Sycamores (suzukakenoki) planted along the sidewalk from Hitotsubashi to Jimbocho Crossing on Hakusan-dori east of Palaceside Building have finally begun spreading young leaves. Usually ball-shaped yellow-green flowers bloom in early April; this year flowering still seems ahead.
In autumn golf-ball-sized fruit hangs in profusion; the name comes from resemblance to the clusters on mountain ascetics' "suzukake" garments.
Also called platanus. Counted among the world's five great avenue trees with bodhi, elm, horse chestnut, and poplar, in Japan it joins ginkgo and willow as three major street trees—familiar along roads.
Platanus evokes cold seasons in songs like "Platanus leaves flutter on a winter road" (Hashida Norihiko and Schubert's "Wind") or "On your shoulder, platanus leaves flutter down" (The Launchers, "Midwinter Homeward").
Yet suzukakenoki is well known to older generations; Kaiji Ashida from Hawaii sang "Let us talk with friends on the path of suzukakenoki" in "Path of Suzukakenoki"—prewar melancholy without much sense of cold. Later jazz arrangements and Suzuki Shoji's clarinet made it familiar.
"Path of Suzukakenoki" continues "the town of the school we always walked to." The setting is Rikkyo University, but with Kyoritsu Women's University and many schools near Palaceside Building, suzukakenoki suits this district's street trees perfectly.
