Notes From The Tiger’s Cave

Ellen Terry Sniffed It, Bassho Wrote About It, The Samurai Saw It Drop And Shivered…

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The portrait of Ellen Terry by George Frederic Watts shows her smelling a camellia flower. Notice the pointed leaves, which are nothing like fig leaves at all!

The Japanese word for camellia is tsubaki. The oil from the pods such as the one I plucked from the tree in my student’s garden is used to make hair oil, and the results can be seen in this video, plucked from YouTube!

What else can be said about the Japanese camellia?

The Samurai are said to have disliked camellia flowers because when they fall from the bough they remind them of someone having his head cut off and it sent a shiver down their spines.

The image of falling is associated with the camellia in a haiku by the poet, Bassho, who himself served a Samurai master for a while:

Falling upon earth,

of the camellia

Actually, the camellia was cultivated by some Samurai, and used for decoration in the tea ceremony.

PRIZES

Since nobody got the answer right, it is up to me to ALLOCATE two second prizes to the contributions that I enjoyed most. Very difficult really, with all that chat about quinces, kumqwats and coconuts, but here goes:

Second Prize First Class goes to Charles Boustany for the hilarious suggestion that it might be “dekopon”, which Steve Meyer enjoyed so much on the PPG forum!

Second Prize Second Class goes to Dobson O’Corrical for his inventive imagination.

If you would like me to send you your prize please send me your address via the form on this page: http://grasp-the-nettle.com/contact.html

David Hurley

Internet Marketing Strategies