2019.05.02

This is the first blog post of Reiwa!

On May 1st, Reiwa New Year's Day, Temaricious Nishi-Ogikubo held the Reiwa Temari Beginner's Festival as an emergency project, and Matsumoto's Handiwork Shop Suguri held an exhibition of 400 temari items and a temari hands-on workshop.

It was like New Year's Eve as they enjoyed the last days of the Heisei era. I am grateful that the Heisei era ended peacefully, and I hope that the Reiwa era will also be a peaceful era without war.

Now, onto the main topic.

The June issue of Kateigaho is on sale from today. This month's theme is "hydrangea."

Hydrangea flowers have been around me since I was a child. In the small garden of my parents' house, there were four white hydrangeas. I loved making bouquets of flowers as big as my face and bringing them to school.

Even as an adult, I often saw hydrangeas in Europe. I learned for the first time that this flower is loved all over the world. In English, hydrangea Greek for vessel of water. As the name suggests, this flower loves water. Even though it's the rainy season, which people tend to dislike, hydrangeas look forward to the rain.

A stack of seven colorful balls

Fuyu Tomioka

Once again, Mr. Yamanishi's selection of poems was very wonderful.

``Nanasai'' refers to seven different colors, or in other words, a beautiful collection of colors, and ``Yohira'' is another name for hydrangea.

Balls are also included in the haiku, and clusters of hydrangeas blooming in beautiful colors like temari can easily be seen.

What a beautiful and fun haiku, where the numbers seven and four overlap.

I actually started making the temari before the haiku was chosen, but I was creating a pattern with one stroke, keeping in mind the four yohira of the hydrangea petals. I was surprised to see this phrase. I also learned the other name for Shiha from this haiku.

Hydrangea is said to be a symbol of family togetherness because of the way its four small calyxes come together. The hydrangea season will soon begin. I hope that Temaricious's various dyed plants will bloom like hydrangeas, and that Temaricious will become a place where all kinds of people can gather.

There's still a little Golden Week left. I hope you have a wonderful time.

Please look forward to next month's issue.