The Asian reporter., November 03, 2014, Page Page 3, Image 3

ASIA / PACIFIC
November 3, 2014
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 3
Japan’s chrysanthemums: More than a symbol of autumn
By Linda Lombardi
The Associated Press
OKYO — When Ameri-
cans think of flowers and
Japan, we think of cherry
blossoms. But to the Japanese,
there’s a flower for every time of
year, and right now, it’s the
chrysanthemum, celebrated in
festivals, shows, and home
displays.
Like the cherry blossom, the
chrysanthemum, called kiku in
Japanese, symbolizes the season,
but more than that, it’s a symbol
of the country itself. The
monarchy is referred to as the
Chrysanthemum Throne and the
imperial crest is a stylized mum
blossom. That seal is embossed
on Japanese passports. The
flower is also a common motif in
art, and it’s seen in everyday life
depicted on the 50-yen coin.
Originally introduced from
China, the flower came with a
legend about longevity, the story
of a town whose residents all
lived to over 100 years old, where
the water came from a mountain
spring surrounded by chrysan-
themums. Through selective
breeding, the original simple
flower was developed into many
forms that most Americans
wouldn’t
recognize
as
a
chrysanthemum, such as a type
with long, thin, spidery petals,
and another that’s said to look
like a paintbrush.
Perhaps the most unusual
mum is what’s called the Edo
variety. “They start off looking
like a normal chrysanthemum,
with petals lying flat, almost a
daisy kind of form, but as the
flowers age, the petals will twist
and spiral around the center of
the
bloom,”
says
Marc
Hachadourian, director of the
Nolen Greenhouses at the New
York Botanical Garden. “It
continually changes its shape till
T
MEANINGFUL MUM. A banner (left photo) advertises a chrysanthemum festival in
Tokyo called “Yanaka Kiku Matsuri.” As in the U.S., mums in Japan are beloved as a sym-
bol of autumn, but in Japan they are also a national symbol, appearing on the imperial
crest, passports, and even the 50-yen coin. Pictured at right is a display of chrysanthe-
mums with spidery petals at the Sensoji Temple, Asakusa, Tokyo. (AP Photos/Linda
Lombardi)
eventually the petals wind in a
perfect spiral around the center
of the flower.” The New York
Botanical Garden, located in the
Bronx borough of New York City,
recently hosted a show called
“Kiku: The Art of the Japanese
Garden.”
At this time of year in Japan,
you’ll even find chrysanthemum
petals in your food, in simmered
and pickled forms. Fall is also the
season for a range of festivals and
shows celebrating the flower.
Small local festivals, like
“Yanaka Kiku Matsuri” in mid-
October, are more or less an
excuse for a party, with stands
selling festival foods, games for
children, and performances by
local talent. There are a few
examples of an old tradition of
decorating life-size dolls with the
flower, and of course, potted
mums to buy and display at
home. While that custom is
familiar to Americans, the forms
that some of these take are not.
Unlike the cherry blossom, which
is mostly appreciated in its natu-
ral state, the kiku is the focus of
an elaborate horticultural tradi-
tion rarely practiced outside its
native country, where the plant is
grown into unusual shapes by
prescribed methods of care and
pruning.
A simple cascade-shaped ex-
ample could be bought for home
display at the Yanaka festival,
but where you see this art at its
peak are at larger shows that
begin in late October and run into
November.
What’s
most
remarkable about these displays
is that each is a single plant,
coaxed into shape by months of
labor.
“You can have either three
single blooms with flowers 10 to
12 inches in diameter, or,
through a series of different
techniques, take that same
variety and grow it into a single
plant eight to 10 feet across with
hundreds of individual blooms on
it — the ‘thousand blooms’ style
— all starting from a single
cutting,” says Hachadourian.
These forms can take up to 11
months to create, with a single
cascade taking 65 hours of work.
The technique is reminiscent of
bonsai, but as evanescent as the
cherry blossom.
“There’s a lot of similarities to
bonsai in the exacting technique
to get the eventual effect, but a
bonsai can be trained over
hundreds of years, so if it doesn’t
look good this year, you can fix it
over the next 10 years,” says
Hachadourian, whose garden is
one of the few in the U.S. that
practices
the
traditional
methods. “In the 11 months of
training the thousand blooms, if
one of the branches breaks, that’s
it. You can’t start over.”
Not only that, after all those
hours of work, it’s done at the end
of the season: “At the end when
the flowers are done, we cut them
and start all over again.”
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