December 4, 2025

Chrysanthemum: A Golden Symbol of Japan

In front of me is my Japanese passport. Its cover boasts a designed golden chrysanthemum flower (the US passport boasts the national coat of arms, or the bold eagle design). It is the conventional crest of the country of Japan, as well as the emblem of the Japanese Imperial Family. It is a double 16-petal chrysanthemum flower, so there are 32 petals.

Interestingly, however, the ornamental chrysanthemum is not native to Japan. It was introduced from China probably around the late 8th century or early 9th century.

The Chrysanthemum Festival (one of the five annual festivals in Japan) is celebrated on the 9th day of the 9th month (September). This day is called “double positive” (Cho-yo in Japanese and Chong-yang in Chinese), because in the Yin-Yang philosophy, odd numbers are considered positive, 9 is the largest among single-digit numbers, and there are two of them. Many competitive chrysanthemum exhibitions are held in Japan around this time.

Also, around the same time, life-size dolls dressed with chrysanthemum flowers are exhibited. Honestly, I did not like these eerie, spooky dolls when I was a kid, but my mother took me and my siblings to many shows.

Many cultivated varieties of chrysanthemum (often just called “mums” by western gardeners) are now available: single blooms, quilled blooms, spider blooms, anemone, pompons, decorative blooms, reflex and incurve blooms, brush or thistle chrysanthemums, unclassified, spoon mums, cushion mums, miscellaneous mums, etc.

The chrysanthemum flower is a delicacy, too. I like to taste it as tempura. You can also use it in salad. It is slightly sweet. When you have a chance, try it! (Of course, mum flowers treated with chemicals may not be safe to eat.)

Chrysanthemum. Ink and watercolor, by Toshi

August 30, 2025

A Pine Tree Over a Gate

A pine tree crowning over a residential gate is a warm welcome sign in Japan. The pine tree is trained like a real-size bonsai. This custom follows the Chinese tradition that a pine tree is an auspicious plant. The bark of a trained pine tree, it is said, resembles a feared and respected mighty dragon.

Although the pine tree is auspicious in this culture, only few species of pine grow widely in Japan. The black pine is a warm-climate coastal tree. The red pine is a cooler-climate inland tree. The 5-needle pine is more or less ornamental (praised for bonsai). Trust me, there are far many more species of pine growing in the US!

There is a nostalgic landscape of Japan: a white sand beach fringed with rows of pine trees. It evokes my sweet childhood memories of beautiful summer days.

Interestingly, however, this landscape is mostly artificial, made to protect the farmlands behind from salt damage, or just the result of a human alternation of the natural environment nearby. The term “nostalgic” implies that we have been doing this drastic modification of nature for long time, and have become accustomed to it. Can you think of any familiar landscapes like this?

For more information, see “White Sand and Blue Pines: A Nostalgic Landscape of Japan” in Landscape (1993) 32 (1): pp. 1–7, by ME!

June 7, 2025

Ikebana: The Japanese Art of Flower Arrangement

People have loved beautiful flowers and brought them into their living spaces for centuries. Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement, most likely started as a flower offering practiced in Buddhism in the 6th to 7th century (Buddhism officially came to Japan in the 6th century). Flower arranging became widely popular in the 16th century, when the tea ceremony flourished.

Let’s try a very simple arrangement with 5 pieces (flowers or branches or a combination of the two). Lengths should be about 8”, 6”, 4”, 3” and 2”. Using a floral foam brick for the base is an easy and common way, but you can use Styrofoam or something else you have handy. (For my example, I used a bread roll!)

To begin the arrangement, we first find the location for the 8” piece. This tallest piece will go somewhat to the left and back from the center of your base (where the red star is in Figure 1). Stand this piece almost (but not quite) straight up at that spot. Looks nice? Gear up your aesthetic sense!

Next place the 6” piece (blue “flower” in Figure 1) to the left front of the 8” piece, angled to the left front. The 4” piece (orange) goes to the right front at a bit lower angle. The 3” piece (purple) goes between the 8” and 4” pieces both horizontally and vertically, as shown. Finally, the 2” piece (yellow) is placed between the 6” and 4” pieces, leaning almost horizontally toward the front. Now you are a master of flower arrangement!

Sumire. Ink and watercolor, by Toshi

May 1, 2025

Sumire: A Pretty Japanese Violet

Takarazuka Revue is a famous all-female musical theater troupe based in Takarazuka City in Japan. Female actors play all the roles in lavish theatrical productions. The troupe’s symbolic song is “Sumire no hana sakukoro” (“When the violet flower blooms”). The original is a German song called “Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht” (“When the white lilacs bloom again”). The original has nothing to do with a violet flower. Why did the lilac mutate into the violet in Japan?

Sumire’s petite purple flowers welcomingly bloom in early spring here and there in settled areas of Japan. Of course, people love this modest spring blossom. In the narrow taxonomical sense, “sumire” refers to a particular species, Viola mandshurica W. Becker (1917). Like “violet” in the US, however, in Japan, people casually refer to many species belonging to the genus Viola as “sumire.” There are some woody species in the world, but all of the 50-some wild Viola species in Japan are herbaceous.

As you might have guessed, as an introduced cooler-climate woody garden plant, lilac is not a common (or at least not as common as sumire) flower in the more populated warmer parts of Japan. Sumire is by far a more familiar and long-beloved spring flower there. So, that’s the likely reason for the mutation.

You can listen to Sumire no hana sakukoro on YouTube!

April 24, 2025

Silk Road Plants

Do you like to eat a nice juicy peach? The peach is native to China and is thought to have reached the Mediterranean region around roughly 2000 BC (about 4000 years ago) via the Silk Road. What is the Silk Road?

The Silk Road is not a single long street, but a series of trade routes that connected Europe and the Middle East with China and other eastern countries for many centuries. Plants have been an important part of this east-west movement.

Japan is located at the far-east end of the Silk Road. In the Japanese language, the names of many familiar plants, such as cucumber and pepper, contain a Chinese character that means “western region” (which often meant “Persia”). Chinese characters adopted for use in the Japanese written language are called kanji in Japan. The illustration at right includes the kanji for three plants that came to Japan via the Silk Road:

The kanji for cucumber means “western gourd”. It is actually native to the northern part of India, the foothills of the Himalayan Mountain Range.

The kanji for walnut means “western peach”. This tree is native to an area ranging from southwestern Europe to western Asia. So, the walnut may have actually come from Persia.

The kanji for the most popular pepper used in Japan (called sansho) means “western sansho”. If you have a chance to taste sansho pepper, try it. It is spicy and has an interesting flavor. This pepper probably spread through China from the eastern Himalayas. It is also considered native to Japan and Korea.

OK, the last one, sesame. It means “western oily seed”. It is widespread in Africa, but probably originated in India. Interesting, right?

Silk Road plants. Ink and watercolor, by Toshi

Hydrangea. Ink and watercolor, by Toshi

March 17, 2025

Hydrangea: The Flower of the Plum Rain

Hydrangea or ajisai is native to Japan. (In Japan, the name ajisai refers to a cultivated variety of Hydrangea macrophylla.) This flowering shrub was introduced to Europe by a German physician, botanist and traveler, Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold, in the 1800s.

The original wild plant was cultivated, became showier, and is now widely planted in gardens of the world. The name ajisai most likely came from the term azusa-ai, which means “a mass of indigo color.” Sounds right to me!

This flower is especially beautiful during the Plum Rain (a rainy season in Japan from late May to early July). The genus name Hydrangea comes from the Greek word hydria, which means “water vessel.” Naturally, this flower and rain harmonize very well. By the way, it is often said that Japan has four distinct seasons. In a more precise sense, there are six seasons: Spring, Plum Rain, Summer, Autumnal Rain, Autumn and Winter.

The showy pink or blue flower parts of hydrangeas are actually sepals, not petals like many other showy flowers. The flower color changes with the acidity of the soil they are planted in: acid soil gives blue, and alkaline soil, pink. This color association is the opposite of the litmus paper we use in chemistry class to test the acidity of liquids (acid turns the paper red or pink, and alkaline solutions turn it blue). So, please don’t confuse Hydrangea and litmus paper!

January 23, 2025

Red Spider Lily: A Zombie Flower?

Red spider lily (Ungernia trisphaera, formerly Lycoris radiata) was prehistorically (before “the story” or “history” was written down) introduced to Japan from China. Do not confuse its long, thin flower parts with your favorite licorice candy! This plant is strongly poisonous. Suggestively, the Japanese name is “higan-bana” and it means “a flower of the other shore” ( = death). In Japan, this flower grows widely in patches near the outskirts of villages, along rice fields, or near graveyards from the southern island of Kyushu to the northern island of Hokkaido.

This plant is triploid, which means it has 3 sets of chromosomes in the nucleus. As a result, it cannot produce seeds to propagate. In other words, all the red spider lilies in Japan were deliberately planted by people. Why did people plant this highly toxic plant near their villages?

Although it is poisonous as is, its tuber contains starch. So, it is likely that red spider lilies were planted as famine food. In normal times, people did not touch this plant because it is poisonous. But when famine got serious and there was no other food available, people treated the tuber to extract starch and ate it. When they ate up all the red spider lilies and even that food was gone, they may have to pass to the other shore, if another food source is not found. A bit scary, right? Well, I prefer to have some licorice candies instead now!

Red spider lily. Acrylic on canvas, by Toshi

Quiz: Look at the two images of rocks at the right. Which is Chinese? Which is Japanese?

December 10, 2024

Mountains of China and Divine Spirits of Japan

A Chinese garden, or a Japanese garden? If that is the question, look for garden rocks. If you find a large curiously shaped limestone placed in isolation, it is Chinese. If you find grouped granite or andesite, it is Japanese.

Like traditional Chinese ink drawings, water-eroded Chinese garden rocks represent a deep mountain landscape. Long time ago, people appreciated these drawings and garden rocks imagining they are strolling into deep mountains, as they did not have a smartphone, or a laptop, or even the electricity itself. So, a Chinese garden rock symbolizes a secular landscape of China.

In contrast, Japanese garden rocks are sacred and religious symbols. The rock combination is the image of large rocks in nature to which kami (Divine spirits in Japanese religion, Shintoism. Sometimes translated as “gods”) descend. The combination usually features a large rock in the middle, a middle-sized rock on one side, and a relatively flat rock on the other side to balance the appearance. A naturalistic harmony is important.

Now you can go out and find interesting rocks. Can it be a Chinese garden rock? Or how do you combine several rocks to appear to be sacred? Let’s try!

November 18, 2024

Japanese Chestnut

In my childhood days in Japan (1950s to ’60s), mountains and hills near a village often boasted plantings of Japanese chestnut trees. I lived near the edge of a city, and there were still some chestnut trees here and there in leftover forested areas. This may be a vanishing (more likely “vanished”) landscape of old Japan.

In September and October, my friends and I strolled into these forested areas and searched for chestnut cases on the ground. When they fall naturally from the tree and the burrs split, they are ready. The chestnut burr is very prickly, so we had to be careful to safely pick them up. Then the chestnuts were cooked and we enjoyed the sweet taste.

Japanese chestnuts have been an important food source for Japanese people since Mesolithic and Neolithic times, as long as 9,000 years ago (note that the Japanese people then looked very different from contemporary Japanese people, but that is another story). In historical times when things were written down, we can find records showing that emperors and feudal lords encouraged the planting of this tree.

Its scientific name is Castanea crenata and it belongs to the oak and beech family. The Japanese name, kuri, may have come from the dark brown color of the nut. The nut was called kuro-mi (black nut) and was later probably shortened to kuri.

Here in the US, I can buy a bag of ready-to-eat roasted chestnuts. I enjoy them as-is for a snack, or cook them with rice to make a bowl of delicious “chestnut rice”. If you like the flavor of roasted chestnuts, try it:

Chestnut rice: mix together 5 oz of cooked, chopped chestnuts, 2 cups of uncooked rice, salt to your taste, and 2.5 cups of water. Then let the mixture sit for 20 minutes. Use a rice cooker if you have one for easy cooking. If not, bring the mixture to a boil in a pot on medium heat, and then reduce heat to low and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for 20 minutes. Then enjoy!

November 1, 2024

Daikon or Japanese radish

One of many poetic scenes of winter in Japan is daikon (Japanese radish) hanging on a rack in a field, or simply from the eves of a house. Racks can be huge village-scale rows, or family-scale, 10-20 feet long.

Daikon is a very popular vegetable in Japan. “Dai-kon” literally means “large root,” and you know that when you see it. Despite its popularity, it is not native to Japan. It probably originated in the Mediterranean area or central Asia.

Daikon belongs to the Mustard family, like many other important vegetables including bok choy, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, horseradish (wasabi), kale, turnips, and watercress. We can eat the root and leaves, and also extract oil from it.

Why do Japanese people dry daikon? Because it has been an important preservation food for surviving cold winters. Usually, dried daikon is made into pickles in rice bran, and then people eat it with a bowl of rice when no other vegetables are readily available.

To dry daikon for yourself, tie several together and hang them.A faster way to dry daikon is to shred it into narrow pieces and spread them out to dry. This is called kiriboshi daikon (as you may have guessed, it means “cut-and-dried daikon”). My favorite way to use daikon is to boil in bonito soup with soy sauce. You can also use another soup base such as chicken or vegetable broth.

October 15, 2024

Morning Glory

Japanese school kids do not get a long summer break (only about 1 month, from late July to late August). Worse, this break comes with a huge pile of homework. One such homework assignment is often a small science research project based on observations. And probably the most popular project is to observe morning glory flowers. They are big flowers (easy to observe), they are beautiful and come in a variety of colors, they change quickly with a daily rhythm (open in the morning and close in the evening), and best of all, they are easy to grow.

In English, “morning glory” may refer to a number of species, but in Japan it means cultivated Ipomoea nil, commonly called asa-gao which means “morning face.”

Morning glory is native to many tropical regions. It came to Japan around the end of the 8th century. Now, morning glory is one of the most horticulturally developed flowering plants in Japan. It is an annual short-day vine that may grow up to 5 yards long. A “short day” means the flower flourishes when day length gets shorter than a certain number of hours. In the case of morning glory, this is about 9 hours, or 15 hours of darkness. This happens around the end of July in Japan. So, this flowering timing is very convenient for an observation project for the summer break homework! Are you ready to observe morning glory flowers for your scientific project?

September 15, 2024

Bamboo and the Moon Princess

Bamboo is a giant woody grass (not a tree!). It probably originated in Southeast Asia, from where it spread into tropical and subtropical areas of Asia and the Pacific. It has so many uses: it is made into musical instruments, baskets, ornaments, arrows, water pipes, cups, fishing rods and hooks, paper, pens, toys, building materials, shoes, etc. And of course bamboo shoots are a tasty food for both people and pandas.

The legend of the Moon Princess is told in areas where bamboo grows. This was a popular tale in Japan in the 10th century. The story goes like this: a poor bamboo cutter found a tiny (3-inch tall!) baby girl in a hollow bamboo. In just three months she grew into a beautiful woman, and magically made him rich. Many nobles, and even an emperor, asked for her hand in marriage. But her choice was to return to the Moon on the day of the full moon in August.

A young bamboo plant may grow 3 feet per day. This explains why the Moon Princess grew up so fast. And, probably because of this, bamboo is believed to have some magical power. So naturally, the Moon Princess went back to the magical world of the Moon.

You can search for books, images and videos of the story under names such as The Tale of the Shining Princess, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, and Taketori Monogatari. And don’t forget to go out and look up at the moon in the sky. You can dream about the beautiful Moon Princess and her bamboo cradle.

The Moon Princess with bamboo. Acrylic on illustration board, by Toshi

Japanese pruner. Ink and acrylic, by Toshi

August 30, 2024

Trick or Trim (Be a Pruning Pro)

A professional gardener has a rule about trimming/pruning a tree or shrub: “Do not show the cut edge.” You do not bluntly cut a branch wherever your pruner is. Try to hide the cut edge with a leaf (that is, cut under and behind the leaf) or another branch. Then no one is likely to notice that you cut off part of the branch.

Also, you should not cut a lot at once. The reason is obvious, right? You can continue cutting if you need to, if you first cut a small amount. But if you cut too big and too much, you cannot use superglue to put it back. Think of it this way: If you shave your head, you cannot put your hair back on with superglue because you are alive. (Even if the hair sticks for a while, it will never grow, and it won’t be comfortable at all!) A tree is alive, too.

Finally, the final shape of the tree should look as if nothing happened to the tree—as if no trimming took place, even if “messy” branches were trimmed into a neat shape.

If you are a young person, make sure a grownup accompanies you when using sharp tools. After pruning, do not forget to wipe off your nice pruner after use, and oil it. A tool is an important friend to a pro.

August 15, 2024

Why Did Kudzu Eat the South?

Kudzu is a vine that is such a serious problem in the southern US that it has been called “the vine that ate the South.” In this and other areas with a similar climate, it can spread rapidly and smother other plants. This perennial plant in the legume family (it is a close relative of the soybean!) was intentionally introduced to the southeast US in the 19th century. In the 1930s and ’40s, it was promoted as a way to control soil erosion. Farmers who wanted to stop valuable topsoil from blowing or washing away planted fast-growing kudzu to prevent that. Now the rampage.

Kudzu is native to Asia, and was introduced to the US from Japan. It was not much of a problem in Japan until recently. What happened?

Let’s imagine two kids, Jack and Betty (stars of my grammar school English lessons), who each planted kudzu in their yards. Jack loves to make folk-art baskets using the soft vine, and feeds his pony with the leaves. In contrast, Betty planted her kudzu to make shade around her nice gazebo during the summer, and then forgot about it. You can guess whose kudzu spread more, right?

Japan was once like Jack. Kudzu had many uses in Japan. The flowers, tubers, and even the young leaves are edible. It was also used for medicine, making rope, animal feed, etc. Harvesting for many uses kept it in check. Now, we are mostly like Betty, busy with activities that don’t make use of kudzu. Maybe, if you raise a goat, you can happily live with this mighty vine.

Note: A goat itself may become a problem, so you have to be careful.

August 2, 2024

Magic of the Tea Garden

The tea garden is probably the most popular style of Japanese garden. A tea garden is a “passage” to a tea house where a cup of green tea is ceremoniously served. This small garden appears to be a deep mountain path, though it may be located in a large city. What is the magic behind this?

The first magical technique is called “in and out of sight.” Only a small part of the garden is visible from any one spot. For example, you have to go around some shrubs to see what lies beyond. This creates an illusion of depth and diversity.

The second type of magic is an illusion of greater perspective. In the tea garden, large-leaved plants are often planted in the front, and small-leaved plants in the back. This gives the impression that the small-leaved plants are located far away, creating the feeling of a larger space.

Lastly, you cannot walk quickly in the tea garden. There are stepping stones you should walk on, and they are not placed for an easy walk. You have to walk slowly. Thus, after a short distance, you feel you have walked a long way. There is also a special purpose to this walk. With each step, you shed the worries of daily life, one by one. You are entering the magical world of the tea garden. Are you ready?

July 22, 2024

Kabocha? What a strange name!

Some foods introduced to Japan

Kabocha squash (aka Kabocha pumpkin or Japanese pumpkin) is simply called kabocha in Japan. It is a strange name. It has no clear meaning in the Japanese language. It may be that the name kabocha started from a combination of Portuguese words meaning “pumpkin” and “Cambodia,” from Portuguese traders who passed through Cambodia on their way to Japan. But the pumpkins/squash they were bringing were from South America!

Clockwise from top left: kabocha, potato, sweet potato, wheat flour. Ink and acrylic, by Toshi

How about jaga-imo? Imo means “tuber”, and jaga-imo is a potato.Earlier the potato was known as jagatara. Can you think of a place in Asia that sounds like this? Yes, Jakarta in Indonesia. The potato was likely introduced to Japan from Indonesia. This is another vegetable that originated in South America and picked up its name from some other place on its way to Japan.

Satsuma-imo (Satsuma potato) is sweet potato. Satsuma is present-day Kagoshima Prefecture in Japan. A story tells us that sweet potato was so nutritious that leaders in Satsuma did not want other areas to know about this crop. They thought keeping it to themselves would help them maintain their superior military power. But of course, eventually, it spread all over Japan.

The last introduced food for today is meriken-ko (“meriken powder”). This is not a vegetable, but flour. What does meriken mean? (Hint: You may be a meriken.) Get it? (Meriken-ko is American wheat flour.)

July 10, 2024

Mini Nature: Bonsai

Have you ever played with Barbie dolls or action figures? How about a small flying helicopter? These are miniatures of people and machines. When you make a miniature model of a full-size tree with a Barbie-size tree, it is called bonsai. You are creating a small model of a magnificent piece of nature.

Many famous bonsai trees are 100 to 300 years old, and eye-poppingly expensive. Even a miniature bonsai, that is a “mini-mini,” may take 5 years or so to grow. So, the easiest way to start your bonsai is to buy a nice looking, small and reasonably priced tree from a nursery, and grow it from there. Keep in mind that you are making the tree fat but not tall. So, you periodically trim the top part rather heavily.

Commonly used trees in bonsai are pine, plum, maple, juniper and fig. It is often said that trees with opposite leaves (where two leaves are directly opposite each other on a branch, then there is another pair of opposite leaves further along the branch, and so on) are much easier to trim than those with alternate leaves (where one leaf is on one side of a branch, then another leaf is farther along the branch on the opposite side, and so on). But either type, of course, is OK. Are you ready?

June 30, 2024

Sakura – Japanese Cherry Blossom

What is the most beautiful image of spring in Japan? To me, it is the paths lined with gorgeously blooming cherry trees. Pale pink flowers all over, and some petals gracefully falling over your head.

Almost all of these cherry trees are Prunus (or Cerasus) x yedoensis ‘Somei-yoshino’. It is a horticultural cross between two (or maybe three) cherry species. It does not produce fertile seeds, like many other Rose family plants used as ornamentals. So, all of these beloved Somei-yoshino in Japan are clone plants that came from one tree.

This variety was designed, probably in the middle or late 19th century, at a nursery in the village of Somei in Edo (today’s Tokyo). This tree was planted widely all over Japan after World War II. So, this famous Japanese landscape is not ancient, but rather recent.

As clones, all of these trees, when under similar climate and other environmental conditions, bloom at the same time. And we enjoy that mass blooming!

The landscape is beautiful. But consider that they are all clones of one plant. When its life span ends, what do you expect? Will this famous landscape survive?

Of course, Japanese people are well aware of this issue and have started planting other varieties of cherries already. So, we do not need to worry. Just enjoy its beauty now!