45

Bundle 45: Emblematic Trees

These essays showcase four types of trees that afford great pleasure. The Japanese love seeing rows of them along rivers, the seashore, and avenues (especially on the world's longest tree-lined road), and people famously picnic under cherry blossoms. To the Japanese, the pine, cedar, willow, and cherry also symbolize key qualities: transience and mortality (the cherry); longevity, vitality, and sincerity (the cedar); emotional flexibility, weakness, sadness, and thinness (the willow); and superior rankings (the pine). Moreover, these trees play key roles in the arts, such as haiku, woodblock prints, ink paintings, lyrics, Noh theater, and ghost stories.
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桜
cherry tree
JOK: 1036
Discover what cherry blossoms have meant to the Japanese. See how the blossoms connect to war, learning what "You and I are cherry blossoms that bloomed in the same year" means. Find out ways of consuming the blossoms for real or euphemistically. And learn to say, "The cherry blossoms fluttered down whenever the wind blew" and "The cherry blossoms were at their best."
松
pine tree
JOK: 1394
See how pines connect to New Year's rituals, Noh plays, Basho, bamboo and ume (symbolically), and matsutake mushrooms. Discover a pine tree that matters in Buddhism and twin pines that represent marital happiness, as well as figurative uses of "pine needle." Learn about two sarin gas attacks and the sabotage of railroad lines. Also find out about cows that receive regular massages.
杉
cedar
JOK: 1467
Native to Japan, this towering tree lives 500 years - and more than two millennia on one island! Living cedars may be seen as sacred, receiving attention even from the emperor. Meanwhile, felled cedars turn into everything from soy sauce barrels to "magewappa." Discover unexpected relationships between cedar and saké, as well as between postwar reconstruction and pollenosis.
柳
willow
JOK: 1898
Willows play important roles in Japan, lining rivers in several cities (and the streets of Ginza in Tokyo) and frequently appearing in ink paintings. Using pliable willow wood, people make everything from chopsticks and wicker to medicine. Sayings about taking things in stride often include 柳. There's also a link between 柳 and geisha, as well as a connection between willows and ghosts!
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