20th Mar 2013

Cherry blossom

As I got off the highway at Gaienmae blooming cherry blossoms were seen with a slightly sweet aroma that dyed everywhere with a pink color. I wondered how many times I was attracted by this scene and speculated over the meaning of my life in this year. Since years ago the sad and sorrowful countenance of cherry blossoms looked marvelously beautiful. I heard a voice within my heart that said that cherry blossoms were hearts of Japanese people since ancient times. I used to feel great sadness and loneliness as I saw people celebrating blooming cherry blossoms and I saw them through tearful eyes. In the year 2009 when I visited Kyoto I felt something different and a taxi driver told me that cherry blossoms represented Japan while peach flowers represented the main continent that coincided with what I had heard in China. At a historic site of Koguryo I asked a driver if cherry blossoms bloomed there and he replied that there was only peach flower. In reality since childhood I cared for peace flowers that seemed to tell the arrival of the spring season that I considered as my season. Therefore peach flowers always gave me a great joy and relief and I cherished them like my ancestors whose life had been shared with peach flowers.
I was guided to Kyoto to promote the peace and unity of people in East Asia and to my joy, cherry blossoms in Kyoto did not look sorrowful any longer and I started to realize their beauty. Then when I was guided to visit the Hokuriku area in Japan, at Amagasaki cape a big cherry tree embraced me with the aroma and warmth of my mother. I was happy and was about to call the name of my mother as if she were around. I envisioned that she was smiling at me and realized the warmth of my mother in a remote ancient era that I did not know at all. At the Legends of Kguryo rediscovered concert held in Kanazawa I narrated poems about this and I could not help shedding tears as they were poems of souls. The hearts of Japanese for cherry blossoms and their souls made me realize the nature of a great mother of Japan and I was filled with great joy.
This year’s cherry blossom looked very light and looked like a flower floating on the air and blooming in the vast universe. A lovely pink color poured into my life. I became greatly impressed as I realized that life in nature was truly gentle and friendly. I was glad to be able to see them again this year as well. Thank you very much.