Photo/Illutration Ume blossoms bloom on a tree replanted at a park in Ome in western Tokyo in February 2017. All trees at the ume grove park had been cut down by spring 2014 to prevent viral infections. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

No author could have been more partial to flowers of ume Japanese apricots than Eiji Yoshikawa.

Yoshikawa (1892-1962) just loved the blossoms whether seeing them in someone’s garden across a back street or in an ikebana arrangement in a building corridor.

“I never am more intensely aware of peace and the smell of Japanese soil than when I see ume blossoming here and there in the early spring,” he wrote in an essay titled “Ume Chirahora” (Ume here and there).

Perhaps out of passion, he once made tempura from red and white flowers that were starting to bloom and savored their mild bitterness and fragrance.

At one time, Yoshikawa lived in a western suburb of Tokyo, the present-day city of Ome (literally, green ume).

He wrote “Shin Heike Monogatari” (The Heike Story), one of his masterpieces, while he was there.

True to its name, the neighborhood was known for its ume trees since before the Meiji Era (1868-1912).

But disaster struck in 2009 when a disease, which causes spotting on petals and leaves, was discovered for the first time in Japan.

To prevent viral infections, about 40,000 ume trees, ranging from those growing in groves to bonsai dwarf potted plants, had to be cut down or destroyed.

It was not until 2016 that regenerative planting finally started.

Yesterday, I visited Ome, where ume blossoms added vivid colors to the desolate winter landscape.

White and pink flowers, gracefully blooming on the tips of still young branches, had an air of reliability about them, so to speak.

Unlike “somei yoshino” cherry blossoms that bloom all at once over the tree, ume flowers enable us to enjoy them individually, one by one.

Perhaps these little beauties are trying their hardest to tell us of the approaching spring.

Yoshikawa penned this haiku: “Wild ume/ Looking like it wants to talk to visitors.”

Having had to drop out of elementary school because of poverty, Yoshikawa flitted from one job to another until he became recognized as an author in his 30s.

Perhaps because he was thoroughly familiar with the vicissitudes of life, Yoshikawa was said to become chagrined whenever a local farmer decided to cut down old ume trees that no longer produced fruit and the author would end up “adopting” them.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 25

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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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