Toboku : PhotoStory

A monk from the eastern provinces is viewing early spring plum blossoms at Tōboku-in Temple in Kyoto. A woman’s voice calls out.

The woman tells the monk that the plum tree was planted here by the poet Lady Izumi-shikibu.

After exchanging more words with the monk, the woman is hidden by the red glow of sunset in the plum tree’s shadows and then vanishes.

As the monk recites the Lotus Sutra in the dead of night, the ghost of Lady Izumi-shikibu appears before him.

It is the figure of one who has reached enlightenment and become a Bodhisattva of singing and dancing thanks to the merit of waka Japanese poetry.

The color of the plum blossoms cannot be seen in the spring night.

But their aromatic fragrance cannot be hidden.

She misses the days long ago when she was familiar with the color and scent of love.