YAMAZAKURA

1992, 65" x 45"
Omoide Collection

Among typical Japanese flowers, Sakura is the most popular, the most cited in poetry, and perhaps the most respected.  Poets extol its beauty at every stage: budding, full bloom, even the decay… but most of all, they celebrate the falling petals caught up in gusts of wind.  One such beautiful moment is captured in the following Haiku by Takahama Kyoshi:

“In full bloom…

Not a single petal

on the ground!”