A Handbook of Modern Japan

by Ernest W. Clement

Floral Japan

The Japanese are a nature-loving people, and frequently give practical expression to their feelings by taking a holiday simply for “flower-viewing.” At the proper season the entire nation, so to speak, takes a day off, and turns out on a big picnic to see the plum blossoms, or the cherry blossoms, or the maples, or the chrysanthemums. No utilitarian views of the value of time or miserly conceptions of the expense of such outings prevail for a moment; for the Japanese are worshippers of beauty rather than of the “almighty dollar.” A few pennies on such occasions bring many pleasures; and business interests are sacrificed at the shrine of beauty. And, as one or more flowers are blooming every month, because twigs, leaves, grasses, etc., are included in the scope of the word hana, there is almost a continuous round of such picnics during the year. It is our purpose, therefore, to arrange a calendar of flowers popular each month.

At the very outset we are confronted with a chronological difficulty in presenting this subject to Western readers. For the programme of Japanese floral festivals was originally arranged on the basis of the old lunar calendar so long in vogue in Japan. By that calendar the New Year came in at varying dates from about the 21st of January up to the 19th of February; in 1903 it fell on Thursday, January 29; so that it is from three to seven weeks behind the Occidental solar calendar. And yet, when Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar, many of these festivals were transferred to the “New Style” without regard to the awful anachronism that necessarily followed.

For instance, the following is a floral programme according to the “Old Style”:—

Old Style.		New Style.
1st	month,	February	Pine.
2d	„	March	Plum.
3d	„	April	Cherry.
4th	„	May	Wistaria.
5th	„	June	Iris.
6th	„	July	Tree peony.
7th	„	August	Lezpedeza.
8th	„	September	Eularia.
9th	„	October	Chrysanthemum.
10th	„	November	Maple.
11th	„	December	Willow.
12th	„	January	Paulownia.

Now, the pine is chosen for the 1st month (O. S.) on account of the prominent part that it plays in the New Year’s decorations, but when the new year begins the first of January, that calendar suffers serious dislocation, because all of the other flowers cannot be moved a whole month.

A similar confusion arises in connection with the great festival of the “autumn full moon,” in which certain grasses also figured. By the lunar calendar it fell about the 15th day of the 8th month, which never comes in the Western 8th month, August. It came in 1902 on September 18; and 1903 it will not come until early in October! It may now be readily seen how difficult it is in Japan to run on schedule time!

But, taking all these difficulties into consideration, and harmonizing them so far as possible, we have been able to construct the following modern Japanese floral calendar:—

January	Pine.
February	Plum.
March	Peach.
April	Cherry.
May	Wistaria.
June	Iris.
July	Morning-glory.
August	Lotus.
September	“Seven Grasses.”
October	Chrysanthemum.
November	Maple.
December	Camellia.

Japan and Siam[232]

Mr. Inagaki, Japanese Representative in Bangkok, has been making strenuous efforts to bring about the establishment of a direct line of steamers between Japan and Siam. He maintains that there cannot be any substantial development of trade without some improvement of the means of communication. Tōkyō newspapers report that the Ōsaka Shōsen Kaisha has been induced to undertake the extension of its Formosan line to Siam, and that arrangements are now under discussion with the Formosan officials.

In a lecture delivered by Mr. Inagaki before the Japan Economic Society, he insisted that Siam could be of the greatest service to Japan in supplying raw materials and food stuffs. Her production of sugar, hemp, and gum is very large, and whereas her export of silk ten years ago was only 250,000 yen, it is now 10 millions. The Siamese government has decided to devote a quarter of a million yen to agricultural experimental stations, and there can be no doubt that if Japan sent seeds of raw materials to be grown in that country, fine results would be obtained. It is important that a country like Japan should have a source of supply which would certainly remain neutral in time of war, and Siam is essentially such a source. This question of food supply will one day be as important for Japan as it is already for England, and its solution seems to lie in the direction of Siam.