Strolling from Palaceside Building through Kitanomaru Park. Around the rest area behind the Budokan, giant double gardenias bloomed in large white flowers, spreading sweet fragrance in a break in the rainy season. The blooms, like large white roses, stand out sharply against green leaves. The rainy season is clearing from southern Kyushu and moving north — summer is here.
The original giant double gardenia is a single-layer gardenia with six petals, distributed in Japan west of Kanto, China, Indochina and elsewhere; its color and fragrance have been cherished since the Asuka and Tenpyo eras. The fruit was also gathered for medicine — anti-inflammatory, decocted for fever relief, they say.
This gardenia was taken to the West and bred into a large, double-flowered horticultural variety — the giant double gardenia, written in kanji as giant double gardenia (大八重栀子). It is loved as a fragrant pure-white flower. Before orchids spread, it was mass-produced for corsages and the like. On July 4, U.S. Independence Day, women are said to have worn it in their hair — how about now? Poor vase life; corsages were replaced by orchids and such, they say.
Giant double gardenias trade large blooms for no fruit, so they are not used medicinally either. Meanwhile, did you know the fruit of fruit-bearing gardenias is shaped like go and shogi board legs? "No speaking!" — meaning only those playing may comment, they say.