MAPLE VIEWING FEST 紅葉狩り (Momijigari) coming this Sunday

by aleks

SJG • 10/18/16 - Peaceful shaded path behind the tea house garden

Maple Viewing Fest is rescheduled from the stormy last weekend to coming Sunday 11/23 from 10am to 5pm,  with special tours and attractions for visitors.  The garden looks truly splendid now, not just on Sunday, as the trees will continue to delight well past Momijigari celebrations.  Seattle Japanese Garden is a place to experience the fall's fleeting exquisiteness well into November,  when even the stubbornly slow-to-turn maples like shishigasira will finally acknowledge the season's change and all the ginkgo leaves will cover the ground like a golden snow.

SJG • 10/18/16 - A view from the west path  onto the sunny east path

SJG • 10/19/16 - Follow the stream 

Below is a link to a beautiful article just written by one of our guides, Corinne Kennedy for the 'official' SJG blog (this one being the 'community' blog).  She titled it  'Beyond Beauty: The Ephemeral Delights of Autumn':

Autumn is a beautiful time in Japan. Its mild, sunny weather, with colder nights, brings relief from the heat and humidity of summer. Maples and many other plants bring beautiful leaf colors, and some plants display late-appearing flowers or attractive berries. Our Seattle Japanese Garden manifests all of these aspects of autumn beauty. [...]

Nature, seasonal changes, and “insight into the truth of human existence” (Paul Varley, ibid.) are magically captured in the haiku form of poetry. Developed in 17th century Japan, it consists of three lines (5 syllables, 7 syllables, and finally 5 syllables). Here is a translation of an autumn haiku by the great poet Matsuo Basho (1644-94):

so very precious
and do they tint my tears? – the
fall of autumn leaves  [...]

The entire Corinne's article here...

SJG • 10/19/16 - A closer look at the loveliness of red-tipped maple leaves

SJG • 10/18/16 - Yellow flames of ginkgoes reflected in pond