What is the meaning of the evening primrose flower?
This article introduces the meaning of the evening primrose flower and provides you with knowledge about the greenery and flowers of the evening primrose, with specific details as follows:
The evening primrose in literature
There are four flowers in Japan named with "face," namely morning face, day face, evening face, and night face. Morning face, day face, and night face belong to the same family of Convolvulaceae, while the evening face belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family.
The evening primrose is native to India and North Africa, a small white flower that often opens in the evening and wilts at dawn. The evening primrose is also called the gourd flower. It usually grows at the base of low walls, with slender branches and blooms silently. The flower language of the evening primrose is "unrequited love," "memories of the night," "sin," and "tempting person."
The evening primrose began to be cultivated in Japan during the Heian period. Both "The Pillow Book" and "The Tale of Genji" have stories about "evening primrose."
In "The Tale of Genji," there is a character named "Evening Face." The illustration in the book depicts the character of Evening Face together with the evening primrose flower.
The character Evening Face in "The Tale of Genji" is one of Genji's lovers, as well as the lover of the Head of the Center Army, and the mother of Ukon. She is a spiritual woman adored by Genji, innocent and gentle as water, meeting the prince because of the evening primrose flower. She died at the age of 19, which could be described as a fragile beauty. As Genji said, "This is a fragile flower," and indeed, Evening Face quietly bloomed with a fragile life.
In "The Tale of Genji's" "Evening Face," there are two tankas composed by a man and a woman, translated by the literary master Feng Zikai as follows: "Woman: The evening primrose with dew is beautiful, it seems that the person I miss has arrived. Man: The vast dusk separates us by the distance of a mountain, how do you know that I am the person you are waiting for?" The general meaning is: "Woman: The dew-covered gourd flower is particularly beautiful at dusk, I think the person I miss has come. Man: In the gathering dusk, I can only catch a distant glimpse, how do you know that I am the one you are waiting for?"
There is also a character named Evening Face in Japanese manga. Ume no Yuki夕颜 in the manga "Naruto" and its derivatives is a female character, a member of the Hidden Leaf Village's暗部, skilled in the Leaf Style swordsmanship.
Shirau Shoko is a Japanese essayist, antique collector, and Noh actor, known as "one of the ten most outstanding women in Japanese history," who twice won the "Yomiuri Literary Prize" for her outstanding essays. Shirau Shoko wrote a book titled "Evening Primrose," in which she writes: "I like evening primrose and cultivate it every year. By four o'clock in the afternoon, the evening primrose opens neatly, with buds appearing one after another, blooming from mid-August until the frost season. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the flowers subtly shine, creating an indescribable charm." She describes her eager anticipation for the evening primrose to bloom, from four to five, six, seven o'clock, not eating, not smoking, just staring at the evening primrose. In her pen, the evening primrose is an enchanting and mysterious flower.
In the hot summer nights, friends and family gather under the evening primrose arbor in the courtyard to chat and cool off, a beautiful scene of human affection that has been passed down from the Edo period and is often depicted in Edo period paintings.
Dried gourd is a traditional Japanese ingredient
The evening primrose seems to live in literature, and its connection with real life is its fruit – gourd shavings, also called dried gourd. Seisho Nakamikata once sharply commented on the evening primrose in "The Pillow Book," saying something like: "The evening primrose and the morning glory look similar, with an interesting posture, but the fruit of the evening primrose is rough." This sentence reveals the duality of the evening primrose, with the flower looking fragile and the fruit "average." It is said that in that era, the fruit of the evening primrose was very bitter and not yet eaten. Only after the evening primrose was cultivated did the taste of the fruit gradually become palatable to people.
Today, the "average-looking" dried gourd is widely consumed and has become a common ingredient in sushi. Dried gourd cooking is also a traditional Japanese dish, made with dried gourd, sake, mirin, sugar, etc. In the Edo period, dried gourd was a food for the aristocracy.
Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture, known for its abundant gourds, began planting evening primroses in the Edo period. In the ukiyo-e work "The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido" by the famous ukiyo-e artist Ukiyo-e Hiroshige, there is a depiction of a woman drying gourd shavings.
The Japanese began making edible dried gourds in the Edo period, and in the 20th century, Tochigi Prefecture became famous for its evening primroses, naturally, the gourd flowers and dried gourds are also well-known, accounting for more than 80% of Japan's dried gourd production. January 10th is Japan's Dried Gourd Day, established by Tochigi Prefecture. Every year on the fourth Saturday of January, Utsunomiya City in Tochigi Prefecture hosts a dried gourd festival, where visitors can taste dried gourds, participate in sushi-making, and attend food charity sales and other charity events.
Dried gourds have become a traditional vegetable in Japan. The traditional method is to tear the dried gourds by hand and expose them to sunlight for a long time, making them soft and delicate, easy to cook through, and with a lasting taste, making them a gift since ancient times. In addition to being used in sushi, dried gourds go well with a variety of vegetables, and are also popular in vinegared salads and mixed dishes. Seasoned dried gourds vacuum-packed become seasoned dried gourds.
The season for making dried gourds is from July to August, and farmers often start working as early as 5 a.m., cutting the dried gourds into three to four centimeters thick, previously using natural sunlight, now made in simple greenhouse plastic greenhouses.
Dried gourds are rich in dietary fiber and are nutritious, suitable for the elderly and pregnant women, and are considered a health food in Japan. (Huang Wenwei)
The above () introduces the meaning of the evening primrose flower and provides specific introduction for recognizing a new flower, the evening primrose, for netizens to refer to.