Wednesday, May 5, 2010

camellia day

A Belarus postcrosser sent this lovely postcard of camellias. She wrote that she got my address on March 28, which happens to be Camellia Day in Japan, hence this card. I'd forgotten all about Camellia Day, which I only really remember from living up in Iwate. A town on the Sanriku coast there had an annual camellia festival in March. I happen to love camellias. One of my favorite images of camellias came from a local train I used to take from Tsuruga to Obama, in Fukui prefecture. Somewhere on that run bamboo and camellia grew wild along the tracks. If the season were right, I would catch the wild camellias in bloom. The smoky green of the bamboo and vivid red of the blossoms were stunning. A painting of much the same scene was used on the cover of Echizen takeningyo by Fukui novelist Mizukami Tsutomu.