Early Cherry Blossom

In order to put  [ An-Mochi Cooking ] post, I needed to have a photo of Plum Blossom. 

Though I couldn’t find it in time of the 3rd of March, Japanese Hina-Matsuri (ひな祭り／Girls Festival )

Then few days ago, I saw a Pink Blossom from a bus window.  But when I went back there with my camera,  tree was

turned out to be a  Mountain Cherry  ( we call Yama-zakura/山桜 ) = the origin of  Somei-Yoshino variety.

Despite of normally rather small Mountain Cherry,  this tree was a quite hefty big tree of 5~6 m tall which

I can even climb up. ( Though, as a good citizen, I didn’t  😀 )   As it spreading the branches wide, it

convinced me to use Fisheye lens ( again )  😀

In the western tastes, the more the flowers, mean “Gorgeous” !

So, enjoy the view.  Gorgeous isn’t it.  — though, if I may a bit sarcastic, this psyche and its tendency

might be related to the birth of the Capitalism.  ( In its endless greed —– though, don’t ask me

how about the psyche of tremendously rich eastern industrialists  😀 )

So, it might be only a fig-leaf of yet another greed, still this kind of rather reserved decency, originated from

the Confucians philosophy is more appreciated in the east as it often appeared in the Chinese paintings.

Coinciding with Confucians, Taoism has been teaching

the virtue of  living with the rules of the nature.

 Be humble and live as an anonymous small person

 = This is the idea of Minimalism.

This minimalism has been reflected into Zen philosophy.

So that even in poetry, such as in Haiku/俳句, it is not just

short,but the strict rules limiting the use of the word  = only one word indicates the season/季語 = it must be

there, but another word doubling it is regarded to be superfluous, hence illegal = it got to be strictly minimal.

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So, in photography, in order to show the full bloom of cherry,  some time photographer only showed a fallen

petal or two on the ground, or floating in the stream.  ( Though, in real life, to create this image, photographer

remove all the petals on the ground before, and places the best look flower petal in the most effective,

looks natural position = it is a staged photo  😀 ) —– I don’t have any editor to please = I’ve just clicked

a photo above.   If you find the flowers in full bloom and its end of the life = temporariness of

the life,  it is what this photo meant to be.  ( Click on the photo to enlarge, and click it again for further

enlargement = it become about the life-size.   Put your lap-top or tablet on the floor.   Kneel down as if you

are  looking into the fallen petals on the real ground.  Give a thought.  =  It would make you feel a bit humble. 

—– Take this as a Buddhist’s practice in Direct Transmission. )

( Camera used was a very humble Canon EOS 5D Mk-II,  8~15 mm Fisheye Zoom, 24~70 F2.8 Zoom Lens )

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