Picture◎Wu Mengyun

◎Gao Zifen Picture◎Wu Mengyun

It was Kawabata who suggested going to Omi Hachiman to enjoy the cherry blossoms.

“Although there are places like Hachiman Park and Hachimanbori where you can enjoy cherry blossoms,” Kawabata smiled, “but the most beautiful cherry blossoms are right here in my house.”

Please read on…

The Biwako Line tram was moving along the lake. When we saw Kawabata waving at the exit of Omihachiman Station, Sakamoto, Hiiragi and I hurried up to greet him. “これはほんの気目ちだけです (not respectful)…” We handed over the small gift, “おおきに (thank you)!” Kawabata laughed, and his eyes turned into a crescent moon, which was very cute. During my trip to Kyoto, I was surrounded by the soft Beijing accent, which made me feel light and airy.

Crossing the street and coming out of the alley, the Kawabata family house stands in front of you. I followed them into the century-old house and unknowingly stepped lightly. Kawabata said that fine cypress wood was used when building this house, but according to generations, a swallow flew up one rainy day, rushed under the floor, and never came out again… Slowly walking through the corridor, the old Japanese style The wooden floor of the building creaked slightly, like the creaking sound of history, echoing with a distant aftertaste. I was sitting casually in the small tea room. Outside the window lattice, I saw a Somei Yoshino cherry tree standing in the center of the courtyard. Something seemed to be beating in the branches and leaves. It was probably a bird. Tiny cries and pink light swayed slightly, then fell silent again.

Legend has it that the “Yoshino Sakura” sold by a flower farmer in Somei Village, Edo (today’s Toshima District, Tokyo) in the late Edo period was very popular. In 1900, the naturalist Fujino Yumei (ふじのよりなが) introduced this artificially improved variety. The cherry blossoms were named “Somei Yoshino”. Somei Yoshino’s large flowers, luxuriant blooms and fast growth quickly spread and became one of the six major cherry blossom varieties in Japan.

what is this?

Kawabata opened the small gift tied with a furoshiki, and it turned out to be “Hanami Bendou”: teriyaki chicken, egg rolls, grilled beef short ribs, potato pickles, and fan-shaped sea bream rice. Although it is not the famous “Shokado Bento”, the people and flowers that have endured the cold winter seem to bloom in one breath with the beautiful food.

“春は, あけぼの.／やうやうしろくなり行く山间, 少しあかりて,／purple だちたる云の小くたなびきたる.”

“In spring, the dawn is the best. / The top of the mountain gradually turns white, and a little light begins to appear, / Purple clouds float lightly on it.”

Sakamoto raised his chopsticks and recited a passage from the first volume of “Pillow” to start the “Spring Calling Party”. She likes Japanese songs and haiku and is happy to be a housewife. She has taken good care of her family for many years and is calmly immersed in the small and high-concentration happiness of home. Occasionally, Sakamoto would recite his own poems, but today he had no inspiration. she says.

Hiiragi, who likes to travel, travels overseas at least once a year. She opened her eyes wide. It is said that the vortex caused by unplugging the rubber stopper of the bathtub rotates to the left in Japan, while it rotates to the right in Sydney, Australia, in the southern hemisphere. ah! I really want to see it. That year, Hiiragi fell from a cot in a Barcelona hotel and broke her hip. She smiled (or maybe cried secretly). After the operation, she was recovering while typing on her laptop, and the whole world on her small screen lit up. .

After Kawabata retired as a flight attendant, he opened an “English school (tutoring class)” at home. Often, elementary and middle school students came to class in the evening, and the cracks in the century-old house were suddenly filled with vitality. A few days ago, I took my students to the nearby Azuchi Castle. She described that it was the second day of rain. From the top of the mountain, Lake Biwa was covered in fog. There was a hint of mystery in the tranquility. The sky was even further away – she was no longer flying. Will you miss that blue sky?

I took a sip of tea and looked at them with a smile.

According to legend, if a Kyoto hostess encounters an annoying guest, she will set up a broom next to a pillar and ask the guest: “Do you want more tea?” visitors. If you say: “Okay, let’s have another customer.” That’s a fool; smart people immediately realize, “Ah! It’s time to say goodbye.” And when they say “おおきに (Thank you)” in Beijing accent, the pitch of their voice also determines The meaning: a high tone indicates sincere gratitude; a low tone indicates verbal etiquette. As if to confirm what Washida Seiichi said in “Kyoto’s Peace”, a third-grade elementary school girl was heard on the bus, telling her grumbling younger brother in a voice that no one else could hear, “You can’t tell the truth in front of others” – then Xiao, she is a real “Jing girl”.

In front of me, my friends are chatting and laughing happily. Are they Kyoto women outside the stereotype?

A gust of wind blew, and the cherry blossoms in the yard were singing. We changed into slippers and stepped into the yard, and some petals floated gently on our hair.

After this cherry blossom tree quietly blooms and falls every year, it seems like something dies.

Kawabata looked around the old house and recalled that in spring, the cherry trees always changed their shapes day by day: budding, blooming, thick layers one after another, comparable to the “Gion Night Sakura” in Yasaka Shrine’s Maruyama Park. Kawabata frowned, but the cherry blossoms seemed so beautiful that they would make people unable to calm down. They would feel confused and feel like they wanted to escape; until the flowers fell and new leaves grew, it was so lush that it was no longer a noisy tree. of sakura.

The mountains in the distance were hazy and covered with a soft milky white color. I touched the branches of the cherry tree, and the water droplets attached to them suddenly reflected another petal, like a semicircular kaleidoscope, shining in the sunlight; I was about to call out. They came to see it, but at the slightest touch it disappeared. It seems not that long ago that before the cherry blossoms withered, we gathered under the trees to eat, drink, sing, and enjoy the colorful fallen flowers that were finally carried away by the wind. When I came back from Hanami, I drank wine, and I was still too excited. My face was flushed, and I forgot about the imperfect and impermanent “mono-sabi” and the dull “wabi-sabi”. It was just sour and sweet.

Unknowingly, the sun slowly sets on the top of the cherry tree, and the backlight creates diffuse shadows, as if there is a different bloom before the evening.

coming! Sakamoto took off her reading glasses and read the haiku she had just written: “年年や/ Sakura を Fat やす/花のちり”

“Year after year/Silently nourishing the cherry trees/The dust of withered petals”

Everyone will have one thing they most want to do, and a secret they most want to reunite with.

Day after day, immersed in longing, we silently embrace Shakespeare’s poem: “Time will pierce the gorgeous delicacy of youth; it will carve parallel lines on the forehead of beauty…”

In the setting sun, four women leaned their heads together and took selfies, showing their brightest smiles under the cherry blossom trees. ●

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