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Friday, April 10, 2015

Sakura in all its glory


From late March to mid-April or even early May, lovely shades of pink of sakura (cherry blossoms) blanket my country in soft and sweet splendor as different species of sakura bloom one after another.  

Deep pink weeping sakura (Benishidare) adorns the white walls of a house.
Pale pink weeping sakura
There are pink mist or clouds in fields, villages, and towns, or across the spring sky as far as you can see.  





When Japanese people say “Sakura season has come.”, the sakura means Somei-yoshino variety, which is one of the most popular and widely planted and cultivated flowering cherries in Japan.


Somei-yoshino in the glow of the setting sun

There are many places renowned as best sights for sakura-viewing, but you don't have to go to special places as they are everywhere.

Along the river
Sakura-viewing from a boat

Around the pond in my neighborhood
Sakura burst into bloom and then fall fleetingly and gracefully. 
When time comes, petals fall down like snowflakes even when there is hardly any breeze.
They remind us of how transient life is.

Life is about ten to fourteen days from buds to falling to the ground.

In my previous post about a French song “Ma Solitude”, I enjoyed your reaction to “solitude”. English word “solitude” is “kodoku” in Japanese which contains rather negative aspect of being alone. How about French “solitude”? The song title was “My Loneliness” in English translation.


Regarding English two words “solitude” and “loneliness”, I understand “solitude” as glorious aspect of being alone, while “loneliness” as sad and lonely aspect. We humans are fragile existence with impermanence, uncertainty, and sufferings. However, isn't it our strength and glory to live positively with the awareness of such weakness of ours in our mind?  Can't we live like sakura?


I always feel the sense of mystery and magic emanating from sakura.


Hope you enjoyed each sakura scene bathed in different light.

Enjoy your spring or autumn no matter what the weather is, dear Friends!

34 comments:

  1. I love to see your Sakuru blossoms each year. They are most beautiful.

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  2. I have two words in french for your post "rêverie" and "paradis"...
    Enjoy all those beauties !
    Anna

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  3. Your photography is like shining a light into a dark world! So beautiful. And your words, too, were just what I needed this morning! Thank you and I hope that all goes well with you and your family!

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  4. How wonderful it would be to see these gorgeous pink petals down every path and reflected in neighborhood ponds. We could learn from the blossoms that fall gently to the ground and although short-lived are glorious and soothing to the soul.

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  5. Very beautiful scenes! I did appreciate all the varieties of light in your photos. My favorite is #4. The moss and Sakura petals are very complimentary in the overcast light!

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  6. jag önskar än en gång att jag vore där det är så underbart vackert. Tänk att blommor kan skänka sån glädje och beröra en så. Jag njuter av dina bilder flera gånger till
    Ha en fin och skön helg bland blommorna
    Kram Meta

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  7. Fabulously look blooming cherry trees and fallen petals as colored snow. Regards.

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  8. Thank you for these beautiful photos - makes me yearn to see them. The light of the setting sun on the one photo really expresses the beauty and transient nature of the blossoms.
    Again, thank you.
    Mary

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  9. Dear Yoko, SO much soft beauty in these photographs! I enjoyed them yesterday and just now again - after a walk at 5.30 in the morning with the new puppy in complete solitude and quiet. Shabatt morning, this early no one outside, only some men hurrying in silence, heads down, to the synagogue. It is still dark when I leave the house, but the birds start twittering, and then dawn brings the new day on. The citrus trees are blooming and the scent is heavenly. The thought of hot coffee is lurking me home, and solitude will be done with for today.
    I love solitude and I am lucky never to feel lonely.

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  10. Wow wow wow! You live in an fairy tale world of magical blossom! What beautiful and artistic photos you take.

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  11. Hello Yoko,

    Surely one has tired of life entirely if one no longer has a deep joyfulness when looking at the Cherry Blossom trees. The colours in the different lights are delicately beautiful and to walk along pathways strewn with fallen petals must be a dream like experience. You have captured the moods of different lights wonderfully well.

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  12. I would love to walk through this area - sakura! Wondrous! Thank you so much for your comments. I was reading your profile again and realized that you and Lois Anne would get along so very well...two kindred spirits.

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  13. ♭♫ه° ·.
    Lindo demais! Um tapete de pétalas perfumadas!!!

    Bom fim de semana!
    Beijinhos.
    Brasil.
    ه°·✿
    ·.ه✿✿ミ

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  14. Your pictures are gorgeous! Anyone would be happy and peaceful walking in these beautiful gardens. Such beauty – thank you for sharing it.

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  15. こんにちわ。 まるで雪が降っているようです。
    桜の最後の時期は、色が脱色して白に近くなりますます雰囲気が出てきます。
    いつか、奈良公園に行ってみたいです。 外国人もまだ少なくて静かでいいでしょうね・・・。

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  16. Like in a fairy tail! Very beautiful!

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  17. These are just gorgeous. I love the way the blossoms blanket the ground. It must be so peaceful to walk here.

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  18. 桜の季節、やはり心躍りますね!そして心穏やかでないことも確かです。散るからこそ美しいとわかっていても、やはり散る前の姿をとどめておきたいと。今年はいずこも例年より早かったようで、知らない間に一斉に咲きだしているところも多かったですね。今年もあちこち桜を求めて訪ねました。。私には吉野の桜を外すことはできなくなりましたが。明日高遠を最後に予定しています。
    4番目と13番目のお写真が特に好きです。

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  19. Your photographs of the magical cherry trees in blossom are beautiful. Wonderful gardens. And it would be so much fun to drift along in a boat and enjoy the marvellous delicate "pinkness" of these cherry trees! Thank you for showing me this beauty.

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  20. Dear Yoko!

    These trees and landscapes full of cherry blossom are a dream! I'd so much like to be there and see all this in real life, not only in pictures!

    I can imagine it is very peaceful when walking through such a scenery - a little like when it's snowing.

    And I can't wait for the moment when my four Japanese cherry trees get bigger and get more flowers, they are only 1-1,5 m high or so right now...

    Thank you for such wonderful pictures!

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  21. How beautiful. I especially love the photograph at the top, of the deer. It is fascinating to me to see the scene which I remember in Autumn, now transformed by sakura into a pink and white wonderland.

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  22. こんばんは。いつも素敵な写真に感動しています。 

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  23. O valor das coisas não está no tempo que elas duram, mas na intensidade com que acontecem.
    Por isso existem momentos inesquecíveis, coisas inexplicáveis e pessoas incomparáveis.(Fernando Sabino)
    Imagens esplendidas!
    Uma linda e abençoada semana!!!
    Abraços Marie.

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  24. すご~い花びら‼ 雪と錯覚しそう! 大変美しい写真ばかりです。 お上手ですね。 来週、日本に旅します。 今回はとても短くて、奈良も京都も寄れません、、、、残念です。 桜の咲くころ、このあたり散歩したいです。

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  25. I'm absent for a while and then I go back and check the blogging universe and I'm welcomed by these wonderful photos by you! It made me even more excited because, guess what? My family and I are going to Osaka on August!

    It would be my second time. The first time, I went to all the touristy spots. So I'm wondering maybe you have tips on the not-so-usual sports that we can go to?

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  26. so very beautiful
    it is as though you are in my future, though we will not have that many flowers
    it is as though you are in a flower heaven realm
    so beautiful

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  27. ჱ‿

    Bom domingo! Boa semana,
    com tudo de bom!!!
    Beijinhos.
    ჱ╮
    ه°ჱ~

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  28. Hi Yoko - long time - no read!

    The time of the cherry season is really one of the most charming times of the whole year - your photographs look like taken in "Wonderland". Most of our cherry blossoms are already - but now the apple trees are flourishing.

    Currently my wife and I are doing extensive revovation works in our appartment - so there's unfortunately not too much time for other leisure time activities - including visiting blog friends. We really have to focus on our self-defined goals - and the refurbishment work will certainly continue until early summer.
    So please be patient - I hopefully come back to full "blog power" in the second half of 2015... ;-)
    All the best from springtime Germany,
    Uwe.

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  29. Flowering cherries are too beautiful for words. I have two in my garden. Sadly, both are already finished but the new leaves are beautiful too.

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  30. Fabulous cherry blossom ..... I love the first image.....thank you Yoko!

    Ruby

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  31. How did I miss this? I think we might not value the lovliness of Sakura as much if they bloomed for a very long time. The transience of their beauty makes them even more valued. I would love to walk in your country during the period when Sakura bloom everwhere. The Sakura's fragile beauty overwhelms the senses. I love the light in the last photo - and of course the steps!

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