Extra nonce bitcoin exchange
16 comments
Royal medical partnership exmouth market
Needless to say, going all JapanThis! Chinese courtiers enjoying plum blossoms and crappy plum wine. In a world without TV or movies, bored humans have always found ways to entertain themselves. And, as is the case in most cultures, while the poor were toiling in the fields, the rich built lush private gardens.
In the West, this happened in the Roman Empire. In the East, this happened in Ancient China. Gokusui no En was a typical Heian Period poetry even linked to seasonal changes practiced by the Northern Fujiwara clan. This one is recreated once a year in Hiraizumi, Iwate Prefecture. The most common flowers were wisteria [iii] , plum blossoms, peach blossoms, and ultimately cherry blossoms which were treasured for their brief yet brilliant bloom.
By the Heian Period, the term hanami had become synonymous with cherry blossom viewing specifically, and not just flower viewing in general. He sought to legitimize the samurai — not just as warriors, but as protectors of aristocratic cultural practices.
Hideyoshi encouraged the warriors to engage in other arts such as poetry, tea ceremony, and flower arrangement.
Hideyoshi failed to establish a lasting dynasty, but his ideas of promoting cultural practices of the court among the samurai was a success. This vast religious center was open to the public and would become Ueno Park in modern times. This brought hanami to the commoners. Looking out at the bay must have seemed like looking at the end of the world — and by that I mean the Pacific Ocean and modern Chiba Prefecture. Even Yoshiwara, the moated and sequestered red light district had streets lined with cherry blossoms.
While usually men frequented the pleasure quarters, wives and daughters often came to enjoy the illuminated trees and try to catch a glimpse of the courtesans in their flashy kimono. Nighttime hanami in Yoshiwara. You can see the lanterns illuminating the trees.
Also, notice the guy covering his head. They often covered their heads to avoid recognition. But, of course, they went. With the great Tokugawa Peace came re-branding. The samurai, traditionally warriors, now found themselves with no wars to fight — essentially functioning as bureaucrats. In order to legitimize their function in society, they were expected to be living examples of Japanese morality and behavior for all of society beneath them to admire and emulate.
On the surface, this simply means the greatest of flowers are cherry blossoms and the greatest of men are samurai. Therefore, the life of a samurai was likened to the sakura. He is beautiful, but fleeting. Likewise, a strong storm or sudden frost might ruin all the cherry blossoms, ending the season early.
The link between samurai and sakura persists to this day, and commonly comes up in historical movies and TV dramas. One of the biggest changes to Japanese society was the abolition of the caste system, including the samurai. There were some in the new government who lobbied — unsuccessfully, luckily — for the removal of sakura from places associated with the Tokugawa and the samurai, such as Ueno and Edo Castle because of the strong connection between the samurai and cherry blossoms.
In the end, cooler heads prevailed and as the concept of public parks was introduced, hanami was rebranded as a pan-Japanese tradition that dated back to the heyday of the imperial family during the Heian Period. In fact, to many westerners who learned about Japan through postcards and movements like Japonisme and Orientalism , Japan was often reduced to imagery of Mt.
Fuji, geisha, and cherry blossoms. The Great Buddha of Edo. In this way, the sakura became a symbol of birth and rebirth, rather than the fleeting existence of the samurai. As horticulture and the art of garden construction incorporated new scientific discoveries, public parks and botanical gardens soon learned that they could extend the hanami season by planting two to three varieties in the same park.
Why only have two weeks of hanami when you can have three or four? Having a picnic and drinking sake while looking at cherry blossoms is a tradition that goes back to the Heian Period.
Until recently, you could usually only carry a bottle or two with you, so the parties were shorter. This has made it possible for hanami parties to run from 6 AM to 11 PM because you can just refuel at whenever you run out of booze. Furthermore, hanami goers in parks these days can even order delivery pizza, sushi, or whatever they need. In the age of instant gratification, an old proverb came to be associated with hanami: Japanese companies often send the youngest or lowest ranking people on their teams or in their departments to go stake out prime hanami spots in busy locations at the crack of dawn.
Inevitably, they begin partying, often from 6 AM until the main group arrives. I came across this poor fellow at noon and it seems like… well… I guess hazing is a thing in his company. Ueno Park, in my experience, tends to be the craziest. However, Yoyogi Park definitely gives it a run its money. All of this is great fun. This could be anything from a very local shrine to an obscure park.
And do you know any cool secret spots? Between Meguro and Naka-Meguro in the afternoon on a weekday is best for me. At the end of the season, there are showers of petals and the Megurogawa becomes completely pink in many places. Yup, emphasis on the weekday afternoon party. But weekday afternoons are great, I agree! As always, a fantastic article. Keep up the good work- your website is among my top 5, easily.
What a riddle that cat was! The interesting thing about Hideyoshi to me is that he was a product of a society that allowed great social mobility. As far as your website being among my favorites, you are welcome. I also want to tell you one of my favorite parts of your articles are the etymology parts- I really dig it when you break the names down to try to figure out why things are called what they are.
They spend a lot of time exploring concepts pertaining to them on their wiki, forum, and podcast. They have the wherewithal to go far deeper than I can, and they have a community to draw from.
I wish I had that too lol. And yeah, I put a shitload of work into this blog lol. The guy who does the podcast at historyofjapan. I know because I literally just listened to the podcast about it. Either way though, very impressive bit of info. The history of hanami.
You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. And thank you for the kind words!
Allan Murphy 6 April at 10am. Anthony Lener 8 April at 4pm. The opinions voiced here are just my own. Also, thanks for the kind words! Thank you very much! Anthony Lener 9 April at 3pm. Thanks for that- I will most certainly check out Samurai Archives!
Anthony Lener 11 April at 11am. Nihon Scope 7 May at 12pm. Nihon Scope 7 May at 6pm. What does Koganei mean? Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email required Address never made public.
Follow Japan This on Twitter! YabaiKankei 68 cloves of garlic?! Not making fun or jokes or anything. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.