death and morning glories

unlike the nasturtium, however, morning glories are plentiful in both cultures, though in japan they are very likely to be found in poetry known as death haiku. along with the cicada, and dew in the grass, the morning glory appears as a reminder of both life's beauty and life's brevity.

the moon departs:
frost falls upon the
morning glory.

asagao ya
tsuki no wakare o
hana no hie

kato

(the first image is by ide gakusui; the second is margaret jordan patterson, third is katei taki, and last is g. lebart.)

a curious case

one thing that i have found
interesting and curious







is that while nasturtiums seem to be
fairly ubiquitous in art nouveau,










they don't seem to exist at all in
japan.

this is the only case of this i've found

so far.









(voysey is the first one, then G. Lebart, then oscar droege, and lastly, walter j. phillips.
i don't know who did the seed packet!)



(added on 1.9.2010: i have no idea what i was talking about! it seems to be saying that here was the only japanese example i could find, but there's no japanese example, and i still can't find one!)