Page:Japanese Gardens (Taylor).djvu/330

224 day the swaying, gliding walk of a graceful woman is likened to the balanced, rhythmic poise of the Lotus on its stalk.

Another plant which, like the Lotus, is associated with religious ideas is the Hemp. As the ‘most precious of the productions of the soil’ it was, in old days, presented as an offering to the gods in the Shinto temples, and it was also used in the ceremony of purification. In modern times paper has taken the place of the precious material, and so the idea of the ceremony is lost. Again, the priests, in offering gifts to the gods at the altar, tied up their long ceremonial sleeves with hempen cords, or the fibre of a creeping plant. Nowadays the serving-maids fasten back their sleeves with ribbons in the same way, and the act, now one for convenience only, has lost its former standing as a token of service and devotion.

The Plum blossom (Ume no hana) is masculine, but it typifies spiritual strength and beauty. If we translate this into courage, it sounds like a more manly characteristic. Of all the flowers of this flowery land it is the one most often referred to in poetry, one might well say the best loved. With its delicate petals, white as snowflakes, rosy as a child’s cheeks, deep red as a woman’s mouth, it seemed the last flower to place as the foremost of the ‘Four Floral Gentlemen,’ to liken to the sturdy qualities of a man, but as I looked longer I saw the subtle comparison.