this month's お興味事 (subject of interest) - wisteria !

皆さん、お久しぶり！

today I thought I'd like to talk about a flower that spring has brought in on its soft, warm feathers; 今まで全然気づかなかった, but that has quickly absorbed all of my affection:

the wisteria flower ! 

this is the first year I've noticed their presence in my local area, likely due to this chart of maiko kanzashi (decorative hair pin) seasonalities:

below is a photo of mamefuji (豆藤)-san (read here a touching little story about her & mameharu-san), one of my favourite geiko (who returned to the profession after retirement ! this is an extremely rare phenomenon & shows how immensely popular she was) as a first-year maiko, wearing the wisteria kanzashi ! I selected this photo in particular as the 'fuji' in her geimei (the name used by geimai in the profession, which is completely unrelated to their real name) refers to the japanese name for wisteria ! 

I was absolutely delighted to learn that the wisteria is the flower of choice for kanzashi during the month of may, as it is my birth month ! a brief investigation into the wisteria's floriography from a japanese perspective revealled that it is often associated with immortality/longevity, perseverence, kindness, a bond that cannot be broken (or more literally 'never separating'), & 'getting drunk' on love (yes, the japanese site does say that!). on the contrary, western conceptions of birth-month related things always left me with a bitter taste in my mouth; I do not like emeralds very much, nor have I ever taken much interest in 'lily of the valley', aside from its appearance in minecraft- though some further research reveals stories such as that:

• the flower originated from the tears wept by eve when she was banished from the garden of eden
• the flower sprouted from where mother mary's tears fell onto the ground at the site of jesus' crucifixion
• in medieval england there existed a 'courtship dance' to celebrate spring; young men placed bunches of lily of the valley on the doorsteps of girls that they fancied, & if the girl came to the celebration with the flowers in her hair, she supposedly returned his feelings.

which I find very interesting, but solely on an intellectual level- I still have not much emotional connection with them. it was always in the back of my mind, then, that I wished to be born in another month, with a prettier gemstone; I felt the need to search for something that I could actually feel to be part of myself. 

on that line of thought, I turned to researching japanese kamon- family crests, a bit similar to european coats of armour- bearing the wisteria pattern, as kamon commonly feature on semi- to extremely formal kimono, & it is a dream of mine to marry into a family whose kamon I can wear on my own kimono. (my absolute favourite layout is the singular kamon placed at the back of the neck! I think that it is so beautiful & powerful, though to elaborate would invite an 襟足 conversation completely improper for such a public space as this.). 

in doing so, I was reminded that the wisteria kamon was famously used by the fujiwara (藤原) clan, a powerful, allegedly shinto god-descended clan most famous for ruling japan during the heian era (a little-known fact is that the first novel ever written, 'the tale of genji', was penned by a fujiwara! on a more humourous note, the main character of the famous street-racing manga/anime 'initial d' is also a fujiwara) & managing to retain its imperial influence up until the meiji revolution. 

aside from that, my favourite fuji kamon is the '三つ藤巴' or '黒田藤巴' (which very roughly anglicises to 'three wisterias'), depicted below:

which I have a particular favour for due to its unique appearance ! looking upon this particular one, I am imbued with a sense of eternality, spanning across time to connect who we are in our present lives with our divine ancestral origins, so that we may honour them & ascend to their level to protect those after us; which is what I truly hope for in finding a love worth marrying. that being said, I really quite like the most famous fuji kamon as well; I tend to prefer kamon with borders, but its beautiful, balanced shape quite negates the need for one. 

to round this blog post off, I am extremely excited to report that the large two trees right before the turn-off to the town in which I attend school appear to be wisteria trees, for they have started to grow many, many small bunches of flowers that sway in the wind, & I cannot contain my excitement about watching them bloom !! though I do fear that I will be in japan when that happens (which I understand to be a very first world problem), so I will ask my friends & family to watch that tree for me, & let me know when it reaches peak flower. 

皆さんはこのポストを楽しんだったら、嬉しいですね！I'm glad to have gotten the chance to post once again, & hope that my own passion for this topic sparked an interest within you- even if only for just long enough to finish this blog. I hope to see you all more soon! 今回も読んでくれてありがとうございました o(_ _)o