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some trees are covered with slight purple wisteria flowers.
Wisteria is one of most popular indigenous plants in Japan. This is
a woody climbing vine and has a long life. When you go to
Japanese old temples, you sometimes see wisteria climbing up a
big old tree and when in bloom, it looks so fantastic! The vines
are very stout and often utilized for making various crafts or
ropes. Wisteria is called FUJI in Japanese, and since it was one of
the sacred plants, people used FUJI as a family name. In the
Heian Period (794-1185), the FUJIWARA (= wisteria field) family
controlled the Japanese Emperor and in fact, had a strong
influence all over Japan. After that, people got to use FUJI as a
family name and it became used in compounds like FUJIKI,
FUJIMOTO, FUJIKO, FUJITA etc. Later, people made arbors of
wisteria, called FUJI DANA (wisteria arbor), in order to enjoy the
blooming season. Here, you can enjoy the pendant clusters of
flowers under the arbor. There are old FUJIDANA in botanical
gardens and temples all over Japan. Furthermore, there is a
famous Japanese dance performance called FUJI MUSUME
(wisteria girl). Here, a girl in KIMONO (Japanese traditional
costume) gives a dance performance holding wisteria flowers, just
like a fairy of wisteria.
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The background of this page is a traditional pattern
for KIMONO (Japanese costume)