＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
<Addition on 7/27/2021> Momiji Nishiya wins gold medal in skateboarding at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
13-year-old Momiji Nishiya became the youngest Japanese gold medalist in skateboarding.
Many people may have been surprised at this news that the name “Momiji” was not “紅葉”, “黄葉”, or “栬”, but “椛”, a less familiar kanji.
The kanji “椛” is one of the ‘national characters’ (one of the few originally created in Japan), and since it became available for use in personal names in 2004, it has gradually come to be used in naming names because of its somewhat cute appearance due to the ‘flower’ in its character face.
The kanji “椛” has two meanings, “紅葉, maple” and “樺 (kaba)”.
The kanji “樺” was originally used to express “kaba (birch),” and the kanji “華” was changed to “花” with the same pronunciation, giving rise to the meaning “椛 = kaba.
Later, associating the character with the combination of “tree” and “flower,” it came to represent “momiji,” meaning “the way the leaves of a tree change like a flower.
Did you know that maple trees have flowers and fruits? I think it is natural that it has flowers and fruits because it is a plant. However, I have never actually seen what kind of flowers or fruits they have.
In fact, it is only recently that I have clearly recognized them. As for the “fruits,” I knew that seeds were produced because I sometimes saw “misho” (seedlings) growing in the bark chips or “graveled” open areas around the maple trees planted in my garden.
However, the “green maple” in early summer is also beautiful and has been used in haiku as a seasonal term for early summer called “Ao Kaede” or “Wakakaede”.
In this issue, I would like to introduce the surprisingly little-known “maple blossoms and berries” and the “legend of Yamabuki by Ota Doukan.
１．The “Flowers of the Maple Tree.”
From early April to early May, the young leaves of maple trees, which were initially fringed with red, gradually turn into beautiful bright yellow-green young leaves. As you approach, you will see many small red buds and “maple blossoms” with white stamens protruding from the small petals.
The flowers are not as showy as cherry blossoms or tulips, but their reserved, dense blooms have the profundity of alpine plants.
２．Maple Fruit
The “maple nuts” are called “winged fruits” with wings like bamboo dragonflies. They are beautiful with a reddish color. When the wind blows, they fall to the ground in the vicinity, dancing like bamboo dragonflies.
３．The Legend of Yamabuki” by ”Ota Doukan.”
Ota Dogan” (1432-1486), famous for having built Edo Castle, entered a nearby farmhouse to borrow a straw raincoat when he was a young man on a falconry trip when it suddenly began to rain.
Then a young girl came out and offered him a branch of wildflowers without saying a word.
He left in the rain, angrily saying, “I don’t want flowers.
However, when he told this story to his retainer that night, he was told that the yamabuki offered by the young girl was “a humble explanation about the fact that they were poor and did not have even a single straw raincoat in their thatched house in the mountains.
“Yamabuki blooms in both sevenfold and eightfold, but it is sad that not a single fruit is produced”( by Prince Kaneakira )
「七重八重花は咲けども山吹のみのひとつだになきぞ悲しき」（兼明親王）
Legend has it that he was so ashamed of his own illiteracy that he began to devote himself to the art of poetry on this day. This story is found in “Jyozan Kidan,” a collection of anecdotes about warlords written in the middle of the Edo period (1603-1867).
But is it really true that yamabuki does not produce fruit? If so, how does it grow? It is true that in “horticulture”, Yamabuki can be easily multiplied by “cuttings”, but what about in the natural world?
The correct answer is that the double-flowered yamabuki does not produce fruit, but the single-flowered yamabuki does. The single-petaled yamabuki has about five pistils and many stamens, but in the double-petaled yamabuki, all the stamens have turned into petals, so no pollen is produced and no fruit is produced.
And “sterile flowers” that do not produce fruit, such as Yaeyama-buki, can only be increased through “nutrient propagation” such as cuttings and clipping.
Some seed makers intentionally sell “sterile” varieties of plants for reasons such as “if they increase by seed, they will not be able to sell seeds and seedlings,” or “it would be troublesome if they are improved without permission.
Recently, there have been an increasing number of cases where people have bought good flowers but have been disappointed because they could not increase them because they were “sterile” flowers. Please be careful.