Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-11
MEANING OF THE WISTAR|A
THE BLOSSOM JAPANESE CON-
SIDER THE IDEAL OF WOMEN.
Nipponese Ladies Consider a Deli
cate Purple the Most Beautiful
Color-Much Used in Dress.
From the Los Angeles Times.

The wistaria, the last floral beauty OF
the Nipponese spring, is classical. II
endeared itself and was sung already In
the Nara period eighth century,. and
the court ladies of kioto in the ninth
century, who made the Nipponese litera-
ture of the Heian era refined, pleasure
loving and of course feminine. found In
the wistaria their ideal of the Nipponese
women, a woman whose charm in tenn
permanent and beauty has been universal
ly praised.
TIE purple of the wistaria is the Nip
ponese woman's beloved color; they wear
II extensively. The woman's okoso zuken.
or hood. is largely of the wistaria pur-
pie; it suggests to the Nipponese mind
the intensity of heart and love. The
hokku poet kyoroku commented on the
wistaria as a flower of enthusiasm. In
Nippon the wistaria Is the only mower
which loves the Nipponese sake: II you
set jar of wine under the flower its
sprays will grow longer from It's desire
to reach the jar.
The wistaria at Kameido. the temple
garden famous for 1t on the outskirts OF
Toxic, owes its great size and beauty, II
is believed, to the fact that its roots are
try by visitors. who are accustomed to
empty their sake cups at its base. In
this temple garden are quaint rustic tea
houses that extend over queer shaped
ponds stocked with huge goldfish. When
the wistaria Is in bloom the water is
swept by vast feathery racemes of deli
cate, lilac-colored blossom three or four
feet long, odorous Of honey and buZzing
with bees.
5OO-Year-Old Vine.
Another famous wistaria Of Nippon is to
be found at kashukabe, northeast OF
Toxic. The vine is 800 years old and
grows over trellises covering space of
1900 feet, Its pendent clusters are more
than fifty inches long. Noda, of the
province OF Settsu. Is we'll known for wis
TARA. and there is species called Noda
no Full, after the name Of the place.
The most famous wistaria there is named
chitose or tree of a thousand years. 1t Is
a custom of somewhat modern origin to
make much of wstaria viewing, associat-
ed with sake drinking and errymaking
for this purpose wistarias are arranged
to cover long walks. bridges or arbors in
tea and temple gardens.
The tenaer leaves of the wiStaria are
good to eat. They are also used in place
of tea, and the flowers themselves are
used for food In China. II the seed of
the wistaria is baked its taste is likened
to that of a chestnut. The bark is used
In Nippon for making clothes. ropes and
sandals; its branches are used as cable
and are also fit for bridge making 1t is
said there is nothing more durable than
a wistaria bridge. Nipponese antiquarians
tell how in early times. before carpenter
tools had been invented, the dwellings of
the people in Nippon were constructed OF
young trees with bark on fastened to-
Sether with ropes made of rush suge or
perhaps with the tough shoots of wistaria
and matched with the grass called kaya.
I believe that the wistara Is true Nip
ponese flower although 1t bears in the
western countries such a name in honor
Of Caspar Wistar, the American physi-
clan.
Floral Symbolism.
One of the greatest Nipponese families
bears the name Fujiwara. or Wistaria
Field. 1t was by the Emperor Tenji (sev-
enth century, that Nakatomi no Kamata-
ri was authorized to assume that family
name and created nai-daijin (private min
ister, This family still prospers, keep
ing in close touch with the imperial fam
lily of Nippon. The wistaria Is its coat
or arms Besides the Fujiwara family
there are many ether families who take
il as their hereditary crest.
The Nipponese are sensitive and SYN
bolC in their superstitiOns and rules gov
erning the use Of flowers. These super
stitions and rules are many and varied
To use a flower out Of season or one in
appropriate to the occasion would be
considered extremely vulgar in Nippon
in fact some rule. in itself a superstition
would be applied in such a way as to
make the act a sacrileee. For the pur-
pose of rejecting and prohibiting the use
of certain flowers for special occasions
of ceremony or congratulation there Is q
long list of rules tone might call them
traditions, superstitions) that no one
not even a Nipponese iconoclast, would
think of disre2ardng.