For it is a shrine dedicated to the prince Sugawara, the Kameido Tenjin is famous also for its ume blossoms. In "Meiji no omokage (Vestige of the Meiji)," Kinsho Outei has expressed his experience of viewing the ume blossoms with his mind traveling back to the Meiji period. In those days, Kameido was a place where you can only get by taking the trouble to cross rice fields. It is said that, once you get there, you would be served with a cup of hot water with a pickled ume petal in it, and a lot of people used to have a good time there as enjoying lunchboxes and drinking sake. I can imagine the delight in "hanging around for a whole day." Thinking "I want to experience such a feeling," though it is the season of wisterias, I walked to there to hang around.

I guess that people often think the same thing; there were quite many besides me taking a walk in the precincts. In front of the gate, the Funabashi-ya had a temporary booth set up to sell its famous kudzumochi, a pudding-like arrowroot cake. There also was another stall opening to sell mallets of luck. The area was totally in a festival mood. I crossed the Taiko Bridge in the front. It apparently was just rebuilt recently as its vermilion paint was shining greasily. Reflecting the tremor of water, it looked glossy. At the top of the bridge, I looked all around the precincts. The wisterias were in about half bloom. I heard that the wisteria festival would start on April 25th. (Some of the posters in the precincts said that it would be starting on April 20th though....) It is said that the best time to see the wisterias are from the end of April to the beginning of May in the average year, so 20th might have been too early even in such a warm year like this. As I was leaning against the Yatsu Bridge, I saw two old ladies beginning to talk. They seemed to be friends who just ran into each other in the precincts.

"I wonder what they did with the wisteria trellis that used to be here."

"Well, they rearranged the area, you know. I guess they pulled it out."

"Yes, the trees around here look pretty young. See, they are already in flower there."

Just as she said, some were already blooming beautifully. If so, those trees that have been replanted due to rebuilding of the bridge and construction of Shinji pond might be the only ones not flowering yet. I should trust the words of the people making a fixed point observation.

I went under the trellis with full-blown wisterias. The fresh scent came deep into my lung. Despite the pain in my chest I felt when taking a deep breath, I kept sucking in the air. It made me feel calm. As in the Meiji period, people might have been drinking sake and eating lunch under the wisterias. But today, unlike cherry-blossom viewing, not many people would have a spree in viewing wisterias, so I can enjoy the flowers quietly for as long as I like. There are white flowers, the ones mixed with light red, and the greenish ones. Each one of them has its own characteristic, and I never get tired of looking at them.

Walking down the bridge, and going close to the shrine, I found a turtle with water gushing out from its mouth. Because this is Kameido (kame=turtle), there is a turtle. It is simple, but interesting. I just remembered that there actually were lots of turtles besides this one. And, what I found at a bakery close by was a turtle-bread. There were three kinds; one with a set of a parent, child, and grandchild turtles, and one with a set of a child and grandchild turtles, and one that came only with a grandchild turtle.

With turtles and wisterias, I am very satisfied today.

Translated by Maiko Noda

Translated by Maiko Noda