East Wind Melts the Ice: A Memoir Through the Seasons

This book has been a great inspiration to me, and I started doing the same thing as Liza by tracking the periods of the year in my blog. By doing so it has made me more attentive to the seasons and the passing of the year, seeing the poetry in every moment (for instance I had never noticed before when exactly the plants began to put out new shoots in the spring), as well as being more present in my body as we feel the seasons change, with the corresponding effects on health, mood, etc. But this book is in many ways more than an almanac, and represents an in depth view of Japanese culture, interspersed with the author's time in California it is able to ground and tie these differences for a western audience (comparing different species of goose or oranges or the climate). Instead of being a dry and academic evaluation of the peculiarities of Japanese, it is a series of anecdotes of Liza's time in Japan, especially of her time as a Geisha which gives a humanisitic view of traditional Japan from the inside, that allows us to empathize with how others may view things differently. All in all a deeply sensitive description of how the seasons play such an integral part in Japanese culture in little things such as how the patterns of the kimono change with seasons, and how haiku contain certain seasonal words, and how the condiments and flowers change with the seasons for the tea ceremony. All this along with funny little anecdotes about the cold of Kyoto and toasing Mikan (japanese tangerines) on the radiator. It is also a gardener's treasure trove, with stories of numerous plants and trees and their symbolism and how some of them have been transplanted to her garden in California. Highly recommended.

I've always been a fan of Liza Dalby's work, and her historical novel Tale of Murasaki contained intriguing references to an ancient Chinese calendar that divided the year into 72 curiously-named seasons like "rainbows appear" and "tiger begins to roam". Finally, we get all 72 seasons, along with Dalby's poetic reflective essays on each. She covers a breadth of material, from her geisha days in Kyoto to her gardening adventures at her current Bay Area home. Her writing is calming and meditative but stimulates the imagination. I allowed myself to wallow in her world for hours at a time. Her reflections on Japanese and American culture are interesting, and she also has a lot of knowledge to share about the natural world. Read this book and be transported.

I have been looking for a written chronicle of the Asian Monthly Ordinances since I first read a reference to this calendar in Liza Dalby's other book 'The Tale Of Murasaki' (which I might add, is also an excellent read). As an artist whose work is greatly influenced by Asian art, I find the aesthetics of this Farmer's Almanac style calender very inspirational and Liza Dalby's explanation and interpretation of the individual calendar entries weaves a virtual tapestry of beautiful imagery and ceremony along with historical references that help to understand the Asian culture more thoroughly. When I first heard of this book, I ordered it from the Public Library but within the first few pages, realized that borrowing it would not do, I had to buy a copy to add to my own personal library of art and reference books.