Wisteria (藤) at Kasuga Taisha (春日大社), A World Heritage Site, Nara!
Here’s an exciting piece of fuji I found on the blog “Japanesque Accents”: “By the Heian Era (794–1192), wisteria viewing parties also became popular largely because wisteria was the symbol of the ruling Fujiwara clan. Fujiwara no Shoshi (who became empress to Emperor Ichijo in 1000) was nicknamed “Fujitsubo” because of the wisteria in her courtyard. (Wisteria was frequently planted in the inner palace where the emperor’s consorts and ladies-in-waiting lived.) In The Tale of Genji, Genji’s first and lifelong love was named Fujitsubo by author Lady Murasaki, lady-in-waiting to the real Lady Fujitsubo.
A Kabuki dance called “Fuji Musume” (Wisteria Maiden) is thought to have originated from one of the famous art paintings sold at Otsu, a stop on the old Tokaido Road from Tokyo to Kyoto. When the dance begins, a young maiden wearing an ornate, long-sleeved kimono decorated with wisteria steps out of a painting and tries to attract the attention of a would-be lover. Her efforts, however, go unnoticed, and in the last scene of the dance, she returns heartbroken to her painting. The Wisteria Maiden holding a branch of wisteria blossoms often appears in paintings.
Historically, the sight of the purple wisteria has always comforted followers of Buddhism because it was believed that Amida Buddha would descend on a purple cloud to guide them to the Western Paradise. One sect of Buddhism uses wisteria on its crest.”
