An essay reflecting on Kyoto’s autumn foliage, the recurring perfect weather at peak season, and the intuition that plants “are watching,” shaped by years spent at the Kyoto Prefectural Botanical Garden and by the careful cultivation practiced by temples, shrines, and gardeners.

Because it was the time when I spent three hundred days a year at the Kyoto Prefectural Botanical Garden, when I read the review of this book in the newspaper
2016-12-05
As already stated, Kyoto’s autumn foliage this year followed its usual pattern.
However, this year I repeatedly thought the following.
A renowned botanist wrote a book asserting that “plants are watching” at the very time when I had fully recovered from a serious illness, finished seven months of hospitalization, and was spending three hundred days a year at the Kyoto Prefectural Botanical Garden, and so when I read the review of this book in the newspaper, I felt that it precisely captured my own thoughts.
The usual pattern of autumn foliage is that famous sites reach their peak on November 17, 21, and 27, and for some reason, these days are very often blessed with the calmest and most perfect clear weather imaginable.
Every year, I always said to my close friend who accompanied me.
In the past, this was a gift from the gods for all the good men and women from across Japan who visited Kyoto on holidays.
In recent years, it has been a gift from the gods for all the good men and women from all over the world who visit Kyoto.
This year, I found myself strongly thinking the following.
Is it not that plants themselves are bringing their autumn foliage to its peak on days of calm, cloudless blue skies that are absolutely necessary for appreciating the autumn leaves.
It goes without saying that Kyoto’s autumn foliage is overwhelmingly the finest in the world, but the temples and shrines that serve as famous sites in various places provide extraordinary care to their plants.
In other words, many people gather to view the finest autumn foliage of the plants.
The temples and shrines, which are the owners of the plants, unfailingly provide them with careful cultivation.
Even without this, Kyoto’s soil is extraordinarily rich in nutrients, and the plants receive incomparable care from some of Japan’s finest gardeners, allowing them to live lives that could be described as eternal.
Therefore, they know that about seven days of the finest clear weather will arrive from mid-November to early December, and in accordance with those days, each famous site reaches its peak in turn.