Murin-an Periodical
This is the information program of Murin-an Garden.
It provides information on Japanese gardens, invitations to events that help foster the garden and seasonal highlights.
The name of this periodical is Sara-Sara News.
What does “sara-sara” mean? In Japanese, this word is used to evoke a gentle rustle or murmuring sound in nature. We have adopted it from a passage in a poem by Yamagata Aritomo, Murin-an’s original owner. It reads
At the end of a water stream/That murmurs gently as it travels hidden beneath the shade of trees/I see a fish leap
We chose this publication’s title to reflect our hope that, like the ceaseless flow of the murmuring brook flowing around Murin-an, the encounters here will produce a current toward nurturing Japanese gardens for the future.
さらさら通信 2018-2019年 12-1月号
Gardener’s View
On winter mornings that freeze even one’s breath over, we begin cleaning Murin-an’s garden at 7:00 AM.
White frost falls upon the lawn at the garden’s center and gleams brightly under the sunrise. Once the frost falls, the moss may no longer be stepped upon. The frozen moss has formed a glass-like layer that can crumble irreparably. We perform the work that we can as we patiently wait for the frost to melt. One important job during the winter is fertilizing the trees, known in Japanese as kangoe, or winter fertilizing. We do this work in the hope that the garden’s trees will be able to withstand the hot summer to come. Underneath the light wheat color of a desolate winter lawn, the buds of the coming spring are beginning to stir. The days grow longer and the frozen over wash basin finally starts to melt. Now is the time to begin cleaning the moss once again.
