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Bundle 13: Fruit Basket

This "fruit basket" has caused creative juices to flow in Japan. The trees and fruits connect to colors, haiku, proverbs, myths, folktales, and wordplay. People associate peaches with Shangri-la and instability, Japanese apricots with happiness, and persimmons with Mount Fuji and writing brushes. The Japanese fully use certain trees—the wood in furniture, the leaves in tea (and even in sushi!), and fruit, roots, and bark in dye, paper, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. The juice goes into drinks, alcoholic or tame. And the Japanese and ancient Chinese have viewed these fruits and their trees as warding off misfortune!
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桑
mulberry
JOK: 1518
The Japanese have found uses for every part of the mulberry - the fruit, leaves, wood, bark, and roots. In Japan, mulberries have been so important that some maps mark mulberry fields. Aside from its mulberry connections, 桑 factors into the names of several significant places, including San Francisco and Japan itself! Our kanji also pops up in surprising sayings and a famous bit of wordplay.
桃
peach tree
JOK: 1646
See how peaches connect to pregnancy, epidemics, instability, a hairstyle, Shangri-la, and Osamu Dazai. Discover why 桃 is in terms for plum, cherry, apricot, walnut, almond, and tonsil! Learn the origin of the era name Azuchi-Momoyama. Rethink a folktale; was the hero Momotaro a thief? Learn to say, "Cherries are ripe in June," "My tonsils are swollen," and "Her cheeks were a light pink."
梅
plum tree
JOK: 1689
See how Japanese apricots (ume) relate to the rainy season, the new year, haiku, Osaka, a god sleeping in poisonous ume pits, shochu, senbei, syphilis, pine and bamboo, and childbirth. See how ume blossoms have inspired paintings, sweets, and color terms. Also read about ume-related pickles, a manly candy, flying ume, and shrines with connections to ume.
柿
persimmon
JOK: 1946
Learn to say, “Some boys made off with all the ripe fruit on my persimmon tree.” Find out why a persimmon was named after a writing brush, which animal adores persimmons, and what a “persimmon house” might be! See what people go through to make persimmons edible, and discover how this fruit connects to a spicy snack, sushi, mochi, alcohol, tea, and skewers.
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