crowds flock to see the rows of flowering yae-zakura trees—and they are truly impressive. But my favorites are the weeping cherry [shidare-zakura] trees around the edge of the pond in the Botanic’s Japanese garden.
Most of the trees in the Cherry Esplanade are the double-flowering style. When they are in full bloom, they are truly stunning. Several trees around the sides of the flat area and around the pond are shidare-zakura, weeping cherry trees, with branches curving down in a curtain to the ground. The two different flowering trees bring out very different responses in me.
shidare-zakura
When I view the double-flowering blooms, I feel joyous and open, and lifted up (yorokobi). When I look at the branches drooping over the water, I feel more pensive (mono-no-aware), with a sense of the passing away of things. By taking the path around the edge of the pond, you can stand behind the trees to look out over the water. Gazing out across the pond through the flowering branches, I also feel a sense of protection, a feeling of beauty that embraces. The droop of the branches seems to hold the shimmering color in the curve of its arms.
As the days go by, I follow the changes in the flowers, from first buds to partially open, to completely open, then to the petals that fall like snow as the flowering nears its end. Tracking these changes brings me closer to the sense of mono-no-aware—the flowers are passing away right before my eyes. I sometimes think that if I can follow the changes closely enough, somehow I can hold more of their beauty inside me, even after the blossoms in the garden have faded away.
Birds are part of the spring scene in the Japanese garden, too. Ducks swim along the edge of the pond under the fronds that hang down over the water. As the blossoms fall, both ducks and koi feast on the petals floating on the surface of the water.
Paintings in the Asian tradition have paired flowers and birds for many centuries. The pairing of certain birds with flowers reflects human feelings and symbols of qualities. In that tradition, Mallard ducks are symbols of fidelity. Seeing the ducks swimming among the fallen blossoms, I feel that the impermanence of the flowers is in some way balanced by the loyalty of the ducks to each other.
In the Japanese tradition, trees, flowers, and birds offer more than their surface expression. They have “oku-fukai”—profoundly deep layers that speak to us of inner qualities. We can connect to the bird, tree, or flower to bring forth the same quality in us.
by Rosemary Warden [© 2010]
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