Life as a Dream: Japan's Wisteria Tunnel
A hypnotizing vortex blooms in Tokyo’s Kawachi Fuji Garden; an irresistible gateway to the sublime.
There are sceneries in the world that, even when seen through photographs, arrest us for a moment to make us feel the consolation of art. The tunnel of Wisterias in the Kawachi Fuji Garden in the outskirts of Tokyo is, without a doubt, one of these landscapes.
Although Japan’s most representative flower is the sakura (cherry blossom), wisterias have a similar place in its range of enchantments. The Wisteria Tunnel is an installation that spreads over one hundred yards, and is one of the most popular places in the springtime—as if it was a cathartic passageway to the sweets of eroticism. Japanese wisteria (Wisteria Fabaceae) is a woody vine— which can also be grown as a tree— that only blooms from April through May. This tunnel is the festive materialization of this event.
The length of its inflorescence and its ample palette (which ranges from pale pinks to purple, white, lilac and even blue) creates a dreamy, flower-filled sky that seems to be designed to host the fiction that the world can provide. It is a masterpiece of Japanese landscaping: its texture is reminiscent of impressionist paintings and its flowers, when in bloom, get to reach their botanical epiphany.
Undoubtedly, walking in the shadow of the of these hanging flowers’ intricate beauty turns our imagination into an intimate part of reality, as if we had crossed the threshold of a marvelous world and found ourselves, suddenly, in the mild kingdom of dreams.
Are you ready to cross it?
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