This is the sight that was before me as I sat in on a bench in Hibiya park (H. - you may remember this from your visit here).I was very well prepared today - knowing the museum I was visiting was near this lovely park, and knowing too that the day was going to be fine, I brought a packed lunch with me and made the most of the sunshine.
If you look carefully at the picture you can some some very classical Japanese images. There's an orange carp (鯉 - koi), a white heron (鷺 - sagi) and a little turtle (亀 - kame).
I know that there's also a big turtle - it's clearly fake. The smaller one on the rock, though, is up for debate. I've been fooled before - when those little suckers sun themselves by the waterside they do take on a certain statue-like quality.
I say again though, I'm not an authority. For months now, I have been taking care of and watering a house plant that I'm starting to think could in fact be plastic!
If I were a truly cultured Japanese man, I would have written an elegant poem about this beautiful and fortuitous scence. But I'm not, so a blog entry will have to suffice.
I am cultured enough, however, to know that this scene pretty much respresents (and hopefully predicts for me) long life and happiness.
In Japanese, there is an expression 鶴亀 (tsurukame - crane and turtle). The purists among you will be shouting, 'But it was a heron not a crane!' Well, in answer I say, 'Same family - cut me some poetic slack.' As both creatures are said to enjoy particular longevity, the expression has come to mean ' I hope you have a long and happy life.' You'll often see the two depicted togther on folding creens, jewellery boxes, lacquer dishes... I guess really anything that would traditionally have been given as a gift at some celebration, especially at a wedding.
So to you , gentle reader, I say 'tsurukame' from the bottom of Tokyo's heart.
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