Plum Blossom (Ume) Photos
Click on photos to see enlarged versions. Captions are below.
<<01>> If sakura (cherry blossoms) herald full-on orgiastic appreciation of seasonal change, ume (plum blossoms) are the foreplay that gently warms the Japanese up. Blossoming a few weeks earlier than sakura, ume mark a slight increase in temperature and seasonal excitement, in anticipation of the main event. Here is one of Kyoto’s most famous plum blossom viewing spots, the ume garden at Kitano Tenman-gū shrine.
<<02>> Plum blossoms close up. The many aspects of Japanese culture that were imported from China during the Nara Era (710–784) include the appreciation of flowers, and in particular plum blossom viewing. During the Heian Era (794-1185) cherry blossom viewing became more popular and the word hanami (literally ‘flower viewing’) came to be associated exclusively with cherry blossoms.
<<03>> Kitano Tenman-gū’s haiden (main shrine building) with a long queue of people patiently waiting to pray. The correct procedure for praying at a Shinto shrine is to pull on the bell rope, throw money into the collection box and clap three times to summon the shrine’s kami (resident deity).
<<04>> One of the shrine’s deities, a bull. The red bib indicates holiness, as is standard for statues in Shinto shrines.
<<05>> Part of the shrine’s large collection of ema (votive boards). Visitor’s to Shinto shrines can buy these ema and write a prayer on the back. As Kitano Tenman-gū is associated with study, most of the prayers you can read on the ema relate to university entrance exam success and good school grades.
<<06>> A group of kimono-clad women checking out the plum blossoms.
<<07 - Main Photo>> Lighter-colored plum blossoms in the sunshine. As with cherry blossoms, the color of the petals varies widely depending on the species.