The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-04-12
C herTy-BloSSOm Season
Makes Japanese Gay

This is the happiest, gayest sea-
SON of the year in Japan, for it is
in April that the great cherry bios
som festivals are held. The sakura
blossoms, the sons and daughters
of Nippon call the radiant b1ush-red
blooms of the cherry, are passion
sate1y loved by the Japanese. The
j duct of the Flower Kingdom appeals
strongly to the poetic temperament
OF the Japanese. The blossom OF the
wild cherry was chosen as the en-
b4em of Japanese Rtghthood because
tsof the fact that it falls in its per-
fectfon before its purity has been
married.
The poet Moturi wrote truly when
he penned this line: IF any should
ask OF you the most fitting symbol
OF the spirit of a TRUE son of Nipp4n,
| point to a. wild cherry blossom re-
spaehdent in the SUM-
En- Toxic the great place of pill
grimage during the brief April fesu-
val of the charry-bIossom is Unno or
| Uyeno Park. Multitudes of the city s
foreigners gather there every after
noon during the cherry blossom sea-
| son to bask in the pink radiance and
breathe the fragrance of the ma
tionaI flower of Japan. It is a verat-
able dream of roseate splendor that
7
the hideousIy ugly statue of Buddha
and comes in sight Of the great grove
| of cherry trees. The ground is car
peted with the rosy tinted petals. and
the sky seems ttnged with their
pink.
II Is far from Toxic and the other
efxd1ized and naoderxized eenters OF
japan that the visitor GrOmethe Occi-
dent can enjoy the cherry blossom
festival at IT'S fullest The japanese
are the most hospftaible people in the
world and, unless the visitor is sus-
Epected of being a spy, he will receive
| the most cardfa1 welcome In the
villages off the beaten tourist track
the old customs connected with the
| April festival still prevail to far
| greater extent than in the cities.
Those who are constitutionaI1y un~
able to adapt themselves to foreign
ways had best stick to the beaten
| track however, for the Japanese
have many customs which are ex-
| treuaelys shocking to Occidental eyes
Ito the Inhabitants of the interior OF
Japan, and if they possess word
that stands for modesty, their dsf1n1-
ton is certainly vastly different from
that given by webster.
In the rernoter sections OF the
country-and this is true ITO g. lesser
| extent of the whole of Japan-the
people, women as well as men, thank
no more of exposing their entire bod
les to the public gaze than we do OF
displaying our hands and faces AT
the wayside inns of rural Japan GER
tain hour is set aside for the bath,
when all the men, women and emil
dren take their plunge in the same tub
and the same water. Before enter
ing the tub, however, it is the custom
for all toetake q sponge bath with soap
| Every vestige of soap is carefully Tip-
ed off before the bather enters the
tub, which is usually filed with wa
ter much hotter than the average
| American or European is accustomed
to. The japanese battle every day,
and If theA foreign guest fails to join
lin these ablutions he is set down as
| a very dirty barbarian. The idea
nis nude body thus publicly, or to
gaze UPON 4E1e naked bodies of others,
never enters the Japanese head. II
| the Euest insists upon privacy in bath
| ing, the natives will take # for grant
| ed that he or she is hldeouSly deform-
/ ed, for, they as, whatever other pos
| skbie reason could the barbarian have
for being ashamed to be seen?