Photo/Illutration Visitors enjoy the autumn foliage at Enkoji temple in Kyoto's Sakyo Ward in November 2021. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

On my recent trip to Kyoto to admire the autumn season of the ancient capital, I visited Enkoji temple, a site famously adorned with a spectacular tapestry of fall foliage in the northern part of the city.

Visitors are led from a “kare-sansui” dry landscape garden through an inner gate and into the study hall. As I knelt in the dimly lit room, the sunlit “Jyugyu no niwa” (Ten oxen garden) unfolded like a scroll painting before me.

Vivid greenery mixed with delicately transitioning hues of red and yellow. For someone witnessing this season here for the first time, the beauty was overwhelmingly exquisite. Against the backdrop of this layered symphony of colors, the silhouettes of absorbed onlookers contrasted starkly, creating beauty in the play of light and shadow.

According to locals, due to the prolonged summer heat, the area’s appearance was slightly different from usual years.

“Normally, these trees would be fully in autumnal colors by now, but this year, the transition seems to be delayed,” one remarked.

Some leaves fall before reaching their full color, the local said, their expression tinged with regret. Yet, the beauty of nature also dwells in the fallen leaves scattered over a carpet of moss.

“The Tale of the Heike,” a historical epic chronicling the rise and fall of the Taira clan (Heike) during the late 12th century, contains this intriguing episode.

In the imperial court, courtiers gathered autumn leaves that had fallen to the ground after being swept up in the wind and fed them to the fire heating their sake.

One might expect the emperor to scold them for their lack of aesthetic appreciation, yet Emperor Takakura (1161-1181) quoted an ancient Chinese poem by Bai Juyi (772-846) saying, “In the woods, warming wine over burning autumn leaves, I pour and savor the ambiance of autumn,” commending them for their poetic sentiment.

Beautiful on the branches, mourned when fallen and turned into poetry when burnt--the charm of the autumn leaves is layered and multifarious. Their multifaceted allure has captured people’s imaginations since ancient times.

In areas from the east Japanese Kanto region westward, the peak of autumn foliage is still to come.

“Would I end up without seeing tomorrow’s color of the autumn leaves, whose hues are even more beautiful today than yesterday?” mused Egyo Hoshi, a Buddhist monk and poet in the ancient Heian Period (794-1185).

Knowing the deepening and intensifying hues were yet to come, I had no choice but to reluctantly begin my journey home, sharing the poet’s sentiments.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 19

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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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