Japanese winter scenery1/22/2024 ![]() ![]() ![]() Ritual implements and decorative items used in Buddhist temples and practice are often covered with flowers, birds, and other scenes from nature. Similarly, folding screens decorated with ink monochrome paintings showing a transition from one season to the next initially were placed in the private quarters of Buddhist monks. ![]() As indicated above, cherry blossoms can be found in pictures illustrating Buddhist as well as Shinto concepts, with both expressing the beauty and brevity of nature. The confluence of Shinto and Buddhism in the use of seasonal references demonstrates the central position of this practice in Japanese culture. (Because this convention was so common, seasonal attributes could be quite subtle.) In this way, Japanese painters expressed not only their fondness for this natural cycle but also captured an awareness of the inevitability of change, a fundamental Buddhist concept. For example, spring might be indicated by a few blossoming trees or plants and summer by a hazy and humid atmosphere and densely foliated trees, while a flock of geese typically suggests autumn and snow, and barren trees evoke winter. Autumnal and winter scenes and related seasonal references, such as chrysanthemums and persimmons growing on trees that have already lost their foliage, are eloquent expressions of this same sentiment.Ī distinctive Japanese convention is to depict a single environment transitioning from spring to summer to autumn to winter in one painting. This attitude can be seen in such visual arts as Buddhist and Shinto paintings of the Heian period that include lovely but short-lived blossoming cherry trees. Melancholy sentiments, invoked by a sense of time passing, loss, and disappointment, tended to be the most common emotional notes. These poems, produced by courtiers who embraced a highly refined aesthetic sensibility, not only celebrated the sensual appeal of elements of the natural world, but also imbued them with human emotions. Nature appears as a source of inspiration in the tenth-century Kokinshu (A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern), the earliest known official anthology of native poetry (rather than Chinese verse). Similarly, seasonal references are found everywhere in the Japanese literary and visual arts. This awareness is manifested in seasonal festivals and activities. Since ancient times, Shinto has focused on the cycles of the earth and the annual agrarian calendar. ![]() This sensitivity to seasonal change is an important part of Shinto, Japan’s native belief system. In this way, artists in Japan created meditations on the fleeting seasons of life and, through them, expressed essential truths about the nature of human experience. Painters and artisans in turn formed images of visual beauty in response to seasonal themes and poetic inspiration. Poetry provided the earliest artistic outlet for the expression of these impulses. To prevent the delicate pine trees from snapping under the snow's weight, the individual branches are painstakingly tied to ropes and wires to provide extra support.From ancient times to the present, the Japanese people have celebrated the beauty of the seasons and the poignancy of their inevitable evanescence through the many festivals and rituals that fill their year-from the welcoming of spring at the lunar New Year to picnics under the blossoming cherry trees to offerings made to the harvest moon. The surrounding fortress and garden are covered by lush snow from late December until early March. 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, the castle tower will be closed for renovations it is planned to reopen in April 2023.) The castle tower holds a recreation of what the castle originally looked like in 1868 before it was rebuilt, along with fascinating exhibitions on the turbulent history of Aizuwakamatsu illustrated by genuine relics. Easily found after a 20-minute ride on the Haikara-san sightseeing bus, which can be boarded from JR Aizuwakamatsu Station, this eccentric castle is most recognized through the dynamic contrast of stark white walls and red roof tiles. The deeply historic Aizu region of Fukushima is home to the magnificent Tsuruga-jo Castle. ![]()
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