Song: “Never Let Me Down Again” by Depeche Mode

An alternate music video, similar to the original, would be done in sepia, with two guys in jeans and jean jackets and an old car. There would be one scene of them lying in a field of grass watching the clouds float above them, the shadows falling on the earth. The original video, in black and white, also features rolling fields and lying down, facing the sky, in tall grass.

The Flower Dies; its Beauty is Forever

“Mono aware” is translated as the “pathos of things.” The cherry blossom is beautiful but exists for a relatively short period of time. Traditionally, the Japanese participate in “hanami,” or cherry-blossom viewing parties.

One such event that synchronizes with the appearance of the cherry blossoms, each spring, is the Kuzu Genjin Cherry Blossom Jubilee. The celebration takes place in Kuzu, Tochigi, “the Oldest Town in Japan,” located on the Kantō Plain. The town is now incorporated into the city of Sano.

Kuzu is also the name of an ancient people in Japan, who may be the origin of the name of the kudzu plant, or Japanese arrowroot, whose roots and starch they harvested. However, the Kuzu are from a different prefecture.

Kuzu Genjin is Japan’s Lucy, the oldest human remains found in Japan – long before the Jōmon period, with its Dogū (distinctive clay statues) and cord-patterned pottery, the oldest such craft in East Asia, and the world.

The essence of the “Sakura,” or the cherry blossom, is the eternity encapsulated in a moment.

See Also:
Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival by David Pilling

Learning to Bow: An American Teacher in a Japanese School by Bruce Feiler