第48回 全国大会結果

大学の部 2位
中山 真珠(神戸市外国語大学)

Scenery from Thousand Years Ago

 Since last spring, as these cherry blossoms have missed you, they come back and bloom again just to greet you.
 This is one of my most favorite poems from Man'yoshu, the oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry compiled over thousand years ago. It often takes place in ancient capital of Nara. I have been living in Nara Pref. for about 9 years and I am obsessed with its untouched natural beauty just like the scenery from Man’yoshu. Whenever I read this poem, I close my eyes and visualize the fabulous view of Mt. Yoshino, colored with 30,000 of hazy pink wild cherries blooming over valley to the to top. These cherry blossoms have moved people's hearts for so many years and I am sure that it will continue to the future generations.
 Every year, a large number of tourists come to Yoshino to enjoy the beauty of the cherry blossoms. Unfortunately, I couldn't visit Mt. Yoshino this year because of my busy schedule. Later on, I saw some pictures of cherry blossoms in Mt. Yoshino that my friend posted on Instagram. So I told him how much I envy him. He said, "Wow, that's pity. You shouldn't have missed it. Cherry blossoms this year were so much different than past years." "What do you mean?", I said. He said "All of the trees bloomed at the same time! It's every photographer's dream comes true!" Indeed, the picture looked fantastic as if it's the heaven, but on second thought, I thought something was wrong. I stopped daydreaming and started to research about the cause of this odd phenomenon because I knew that there are some time lags of flowering in Mt. Yoshino depending on height, species, weather, conditions and so many reasons. This has never happened in the past that I know. I couldn't find any specific answer for this, but I found many articles about too early blooming of cherry blossoms in several places because of unseasonal weather and climate change.
 While doing my research, I found an article that surprised me even more. The article said that the number of cherry trees in Mt. Yoshino are decreasing. It was an article about the research done by Kyoto University in 2011. According to their report, 102 cherry trees per hectare have withered and died in 20 years until 2009. The research group has pointed out that one of the biggest causes of the rapid death of cherry trees is the garbage left on the ground. But why garbage? Because the garbage helps the growth of parasitic mushrooms called "Naratake" or "Honey fungus" that live on trees. The research group reported that about 45% of dead cherry trees were infested by the honey funguses and there were many garbage thrown away such as cans, bottles, blue tarps and so on. In Japan, there's a custom called "Ohanami" to socialize, drink and chat with family and friends under the cherry trees. And often after Ohanami, there are many garbage thrown away in the park, mountain, and possibly these garbage in Mt. Yoshino are thrown away by one of those selfish people. Why can they destroy the nature by their selfish act while visiting there in order to admire the beauty of the flower? The reason should be the lacking awareness about how big the damage our behavior does on. Most of people don't believe that throwing away a can can cause environmental issues, but in fact, the pile of a can makes severe problems like the case in Yoshino. Then, what can we do to avoid damaging the environment? Needless to say, to have keen sense against nature is very important. We should always stay active to get information about what is happening to the environment instead of being ignorant. Once you know that throwing garbage in the mountain is harmful to the plants, next time you can be more careful when you go there. We can't change the past, but if we all become a little more braver to make a change in our daily lives, I'm sure that we can change our future. As former American First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt said, "the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dream." I believe in my dream that people in thousand years later still can gather under the beautiful cherry trees in Mt. Yoshino