Moon, Snow, Blossom by Erica Hesketh & Laura Sampson
As the nights draw in amid the endless rummaging for the thick socks and scarves, Winter is a time of year that not just embodies the colder months of the year, but also brings with it a time of celebration and renewal. It is at these times that literature provides a long and venerated history; and there are few countries which provide such a visual narrative of the winter season as Japan, and poets and storytellers, Erica Hesketh & Laura Sampson, have compiled and reimagined a collection of vibrant folk tales in Moon, Snow, Blossom: Wintry Folk Tales From Across Japan.
Combining some of Japan’s folklore tales spanning the centuries, we are reassured of the authenticity that the cold months of Winter, a time when imagination is often servant to the bleakness of the season, but by imbibing aspects of fruitful plum trees and good deeds at the harshest of times, we are reintroduced to fruitfulness of new seasons, new beginnings, and a reminder that winter may be a proverbial death of the old year, but also represents the dawn of the new.
Although an anthology, Moon, Snow, Blossom is exactly what I expected to read. Having read books recapturing the travels of Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō previously, I was introduced to Japan’s vibrant style of storytelling, and even though reimagined for today’s reader and accompanied by art spanning the centuries, we can feel the crispness of the Japanese snow from opening the cover.
Although Moon, Snow, Blossom can most certainly be read from cover to cover, I do feel it’s more of a book to be read through the colder season, and it certainly feels that would be the ideal way to enjoy this book, allowing it to bring comfort to any reader warming over a mug of cocoa.
- Moon, Snow, Blossom: Wintry Folk Tales From Across Japan by Erica Hesketh & Laura Sampsonis out now, published by Elliott & Thompson (£16.99). To order a copy, go to eandtbooks.com
Founder and Editor of Pilgrim House and The Gothic Revival, currently researching Folklore and early Welsh Christianity and a student Counsellor. Tom’s other work on music, poetry, writing on autism along other writings and images can be found at https://tomasstanger.com