Soon after I first began working at the old folk house studio in Iga, Mie Prefecture, I planted a mukuge in the garden. This year, once again, it has come into bloom.
Pale purple petals, with a red color spreading softly from the center――. It looks a little like a hibiscus, and a little like a cotton flower⋯. There is a beauty in it that makes it hard to look away.
In neighboring Korea, mukuge is called “mugunghwa（무궁화）” and is designated as the national flower. Written in kanji as “無窮花,” the name carries the meaning of “a flower that blooms endlessly, again and again.” Its strong vitality, continuing to bloom for a long time, has long been loved as a symbol of Korea’s history, national character, prosperity, and unyielding spirit.
When you look at just one mukuge flower, it feels very fleeting. Some blossoms open in the morning and wither by evening. Yet in contrast to that transience, the tree as a whole keeps swelling with new buds and blooming again and again throughout the summer.
One flower blooms, one flower ends, and then the next one opens――.
At this moment in my life, the sight of this flower felt a little special.
Nothing is completed all at once. Most days, things do not go as I hope. Just when something seems to have bloomed, it soon begins to fade⋯. In that way, I have continued to add years to my life.
Even so, the mukuge quietly seemed to teach me something: it sends down roots, stretches out its branches, and prepares the next bud.
If you look at only one flower, it is a fleeting thing. But if you look at it as a tree, it is strong, and beautiful――.
It blooms again and again. It can bloom any number of times! Looking at the flowers in the garden today, that is what I found myself thinking.
I hope Kusakizome Kobo Hitotsuya can be like that, too.
Not one great flower that blooms only once, but something that blooms many times, within the seasons and within daily life!
That is enough. That is good!! On this morning, I felt a little encouraged by the mukuge flower.