Kurokawa Kigyoku White Plum Blossoms and Yellow Birds
"What does the plum, first to bloom at the end of cold, tell us?"
📝ONGO's Reflection
This is white plum blossoms and a yellow bird painted on silk by the Japanese artist Kurokawa Kigyoku. A small bird nestles in the plum, which opens its flowers first, before the cold has even passed. Though it came from Japanese painting, the meaning the plum holds was shared across East Asia. I see, in this painting, the courage to bloom ahead of others. To open flowers first amid a cold that makes all shrink back holds a will that has overcome fear. Waiting for spring and calling spring forth first are different. The flower that blooms when it is coldest is the first to announce the spring that will come after.
🌱Apply It Today
When all shrink back, hold the courage to take the first step ahead.
