"Let's have a chrysanthemum wine party at the royal court every year on the ninth day of the ninth month," suggested a high-ranking Japanese courtier.
"Great idea. Let's make it even more fun by dividing into two teams and composing poems about chrysanthemums." Pretty soon these party animals were creating miniature models to illustrate their poems.
The Japanese aristocrats were so busy embellishing the Chinese drinking party concept that nobody thought to revise the flower itself until the Edo period (1603-1868). That's when urban horticulture took off. Glamorous cultivars were entered in shows in Osaka, Kyoto, and Edo (Tokyo); people paid lots of money for the prize-winners.
In 1869 the Emperor Meiji designated the chrysanthemum as the imperial crest and started hosting annual garden parties to view chrysanthemums at the Detached Palace in Akasaka (a Tokyo neighborhood). The party was later moved to Shinjuku Gyoen and hosted by successive emperors until 1938.
Shinjuku Gyoen resurrected the tradition after World War II. What was once a one-day event for the emperor and the cream of society is now a two-week exhibition open to the public.
I don't much care for chrysanthemums - they remind me of funerals - but I thought it would be interesting to check out the Shinjuku Gyoen exhibition. That's where the Oakleaf Explorer is going on November 12 (I suspect this will be a singular, in every sense of the word, outing).
When I scheduled the Shinjuku Gyoen trip, I had no idea I'd be seeing another chrysanthemum show when I visited Sankeien Garden in Yokohama with Reiko (that's where these pictures were taken). And I also did not know I would be going back to Sankeien Garden on November 20 with the Shonan ladies "to experience a chrysanthemum show".
So. Get ready to look at an awful lot of mums.
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