Photo/Illutration The Kawazu-zakura variety of cherry blossoms is at their best. A Japanese white-eye is also seen passing through the trees on the afternoon of Feb. 10 in Kawazu, Shizuoka Prefecture. (Photo by Shinnosuke Ito)

Sosei (844-910), a “waka” poet and Buddhist priest who was one of the Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry (Sanju-roku Kasen) of the Asuka, Nara and Heian periods (from 592 to 1185), penned a piece that may be paraphrased as: “The warbling of a nightingale is what I await most eagerly from the morning of New Year’s Day.”

People can’t wait for the arrival of warmer weather. They strain their ears, wanting to be the first to catch the faint footsteps and the soft breath of spring.

This year, however, spring has arrived so early that I am not quite sure what to make of it.

When I visited Tokyo’s Hamarikyu Gardens just the other day, ume flowering plum trees were already in full bloom and “mejiro” Japanese white-eyes were hopping from branch to branch.

In Tokyo, this year’s first ume blossoms were observed on Jan. 9. This was about one month earlier than back in the 1970s, when the flowers were said to usually arrive in February.

Changes are also being noticed at Izunuma and Uchinuma, a pair of marshes in Miyagi Prefecture, where geese and swans winter every year.

Normally, the birds start their northbound journey home around this time. But this year, most of the birds are said to have left already.

“I have been observing them for many years, but this is the first time this has happened, and I am surprised,” said Tetsuro Shimada of the Sanctuary Center of Izunuma-Uchinuma in Miyagi Prefecture.

Thanks to the mild weather, there is said to be little snow or ice this year in Akita Prefecture and other places where the birds make stopovers, Shimada noted.

They apparently knew they would not be lacking for food and shelter on their way home and so started taking off, one after another.

For Tokyo, the forecast for the middle of the week is that it will feel like mid-April. I don’t know if I should be happy or concerned.

I definitely do not want survivors of the Noto Peninsula earthquake and people in heavy snow areas to endure more frigid temperatures.

That said, however, I would still like winter to feel like--well, winter.

In “Makura no Soshi” (The Pillow Book), author Sei Shonagon (ca 966-1017 or 1025) extols the exquisiteness of early morning in winter.

I am sure the arrival of spring is all the more welcome after inhaling a lungful of icy morning air in winter.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 12

* * *

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.