I have a weeping cherry tree in our front yard and each spring it bursts onto strings
of pink delicate blossoms. People stop in the street to admire them. Looking through the
branches of the weeping cherry tree, poet Tanizaki Junichiro asked, “Are they lines of
crimson rain, or a weeping cherry tree, or just a dream? “ The wind eventually scatters the
petals in every direction so that “even a treeless yard is filled with cherry blossoms.” Six of
Tanizaki’s poems are set to music in the koto piece, “Miyako Wasure” by Tomiyama Seikin,
1960.