2010: Fall Wandering

WANDERINGS ALONG SOSUIBUNRYU GAWA
September 2010

There is a small “river” 2 minutes north of my house in Kyoto that is one of my favorite morning walking routes.  The term river is a stretch as the water level is seldom above 4 – 5 inches and the width in most places is 36” or less.  However, it is a most delightful area not known to the general public or tourists.  The water flows about 15’ below street level with stone embankments that rise waist high, then earth covered by weeds and “intended” plants with a short azalea hedge along the street side but dominated by very old cherry trees (sakura) and maples (momigi) with a few weeping willows (yanagi) adding to the traditional arboreal mix.  There are narrow one-way streets on each side of the river with mostly local traffic, cyclists, dog walkers and folks like me out for some exercise.  Recent walks have sharpened my awareness of aspects of the early fall season. [In the Heian Period (794-1192) there were 32 separate seasonal changes celebrated based on the dominant Chinese culture of that time.]  One downside to the weather this summer, seen all over the city including this river side — and in the country — is azalea hedges turned brown by the extreme heat and lost.  It is sad to see many dead shrubs along this river walk.

Notable autumnal river side observations~

~  Spider webs (kumo no su) I noticed one of these recently, in amazement and awe, and the next day 6 or 7!  This variety of spider (kumo) is about 1½” in total size with black and yellow stripes and with a red dot on the end of the cephalothorax.   (Yes, of course, I didn’t know this prior to a google search!)  These guys’ webs are 3-D installations with distant attachments, some from electrical wires 15’ overhead. Imagine that feat of construction — cross the street, climb a pole, transverse the wire and drop down (at a time of calm) to the intended bush below.  In the center is the usual precisely constructed web we have come to expect for trapping unwary insects plus more random structural supporting webs on either side with total depth of 12” or more.  One was a joint effort with 2 spiders in parallel trapping webs plus all of the extras but more impressive was a “condo/townhouse” occupied by 4 cooperative members.  These araneae are nature’s architects/engineers/web-based, gutsiest creatures extraordinaire. At the same time I read the following in The Tale of Murasaki by Liza Dalby describing the travels of Fiji-san the narrator through the mountains near Kyoto in the Heian Period, “The paths were full of huge spiderwebs.  In one place, ten or twenty of the creatures had spun their webs together into arachnid palaces with attached pavilions, …..”  How little some things have changed in Japan!

~  September Lilies (higanbana) These unique flowers pop up at this time of year as a single stalk, without leaves, and burst forth in a crown of delicate blooms of a very special hue of red while others are a delicious creamy white.  The thin thread-like filaments project from the pedals to most exotic effect.  They can grown most anywhere but seem common along riverbanks here in Kyoto and along the edge of rice fields in the countryside.  My housemate, Seiki, told a story from his childhood when he was excited to pick some lilies and bring them as a surprise to his mother.  She was in shock as they are reputed to bring very bad luck and could bring the threat of fire.  Alas, he never repeated that faux pas.  This year the blooms were later than usual due to the hot dry summer.  The rice crop, on the other hand, was harvested earlier in some areas, which I noted on a train ride to the Kyoto Seika University campus north of the city.

~  Morning Glories  (asagao – morning face) Raising these flowers here in Japan is elevated to cult status as a summer activity with festivals, contests and flower viewing events.  However, prior to frost they are very much a part of the fall scene along my “Tozai Gawa”  (the East-West River).  Residents put up trellises both on the riverside and next to their houses.  The colors range in a variety of reds, fuchsias, blues, purples — many with details of white that add unique impact to the early morning “faces”.  One grouping of intense blue-violet blooms hosted one small intruder of another sort in brilliant orange.  The WOW factor kicked in.

~  Bush Clover  (hagi) This is a woody shrub that can grow as high as 6’ or more and is another one of the true harbingers of fall.  The leaf is three lobed echoing clover but the similarity ends there.  The multiple blooms on a single stalk are a pale lavender, reddish purple or white.  Special fall festivals are held at some shrines in Kyoto where, at one of them, traditional poems (haiku or waka?) are written on special poetry cards and hung on the bushes.  The hagi along my river are not so tall or impressive but they are there proclaiming fall to anyone who sees them.

~  Gardening Many of the residents along the river walk plant various flowers and shrubs on the river side as well as near their houses in the ground or in pots.   In some places there is space the width of the river, where the water is directed underground, for personal gardens.  On a recent morning a senior gardener was watering her plants with a hose connected from her house with nozzle in one hand and a small tray holding a smoking mosquito coil in the other.  She was taking no chances.  The mosquitoes (ka), here unlike the Japanese, are persistent and aggressive.   When I have the garden-side doors open at home here (my favorite place to read in spring and fall) there is always a coil alight at my side.