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

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.
The purple of the wistaria is the Nip
ponese womans beloved color; they wear
it 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 hower
which loves the Nipponese sake; II you
set jar Of wine under the flower its
| sprays will grow longer from its desire
to reach the jar.
The wistaria at kameido, the temple
garden famous for it on the outskirts of
Toxic. owes its great size and beauty. it
Is believed, to the fact that Its roots are
nourished with the rice wine of the coun-
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
cate, lilac-colored blossom three or four
feet long, odorous of honey and buzzng
with bees.
5OO-Year-Old Vine.
Another famous wistaria of Nippon is to
be found at kashukabe, northeast of
Toxic. The vine is 500 years old and
grows over trellises covering a 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
taria, and there is q species called Noda
no Full. after the name Of the place.
The most famous wistaria there is named
chitose. or tree of thousand years. 1t Is
custom of somewhat modern origin to
make much of wistaria viewing, associat
ed with sake drinking and merrymaking;
for this purpose wistarias are arranged
to cover long walks. bridges or arbors in
tea and temple gardens.
The ten0er 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. If the seed of
the wistaria is baked its taste is likened
to that of chestnut. The bark is used
in Nippon for making clothes. ropes and
sandals; it's 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 antiquarans
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-
getiier with ropes made of rush suge or
perhaps with the tough shoots Of wistara
and matched with the grass called kaya.
l believe that the wisaria 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, Wistaria
Field. 1t was by the Emperor Tenji tsev-
| enth century, that Nakatomi no Kamata-
! ri was authorized to assume that family
name and created nai-daijin (private min
ister,. This family still proxpers keep
| ing in close touch with the imperial fam
| lily OF Nippon. The wistara is its coat
| or arms. Besides the Fujiwara family
there are many other families who take
! II as their hereditary crest.
j The NippOnese are sensitive and SYM
! bolic in their superstit1ons and rules gov
| erning the use of flowers. These super
stitions and rules are many and varied
| appropriate to the occasion would be
| considered extremely vulgar in Nippon;
| in fact, some rule. in itself a superstition.
F, would he applied In such way as to
| make the act a sacrilege. For the pur-
! pose of rejecting and prohibiting the use
| of certain flowers for special occasions
| of ceremony Congratulation there is a
|: long list of rules tone might call them
! traditions, superstitions) that one,
not even Nipponese iconoclast, would
4 i,ly cf or