Yearning for Spring: Plums have finally started to bloom in Yokohama

 

I think this winter is a sort of erratic. One day, it’s very warm like a spring day. Then Japan-sea Polar airmass Convergence Zone (JPCZ) came to snow madly in several areas of archipelago. Yokohama has so far been spared from disruption by snow, though it was damned cold last week. Maybe flowers are also confused. I feel the blossoming of plums is late this year. But finally this week, they started to smile in Yokohama. As of February 16, plums in Yokohama are still 30% or so opening … still, it’s something we’ve been waited.



One plum blossom

    One blossom's worth of warmth

                Hattori Ransetsu

                (Translation by Koichi Otsu.)



梅一輪

　一輪ほどの暖かさ

                    服部嵐雪

Ransetsu is a disciple of Matsuo Basho.

If you have any questions about Yokohama’s Green Tax and Green Up Plan, please make a contact with

Strategic Planning Division, Green Environment Bureau, City of Yokohama
横浜市みどり環境局戦略企画課

Phone: 045-671-2712

FAX: 045-550-4093

Email: mk-kikaku@city.yokohama.lg.jp

Prehellenistic Plum Garden: Ohkura-yama Garden 大倉山公園

 

Around Yokohama, spring flowers of trees start their new year in turns. The first is wintersweet, which begins blossoming in the middle of January. This year, Yadoriki Wintersweet Festival やどりきロウバイまつり (; my post for February 1, 2019) is from January 13 to February 12. One more week is left … The grand finale is of course cherry blossoms (; my last year’s adventure with cherry blossoms is here), but around the same time in Kanagawa Prefecture flowers of peaches also reach its peak if not as gorgeous as cherries. Penultimate tree flower is Kawazu-zakura (Cerasus lannesiana ʽKawazu-zakura’) that kicks off flowering around the end of February. Kawazu-zakura was first identified in 1955 in Kawazu Town 河津町 of Izu Peninsula, the next door neighbour for Kanagawa Prefecture. So, we have several good places to admire this early flowering cherries, one of which is in Yadoriki Bus Stop along Nakatsu River. Between wintersweets and Kawazu-zakura, we have one elegant entry for this pageantry of flowers. It’s plum.

2023 Cherry blossoms in
Historical Landmark for Saimyoji Temple 最明寺史跡

Plum flowers have been loved by Japanese culture for millennia, in poetry, novel, theatre, song, dance, paintings, sculptures, pottery, etc. etc. As Kanagawa Prefecture has Kamakura 鎌倉, the ancient city that was the centre for Japanese politics between the 12th and 14th centuries, the old temples et al in and around Kamakura have famous plum gardens. Also the area around Odawara 小田原 was once governed by a powerful warlord family, Hojo Clan 北条氏, in the 15th and 16th centuries, which made several cultural establishment in the area famous for plum trees. Actually, one of the local special goods for Odawara is products made of plum fruits. Compared with such grande dames, as Yokohama is a young city that became a large community after the middle of the 19th century, we don’t have gardens with such traditional accreditation. But we’re trying. Sankei-en Garden 三渓園 in Naka Ward began tending plum trees some 100 years ago. They begin looked “traditional.” City Parks also plant plums, and the municipality hires professional gardeners to look after them. One of such “newly traditional plum gardens” is in Ohkura-yama 大倉山 where lots of nursery schools are located for parents commuting to the offices in Tokyo. The name of the place is, surprisingly, Ohkura-yama Garden 大倉山公園.

The plum flowers in Niinaru. We’re trying.

The route to Ohkura-yama Plum Garden is easy. You get off at Ohkura-yama Station of Tokyu Toyoko Line, leave the station to the west. That is on your left when you face the Tokyo direction. There are three roads in front of you. Please take the steep slope running along the train track. It’s a narrow but paved commuter road going up. It turns left soon, and so, please simply follow the way. In no time you’ll see the entrance of Ohkura-yama Park on your left. The first feature we can notice at the Park is a white stone building that was a place of research. The Park was the property of a wealthy merchant, Kunihiko Ohkura 大倉邦彦 who opened here in 1932 a research institute named Okura Institute for the Study of Spiritual Culture 大倉精神文化研究所. The theme of the study for his institute was “spiritual culture” and the academic activities were lively until 1945. After World War II, the research was declined here, and in 1981 the foundation for the institute sold the site with the buildings to the City of Yokohama. The place still has several researchers who are studying mainly the cultural activities of historical businesspeople and the local community. It also has a library with the collection of related matters, open to the public. The facility itself is the property of the City so that its halls and seminar rooms are rented for civic activities of Yokohama. My friends say they had a festival of good documentary films several years ago. (The current scheduling of events there can be seen from here and here.) With some reason, Mr. Ohkura thought classic Greek style was suitable for his project of studying spiritual culture. So, the design of the building is of prehellenistic style by a then-famous architect Uheiji Nagano 長野宇平次. Inside was built with woods in the style of Shintoism shrines. Now in the 21st century, the entire building looks exotic for everybody on earth. It could be VERY Japanese architecture …

Entrance to Ohkura-yama Park

A white building over there …

Okura Institute for the Study of Spiritual Culture

Inside

Plums? Oh, yes. After we’re impressed by the white stone building, simply follow the strolling path along the ridge of a hill. Within a few minutes, we’ll see a mortar-shaped area on your left with about 200 various plum trees. It’s Ohkura-yama Plum Garden. Compared with Sankei-en or Negishi Shinrin Park 根岸森林公園, the Ohkura-yama Garden is smaller, but the way the trees are planted is well-thought of, and they are looked after well. Already in early February this year, some trees are in full-bloom and the sweet scent of plum flowers are wafting in chilly February air. Each tree has a name plate. If you’re afficionado of Japanese poetry or Chinese characters, it’s a fun to discuss with friends the intention of a godparent for the flower. The season of plum flowers lasts until the end of February or early March. Above all, it’s surprising the calm atmosphere of the garden, considering busy Tokyu Toyoko Line and JR Bullet Train Line run the east valley of this Ohkura-yama hill. Probably because of this, we can find lots of wild birds chirping here and there peacefully. It’s a relaxing place in the middle of downtown. Please visit there and have a nice lunch with your sandwiches. 😊

Please follow the ridge way, then,

On your left is the plum garden.

Nice place for lunch

I loved this one with cool green in their calyx.

An Oriental Turtle Dove in the adjacent forest. Hello!

If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make a contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau
横浜市環境創造局

Phone: 045-311-2016
FAX: 045-316-8420

Strange Days: Spring, Yokohama, 2022

 

Wild neighborhood flower in Yokohama 2022 …
 FYI, it’s Japanese bishop’s hat.

From last weekend to Monday, we had very cold days in our neighborhood. Peaks of Tanzawa 丹沢, Hakone 箱根, and inevitably Mt. Fuji 富士山 have been again snowcapped. Fully bloomed cherry blossoms started falling in cold windy rain. Sad. Then, the weather suddenly become early summer like. Homo sapience are confused. Winter coat, or just a shirt?... How about the other species? Are they coping with the strange weather?

I haven’t done any systematic research for the growth of vegetation here. But one thing for sure this year is, we have not had enough bracken shooting yet for harvesting. Until last year, I could find them by the middle of March in Yokohama. The young shoots were available until the end of April or so. It was fun to cook them as seasonal treat (; my post on April 2, 2021). Not this year. I asked my seniors of Forest Instructors who are active in the other forests of Kanagawa Prefecture. All said “Nope. We don’t have them yet either.” Hmmmmm … Plum blossoming was also very late. There is a plum tree that flowers always first in Niiharu 新治市民の森. In December 2020 it started to have flowers. We enjoyed them until March. Not this year. In 2022, it opened finally in the first week of February. We expected the flowering of spring forest would catch up from here as for the previous years. Nope. Cold weather returned and returned.

These are the earliest plum flowers in Niiharu.

By the way, don’t you think this tiny bird of pray,
 bull-headed shrike, cute?
 I found her when these plums flowered in February.

Spring ephemerals are, it seems to me, also puzzled. They are like “Hello, hello? Is it OK to start our spring now?” I hoped severe winter would bring bursting spring just like in northern places. Maybe, we could have crazy parties of lots of colors with many flowers at once! Nah. Hesitating flowers sporadically open within browned patches of winter. The scenery has continued for more than a month ... Then last week, cherry blossoms have come, rain or shine. They‘ve begun swirling soon after over the ground often in winter color. Is something happening?

It seems to me this is a bounty year for field horsetails
 (; my post on April 13, 2018).

And sasa bamboos are flowering.

But Corydalis decumbens (Thunb.) Pers.
have not flowered as of April 2nd ... where‘s bud!?

Still, in colder Yadoriki やどりき水源林 I‘ve found that frogspawns in March have turned into tadpoles last week. Well, seasons come whatever my anxiety is. It would be better to take it easy …

Frogspawns of Montane brown frog, early March

And they are now tadpoles.
 Could you figure out black dots in alga?

In any case, Viola betonicifolia have flower early April, as usual!

If you find environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121
〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/