A small flower brightening you

In Japan all the freshmen of school (kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school, high school, college and university) and companies begin their new social lives from April. Especially in urban cities in April, there are many newly recruited working adults, who are adopted all at once in the previous year by many corporations and begin their employee lives. For foreigners this social custom hardly seems to be seen in their home counties, but it is easy to see it in urban cities because they wear typical black suits usually, and they look unconfident with young bodies due to the unfamiliar environment of their workplaces. They have worries larger than hope in their minds. Their starting time is the same as cherry blossom blooming, but their appearance wearing new suits is humble compared with cherry blossom trees. This is the typical scene in urban cities in early April.

Such newly recruited working adults minds become normal in late April and their vigorous young looks get to shine their around. It can be seen in comfortably warm spring climate. At the same time, azalea with a lot of red, violet and white flowers in green leaves along urban streets begins blooming. The newly recruited working adults v.s. blooming azalea, the blooming azalea enhances the newly recruited working adults brightening during these three weeks from late April to mid May. They match well.

As azalea in urban cities enhances the newly recruited working adults, in rural regions of Japan yellow rape blossoms add color to the spring fields. There are small houses, brown rice fields before planting and hills with woods. The leading part in this scene is the rural subject above, and rape blossoms enhance them. Rape blossoms aren’t the leader but they are indispensable in spring country fields.

Osamu Dazai, a renowned novelist said in his novel about an evening primrose in juxtaposition with Mt. Fiji.

“A old lady pointed at an evening primrose and I looked at it. A golden colored evening primrose and its fine petals were engraved into my eyes. It stood splendidly I the foreground of Mt. Fiji, I thought it as a noble and wonderfully strong flower. The evening primrose went well with Mt. Fuji.”

Of course Mt. Fiji is the highest mountain in Japan and it is incomparable with any evening primrose. Nonetheless the novelist imagined that the evening primrose was able to be compared with Mt.Fuji. He seemed tired with his life and desired a new aspiration in those days. So he forced his bored mind to find a new beautiful thing which gives energy to him. However there are many Japanese people who have the same thinking as him. In the Japanese language there is the word “ichirin-no-hana”, which means directly a single standing flower. When a Japanese person says an ichirin-no-hana, it shows the nuances of the beauty and the greatness of a flower. Then his thought might be in line with the original and collective mentality of Japanese people.

From the sentences above I have the marked image that an evening primrose which is blooming in its best stands in front of the distant background of Mt.Fuji. A ray of hope from an evening primrose would probably cut through his bored mind.

By the way, I saw the news on TV that a king of a small country in Africa changed his country’s name according to his self-righteous thoughts suddenly. The reason of the change was that he hated that his country’s name was similar to Switzerland. He is a dictator, and there is no stopping him. Only one rich and powerful dictator v.s. all the poor and powerless people. This news made me feel unpleasant. I am Japanese, so I hate the non respectable dictator subconsciously.

Ryotaro Shiiba, the most popular novelist of Japanese history, said as follows. “It is not a misunderstanding that Japanese history is the history of people who have repelled a dictator. The dictator is the man who has the strongest power and a powerful selfish idea.”

Japanese people hate a self-justified dictator, but it is not dependent on a philosophy of thoughts, I think. It is different from western thoughts.

I went to a park in Kobe and took a picture in front of a statue with azalea in the background. The clock on the statue has stopped. The clock hands showed the time when the big 1995 earthquake devastated Kobe at 5:46. The violence of nature is the strongest power in Japan. All the people, even a dictator, are tiny powerless existences in face of nature. Nature, fortunately or unfortunately which is outside of our control, might have influenced the mentality of Japanese people. My idea, that violent nature has been influencing Japanese people who love a small flower and hate a dictator, was growing up in my mind by the second.

Japan never bind a person to only one theory. Japan welcomes foreigners outside of their social thoughts. For foreigners who are bored of their social relationships in their country, Japan will heal them, and they will find a good small flower which will brighten them as soon as they come to Japan.