Photo/Illutration "Hagi" bush clover flowers in bloom in Takamatsu in September 2018 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Standing tall and proud, "higanbana" (red spider lilies) look as if they expect us to admire their graceful posture, while I can imagine "kinmokusei" (fragrant olive flowers) inviting us to enjoy their perfume.

But the flowers of "hagi" (Japanese bush clover) do neither. They quietly announce the arrival of autumn with modesty.

Back in the Nara Period (710-784), however, people apparently could not take their eyes off them.

The most written-about plant in "Manyoshu" (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves), the hagi was the subject of more than 140 poems in this oldest extant collection of Japanese verse compiled in late Nara Period.

An ebullient piece by an anonymous author goes to the effect, "The autumn breeze has become cooler/ Let's ride horses together in the fields to admire hagi."

"Hanami" today means "cherry blossom viewing." But during the Nara Period, the word implied viewing hagi or "ume" (Japanese apricot) flowers.

People back then admired blooming hagi, picked the flowers and stuck them in their hair, according to botanist Hiroshi Yuasa, the author of "Shokubutsu Goyomi" (Plant calendar).

A poem, presumably penned by a woman, goes to this effect: "Moonlight reveals dew drops on a floral hair ornament worn by my beloved." I wonder if this person was her husband or her lover.

There is a place in my neighborhood where hagi flowers grow in clusters. As I gazed at them, I tried to imagine myself as someone from the Nara Period.

Upon closer observation, I thought these flowers could be non-native, but never mind. They were reddish purple, small and delicate.

When autumn comes, it is delightful to see all sorts of flowers, all the more so because there are only few flowers that bloom in summer.

The heat is probably too brutal for plants.

And for us humans, too, this past summer was rendered taxing by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

I wonder if we can relax a bit this September and October.

A kind of sweet rice cake that is offered to our ancestors during the "higan" autumn Buddhist holiday season is called "ohagi." The name is said to derive from the fact that the "azuki" red beans, which are made into a sweet paste, are shaped like hagi flowers.

This explanation proves the timelessness of the love people have had for these flowers.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 18

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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