Volume 10　「自然の愛で方」それぞれ


Flowers and Gardens

Ann Slater: Hello everyone, and welcome to the March edition of Cultural Crossroads. This is Ann.

Michael Rhys: And this is Mike. Ann: And we're very glad to be with you again.
So, Mike, what is our topic for this month?

Michael: Hey, well, it's the March edition, which means that spring is on the way, and when you think about spring we think about flowers. And cherry blossoms, for example. So, today we're talking about, well, flowers and gardening and all things beautiful like that.

Ann: Well, it's the perfect time of year to do that. I think, in Japan, you know, one of the interesting things is that there are so many flowers. I mean, and of course, uh, you know, other countries have lots of flowers too. But in the sense of like, for example, flowering trees, I remember, noticing that when I first came to Japan. We don't have that many, as, as, back where I come from, as I notice here.

Michael: Right, and the same in the U.K. as well. That is something that's quite striking really when you first come here.

Ann: Yeah, yeah. One of the interesting things I think about, like, when people think about Japanese gardens, meaning Westerners . . .

Michael: Right. 

Ann: . . . they, they think of what? Austerity, this kind of Zen, austere, rock garden.

Michael: Right, rocks, sand gardens, very simple arrangements. And maybe bonsai, of course, is one of the typical images of Japan that we think of in the West.

Ann: And the aesthetic is so different. It's so different from, you know, so, for example, in the States, you know, people would not think that rocks made a garden.

Michael: Right.

Ann: Rocks might be part of the garden. Right, so you might have, you know, your flowers and then you'd put some rocks in there or some gravel or that kind of thing. But, it's a very different way of looking at things and I think also because in Japan it's, generally, it's very manicured, right? It's very perfect, the gardens. You know, all the, everything's trimmed and everything's, you know, shaped just so.

Michael: Right, right. 

Ann: According to, again, this kind of aesthetic.

Michael: There is this thought that the Japanese do have a special appreciation of nature. Whereas really it is that control that they seek to have. They want to manipulate and to arrange it in a very particular way. Almost creating an ideal nature. Whereas in England, now, people tend to be, I guess, a little, let the gardens run a little more natural. Although of course, you know i-if you look at the history of the English garden there was a time when English gardens were very formally arranged and laid out. In quite a different way from Japanese gardens, of course, but they had their own kind of aesthetic, which we don't see so much now.

Ann: And there is that, I mean, my idea, and please correct me if it's wrong, but is that the, there is that sort of traditional English garden where you just kind of let things run wild, right? Isn't that . . .?

Michael: Right, if, depending on obviously the size of the garden but, uh, yes, in a larger garden there will always be, sort of, an area where you can just let things grow a little bit wild. It attracts the birds, it'll attract the butterflies and the insects. It gives more of a natural environment and I find that very pleasing, myself. I tend not to like the rather sterile formalized gardens. I like things to grow a bit wilder. Also because it means there's a lot less gardening involved.

Ann: Yeah.