Seasonal Fragrance Rainy Season and Hydrangea
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 The month of June in Japan is a turnaround point of the weather shifting from spring to summer, and falls in so-called tsuyu or the rainy season of the country. The rainy season begins in early May in Okinawa, the Japan’s sourthernmost island, and in the middle of June in the Tohoku province, a northern district, while Hokkaido as an exception in the far north does not experience it. During the season, drizzling days, until it clears up, continue for about a month persistently under unpleasant high humidity and temperature. It is this unwelcome weather condition that nurtures a beautiful flower, and heals the soul of Japanese people from an ancient time. The hydrangea is the flower. The hydrangea is a symbolic flower to represent a season, as sakura cherry blossom is in spring.
PHOTO:O.Terasaki |
The hydrangea belongs to the saxifragaceae family and is a deciduous shrub. The flower blooms in early June through the middle of July, exactly during the rainy season. The flowers blossom in different colors of purple, pink, blue and white, and some species are said to turn into another color depending on the condition of soil. Flowers in the vividly blue color are grown on acid soil and in the strong reddish color on alkaline soil. The construction of the flower is unique in that it is a bundle of tiny flowers of sizes of one or two centimeters. The origin is Japan, and has become a favorite flower around the world today through breeding into about 150 different species in Japan and 400 to 500 in western countries.
Here is a romantic story popularly talked about pertinent to the hydrangea that has delicately changing colors and elegant atmosphere produced by its bright appearance. In the Edo period, a scientist named von Siebold, who stayed in Japan as a medical doctor at the trading post of VOC (The Dutch East India Company), was so deeply charmed by this flower that he gave it a name “Otaksa” in his book entitled “Flora Japonica”, published in 1835. It was after a Japanese woman by name of “Otaki-san”, who he loved and lived with, and called “Otakusa”. Imagine he was reminiscing the memorable days spent with her, who was left far behind in Japan, with hydrangea flowers brought back in his hands after he returned to his home country. In wet days, the hydrangea stands out blooming in its brilliant color. The picturesque appearance produced in contrast of the hydrangea and the rainy season is indeed part of the Japanese original scenery.