sparrows and loquats

[asakiyume]

It's cold today; the heater is chugging along, making my living space warm, and I feel so grateful. Outside, in the nearby city, the sparrows by the bus station are fluffed up like little feathered pokéballs. They're very tame; people feed them crumbs and things, either by accident or on purpose.

Around here people say "on accident," to go with "on purpose." How about the other way? By accident or by purpose.

Safe from the cold are these loquat trees I grew from seeds that 88greenthumb sent me. I've never eaten the fruit of the loquat--have any of you?





Their leaves are generously large and a rich green color, and apparently you can make a tea out of them, but I won't, because my trees are up against enough difficulties, growing in pots and kept indoors for half the year, without having their leaves plucked.

In China, and then by extension in Japan, the tree is called pipa (biwa in Japanese), like the instrument--maybe because the fruit look like it?

a pipa (source)

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I wonder what its virtues as a wood are (or if it's just that it was common)

[slobbit.livejournal.com]

One of the reputed virtues is that it makes bruises that do not heal easily. I don't have any, so I can't make a weapon to check this with. Otherwise, a wood for weapons should have shock resilience, some resistance to excessive denting, and be moderate to somewhat dense. When it breaks, it should split apart without splintering and creating tiny projectiles. For most arts, Japanese white oak (shiro kashi, a live oak) fit the bill. Most likely, arts used what they could obtain easily in their natal area. Ryū lore has the foundation on the north coast, but in the late Edo it was centered in Wakayama and Saitama. I wonder if there is forestry information in English that describes the woods harvested in those areas (of course it exists in Japanese, and I'm sure Prof. Totman knows exactly where to find it!).

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I'm sure Prof. Totman knows exactly where to find it!

I'm sure you're right!

One of the reputed virtues is that it makes bruises that do not heal easily. --That is very ominous, and a cool detail... and something very amenable to being used in a story...