OSAKAZUKI, a name of satsuki tree and at the same time a name of satsuki bonsai,
nursed up carefully from a sapling by my late father.
My father was born in the 28th year of Meiji.
He was a typical representative of men who had the spirit of the age.
It was in planting the cuttings of satsuki that he had found only interest in the age
when people could not enjoy their own lives.
I can remember unsurely that I had seen him planting the cuttings in the cutting bed
and trimming his bonsai near him since my childhood.
When I search for the words “satsuki and father and I” in my head, from my old recollections
I can tell you this story:
Once upon a time there was a boy who was 3 or 4 years old. It was a day in
the rainy season. But the weather was good, and the sky was almost blue.
He was standing in the garden near the cutting nursery where he and his
father had planted the cuttings of satsuki trees in the cutting bed
together a few days before. Since he watered the cutting beds in the
morning, the ground of cutting nursery got wet and slippery.
Suddenly he entered it, and began to pull up the cuttings one by one.
Why did he pull up them?
I am very sorry, but my memory is so inaccurate that I cannot remember the
reason at all however I may do so. I must have judged in my childish mind
that they had already taken root. Now I feel as if the memory had been
like an event in a world different from the real one, just as we feel so
when we see a very old photograph whose four corners are out of focus.
When I came to myself, a half of them had already been pulled up.
Strangely to speak, I was not conscious of having done wrong. But I felt
that I should plant them in the cutting bed again, which I had pulled up.
Therefore I began to do it with my little hands.
10 or 15 minutes after, I found it very difficult to do it in good order.
At first, I said to myself, “Why can't I do it in good order all by
myself?”. And the doubt in my mind changed to impatience, and then to
irritation.
Seeing me struggling to get out of difficulty, mother persuaded me to
apologize to father for my mischief when he came home. And she proposed
that we should plant them as before by the time that he came back.
When we all met together in the evening, he said only a few words to me .
“Have the cuttings of satsuki taken root?” is not a good question about
them.
Today's event had already been told him by her. And I was sure that she
had asked him not to scold me.
He and she died long ago. And I have only this OSAKAZUKI which he left to
me.
The season of Lantern Festival (Bon) comes this year. Some bitter
memories in my childhood come back in my mind when I pay a visit to the
grave of our ancestors.
I am much gladder if you see OSAKAZUKI which he left to me again by rolling
down your page.
Thank you.
Motohiko Nagase.
Homepage.
My father was born in the 28th year of Meiji. He was a typical representative of men who had the spirit of the age.
It was in planting the cuttings of satsuki that he had found only interest in the age when people could not enjoy their own lives.
I can remember unsurely that I had seen him planting the cuttings in the cutting bed and trimming his bonsai near him since my childhood.
When I search for the words “satsuki and father and I” in my head, from my old recollections
I can tell you this story:
Once upon a time there was a boy who was 3 or 4 years old. It was a day in the rainy season. But the weather was good, and the sky was almost blue.
He was standing in the garden near the cutting nursery where he and his father had planted the cuttings of satsuki trees in the cutting bed together a few days before. Since he watered the cutting beds in the morning, the ground of cutting nursery got wet and slippery.
Suddenly he entered it, and began to pull up the cuttings one by one.
Why did he pull up them?
I am very sorry, but my memory is so inaccurate that I cannot remember the reason at all however I may do so. I must have judged in my childish mind that they had already taken root. Now I feel as if the memory had been like an event in a world different from the real one, just as we feel so when we see a very old photograph whose four corners are out of focus.
When I came to myself, a half of them had already been pulled up.
Strangely to speak, I was not conscious of having done wrong. But I felt that I should plant them in the cutting bed again, which I had pulled up. Therefore I began to do it with my little hands.
10 or 15 minutes after, I found it very difficult to do it in good order.
At first, I said to myself, “Why can't I do it in good order all by myself?”. And the doubt in my mind changed to impatience, and then to irritation.
Seeing me struggling to get out of difficulty, mother persuaded me to apologize to father for my mischief when he came home. And she proposed that we should plant them as before by the time that he came back.
When we all met together in the evening, he said only a few words to me .
“Have the cuttings of satsuki taken root?” is not a good question about them.
Today's event had already been told him by her. And I was sure that she had asked him not to scold me.
He and she died long ago. And I have only this OSAKAZUKI which he left to me.
The season of Lantern Festival (Bon) comes this year. Some bitter memories in my childhood come back in my mind when I pay a visit to the grave of our ancestors.
I am much gladder if you see OSAKAZUKI which he left to me again by rolling down your page.
Thank you.
Motohiko Nagase.
Homepage.