wisteria in bloom

The Sakura season has gone
and now is the time for wisteria.



In the city centre off a busy street full of office buildings,
there’s a house covered with wisteria.
It has very sweet and pleasant smell.



It is said that the Japanese have thousands of family names
and one of the most common characters
in family names is fuji(藤) meaning wisteria,
the character originally comes from
the old aristocratic Fujiwara(藤原) clan.
It’s found in such names as
Satoh(佐藤), Saitoh(斉藤), Itoh(伊藤)
and shows they are descendant from the family.



The name Fujiwara literally means “wisteria field”
and their clan crest is wisteria.

Travelling in Japan you’ll come across the name of the clan
which once seized absolute power
and left their imprint throughout the country.