Plum Flower

ink and color on Japanese Washi 2001

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Some of us still fight against the progress tall buildings bring: link to yellow campaign

On a Tokyo back street a few blocks from my house is a small human figure carved on a stone.  It is a jizo, a god imported from India, via China and mixed with the local gods along the way.  It is believed to protect travelers and children.

There are fresh flowers in front of it every day.  Behind it is a pomegranate tree and a red coke-a-cola machine.

There are still many street jizos in this part of town.  This one has writing on it ? a date and a name, "Plum Blossom."  It is her name.  The death name of a child that died in the early spring.  Plum blossom only fits in the early spring.  The date says she died in the Edo Era, about the time Fuji last erupted.

No one here knows that girl, or any of the family that came after her.  But they still keep fresh flowers in front of the stone.  They keep it clean.  They keep it in place.

Less then two blocks from my house in the other direction is a new building going up.  It is a very large building.  It is not yet finished but it already blocks out the sky.  When they were digging the hole to start it they uncovered five human graves, probably from the Edo Era.  They could have been Plumb Blossom’s parents.  But you will not find any flowers for them  There will be no memorial stones.  When the building is done there will be nothing to mark or mention the dead that had to be dispossessed to build it.

This is the new Japan.  This is business.  And if you don't like it you can get out of the way.