Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/75

 to engage a new woman-servant, such having been the ancient rule.

The first fifteen days of the second month are known as the time of the "insects' tremor" (ketchitsu); the second fifteen as the "spring equinox" (shumbun). It is supposed that the insects which have lain dormant throughout the winter feel the touch of spring and start in their sleep, preluding the bursting of the plum blossoms, which takes place from the 15th. Visits to the plum forests marks the beginning of the year's open-air fêtes. Appreciation of natural beauties is a sense that has attained great development in Japan. It is independent of social refinement or philosophical education. The blacksmith's apprentice and the scullery maid welcome the advent of the flower time as rapturously as do the dilettante and the noble dame. In the case of the plum there are features that appeal with special force to the sthetic instincts of the people. The gnarled, age-worn aspect of the gloomy tree contrasts so powerfully with the fresh softness of its pearl-like blossoms, and the absence of leaves so enhances the sanguine temerity of the fragile flowers, that the Japanese discover in this effort of nature a hundred allegories pointing the victory of hope over despair, the renewal of vigour among decay, the triumph of fortune over the blight of adversity. A library might be filled with the verselets that have been composed in