Sakura Blossom Season
⊛ Sakura Blossom Season
⊛ cut and torn washi and chiyogami paper on wood panel
⊛ 9 x 6.2 in / 227 x 158 mm
⊛ private collection / commission
Delicacy and power are not two words which are often associated with each other. The blossoms of the cherry tree [桜の木 / sakura no ki] for example, bring to mind fragility and impermanence. Dragons, on the other hand, are all fire and claws, shimmering scales rippling over sinewy muscle, terrible in their magnificence.
Still, there is a subtle and quiet power to the blossom which, having come untethered from its branch, glides slowly on the wind, inevitably and inexorably to the dirt below. It is nature's gentlest way of showing us that all beauty must whither, all life must end, all things shall eventually fade.
The dragon's roar may be muffled by the whisper of a blossom touching earth.
detail: teeth, scales, and hair
sketch: the shape of a dragon
sketch: a cherry tree