Town of Starry Winds [The Hermit of Kamakura 50]

[The Hermit of Kamakura]
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Crape myrtle is a flower representative of August and blooms in houses all over Kamakura, but I feel that the bright red variety looks a bit too hot in the sweltering August heat of recent years.

The slightly purplish crape myrtle in my neighbor's garden has a cooling quality, and its complementary color combination against the ocher background of the Kyoto-style wall is magnificent. I am grateful for the thoughtfulness of this house, which also had pale blue-violet hibiscus blooming in a cool-looking way in July, bringing a sense of purity to the neighborhood.

Also, in the secluded valley where I live in Kamakura, flowers with colors that evoke a cool feeling, such as dayflowers, bellflowers, and gentians, bloom naturally along the roadside; perhaps it was the good custom of the residents who have cherished them since long ago.

Every year, small deep-purple dayflowers bloom by my gate, and they make the heat of going out feel a little more bearable.

One must maintain a beautiful way of walking
Alley of dayflowers, path of bellflowers
(Old work)

August in Kamakura is filled with beautiful events and festivals one after another, such as the Nagoshi no Oharae, the Bonbori Festival, the Sanetomo Festival, fireworks displays, the Obon festival, the lunar Tanabata, and the Star and Autumn festivals. The many evening cooling events that help us endure the long, sweltering heat of a town where sea breezes and star winds blow are the most lovable aspects of my town, which preserves many old customs.

However, the recent Bonbori Festival at Hachimangu is over-lit, and it is a shame that the precious picture lanterns end up looking dark.

I have tried my best to correct this in the photo, but the beauty of the faint light and the beauty of the darkness are ruined by the powerful electric lighting in the surroundings, and for those of us who know the mysterious Bonbori Festival of the past, the charm is greatly diminished.

The darkness of Kamakura is beautiful, the lantern festival (Self-composed)

Even so, a surprisingly large number of people come to see the many picture lanterns lined up along the approach in this heat. Many children and young women in yukata also visit, adding color to the atmosphere of cooling off.

On the other hand, the traditional Obon events are things done in each home, but the number of houses that light a gate fire has decreased significantly. Flower shops sell sets of plastic cucumber horses, eggplant cows, and taro stalks, and I sometimes think that this is fine for my home too.

I hear that welcoming and farewell fires for Obon are prohibited in city apartments, and I suppose this beautiful custom will gradually die out. It would be fine if there were new beautiful festivals to replace them, but I never hear of such things, and I wonder if the spiritual life of my future descendants will only become poorer.

The Obon lantern from the pre-war Showa era that I have at home had a light bulb socket from that time, but it is broken and cannot be used, and replacement parts do not fit well with current items. I use a candle instead, but unless it is a very large candle, it seems that the brightness is a little insufficient for the old colored glass.

Or perhaps it is the eyes of modern people who have become completely accustomed to artificial light that are at fault; there may be a significant difference in performance compared to the eyes of the ancients, who could fully immerse themselves in a dreamlike state with faint light.

This hermit, at least, would like to preserve such fading beauty within the lines of poetry.

The closer I get to the Obon light, the darker the background becomes (Self-composed)

The Shoryoe (service for the spirits) is also a rare opportunity to approach a faint, spiritual world. If you illuminate the surroundings brightly by relying on electricity, the spirits will likely not be able to approach.

I hope that you, too, will discover the beauty of the faint light illuminating the abyss and the moist, black darkness that gently envelops that world on the night of the Obon festival.

Now, I have composed a summer song based on a waka poem I wrote about Kamakura, so I would like to present it.

I incorporated the events of August in Kamakura into the lyrics and finished it as a kouta-style piece using the shamisen and shakuhachi.

"Town of Starry Winds"
(Lyrics/Arrangement: Tanshin Ousaburo)

Festival flutes heard in the distance behind the town,
Both the darkness and the lights are dreams of a summer night.
In the alleyways of cool breezes, the children's indigo yukata,
All become beautiful shadows.

Entrusting the heart of the dance to the wind, in the short night,
The lamplight sways on the fans held in both hands.
One-night flowers scatter across the village of cool stars,
The season after the dream that whitens at dawn.

Summer grasses rustle on the old path,
And the songs of old become the sound of the wind.

©️Tanshin Ousaburo

[The Hermit of Kamakura]
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