(Please scroll down for the English version.)
春に黄、秋に朱
やまいき市の朝市で季節の花束は秋の陽光を静かに浴びる。バケツの中で花束に雑じっているのは長い枝についた小さな朱色の実だ。毎週、お客様は「これはグミ？」と聞く。僕は「グミではない、サンシュユです。」と言っても、説得力があまりない。花の先生の力を借りるしかないと思い、高原の梶本靖子さんを訪ねた。
梶本さんは中学校一年生の時から生け花を稽古している。学校から帰ってきて、山に生け花の材料をよく取りに行った。大人になり、生け花を教えるようになったら、花を育てることにした。そのうち、サンシュユの花も育ててみた。春から咲くサンシュユの黄色い花を山でよく見たが、自分で育ててみたら、秋のサプライズがあった。「秋から実が成り出して、初めて分かった」と梶本さんは言った。熟した果実が中国で薬用にされているらしいが、梶本さんはそんなものを作らない。春に咲いた黄色い花を何本残したら、秋にその枝から小さな朱色の実が成る。そのおかげで、春でも秋でも、サンシュユの木から生け花の材料を取れる。
梶本さんは野菜も作っているが、サンシュユの方が簡単だ。「裏の草を刈って、ほっとくだけだ！」と梶本さんは笑った。「枝を何本切っても、毎年いっぱいになるね。今の株は私の背ぐらい」。サンシュユの枝が長くて、まっすぐで、高原の青空まで届けそうだ。鮮やかな朱色の実が賑やかだが、もう季節の終わり頃だ。春に緑色のつぼみから繊細な黄色い花が生まれる。「花を取る時が楽しいな、やっぱり。『わー、咲いてきて、嬉しい』や『わー、実が成った』の時」と梶本さんは言って、微笑んだ。梶本さんは毎年の春から様々な花をやまいき市の朝市に出している。お時間のある方、ぜひ見に来てください。
Yellow in Spring, Vermilion in Autumn
At the Yamaiki-ichi morning market, seasonal bouquets of flowers quietly take in the autumn sunshine. Mixed with the bouquets in the buckets are small, vermilion-colored fruits on long branches. Every week, customers ask, “Are these gumi berries?”. Even if I say, “They’re not gumi berries, they’re Japanese cornels,” it is not very convincing. I figured I needed the help of a flower teacher, and visited Yasuko Kajimoto in the Takahara district.
Ms. Kajimoto has practiced ikebana since her first year in junior high school. She would come home from school, and then go into the mountains to find flowers and material for ikebana. As she became an adult and started teaching ikebana, she decided to grow flowers herself. In due time, she tried growing Japanese cornel. She often saw its yellow flower blooming in the spring on the mountains, but when she tried growing it herself, she found a surprise in autumn. “These fruits started started growing in the autumn, it was the first time I’d heard of them,” she said. These “cornelian cherries” are used in Chinese medicine, but Ms. Kajimoto does not make anything like that. When she leaves some of the yellow flowers that have bloomed in the spring, small cherries grow on those branches in the autumn. Thanks to that, whether it is spring or autumn, she can get material for ikebana from the Japanese cornel.
Ms. Kajimoto also grows vegetables, but Japanese cornel is easier. “I just cut the grass around the back side, and leave it alone!” she laughed. “No matter how many branches I cut off, it’s full every year. Now, the trunk is about as tall as I am.” The branches of the Japanese cornel are long and straight, and seem like the might reach up to the blue sky in Takahara. The bright, vermilion-colored fruits lively, but it is just about the end of their season now. In the spring, fine yellow flowers will be born out of the green buds. “Picking the flowers is a lot of fun, of course. ‘Wow, look what’s bloomed!’ or ‘Wow, look at these fruits!’, times like that,” Ms. Kajimoto told me and smiled. Every year, Ms. Kajimoto gives a wide variety of flowers to Yamaiki-ichi. If you have time, please come see them.
