The cherry blossoms are over, at least in this area, but now it's time for the wisteria to shine! These are also quite beloved by the Japanese. You can find areas with wisteria in nearly every city. Some home gardens also have them. They are lovely flowers.

Called fuji (藤) in Japanese, they are beloved flower. Not quite as beloved as cherry blossoms, but still pretty high up there. They are usually purple, as you see in these photos, but sometimes white. They do some in pink and blue too, but those are less common. The predominate color around here as far as I've ever seen is purple or white.

The most famous and best place to see the wisteria in Japan is up in Ashikaga, Tochigi. They have some pink and blue ones there. I've never seen in person, though. Going there is on my list.

The flowers have a sweet smell that attracts big bumblebees which are always buzzing around. There are enough of the bees that there is a constant buzz in the area. Even knowing the bees aren't going to hurt us, it is slightly unnerving seeing so many of them up there flying around.

The Japanese variety of wisteria is unique in that the trees grow very long stems, up to 30 meters. You can see in these photos how one tree is producing all these flowers. It's pretty amazing. The trees, by the way, can get pretty old, as maybe you can guess looking at the tree in these photos. There is a tree in Kasukabe Saitama that is over 1200 years-old.

This is actually a fairly small wisteria area. Only two trees and not very large ones. Many are much bigger. There is a part in Tsushima, near Nagoya, that is huge. I posted photos from there a few years ago (if I find that post, I'll replace this with a link later). I really need to go again sometime to take more.

In this area the flowers are associated with Golden Week because they are usually in full bloom around the same time. Golden week is a series of holidays that basically make the entire week a long holiday for much of the country. I'll do a post about that sometime in the next few days.

Anyway, beautiful flowers. Enjoy!

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.