Wellness

FRAGRANCE GARDEN LABOR OF LOVE

Image: by Yoshiyuki Matsumoto. “Mr. Toshiyuki Kuroki.” Shintomi, Japan.

KUROKI

Labors of love begin with love. If you love something or someone enough, you can happily offer almost superhuman effort and strength to achieve the extraordinary.

Man and his blind wife site on a bench in front of the fragrant pink garden he planted for her.

Image: Courtesy of 朝日新聞社. “Mr. Toshiyuki and Mrs. Yasuko Kuroki.” Shintomi, Japan.

Mr. Kuroki, an elderly man who lived in Shintomi Town in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan, had a very big love for his wife. It gave him the inspiration, the will, and the power to create extraordinary beauty.

Man and his blind wife sit amidst fragrant pink flowers in garden he planted to bring her joy in Japan.

Image: by Yoshiyuki Matsumoto. “Mr. Toshiyuki and Yasuko Kuroki.” Shintomi, Japan.

The couple had married in 1956 and lived a modest life running a small dairy farm on their little plot of land. They worked hard managing 60 cows and 2 children. They saved a little bit over the years and tagged it for a future trip so they could see the rest of their native country.

Dog sits on a path in middle of fragrance garden, planted with pink flowers, in Japan.

Image: by Shintomi Machiyakuba. “Mr. Toshiyuki Kuroki’s Garden.” Shintomi, Japan.

When after 30 years of marriage, Mrs. Kuroki went blind, she lost her will to live. She became a recluse. Sad that she could no longer see, Mr. Kuroki spent the next 2 years of his life laboring to create an astonishing massive garden around their home, just so she could smell the flowers.

Image: by Jennifer Churchman. “Rose Moss Flower.”

Mr. Kuroki had discovered that shibazakura, or the moss phlox, a pink-colored flower, had an exceptionally sweet smell. So he chopped down a few trees and cleared the land where the couple’s dairy farm once operated, and he planted hundreds of thousands of these special blooms.

Traditional Japanese house with a fragrance garden of pink phlox.

Image: by Yoshiyuki Matsumoto. “Home of Mr. Toshiyuki and Mrs. Yasuko Kuroki.” Shintomi, Japan.

Mrs. Kuroki began to venture outside, lured by the fragrance. Her smile and her joie de vivre returned.

People admiring a massive fragrance garden of pink phlox flowers in Japan.

Image: Courtesy of Asahi 朝日新聞社. “Mr. Toshiyuki and Mrs. Yasuko Kuroki in Their Garden.” Shintomi, Japan.

Word began to spread about Mr. Kuroki’s labors of love and the magnificent garden he planted and visitors began to arrive to see it and hear the story directly.

People visit this pink garden as much for its amazing fragrance as for its beautiful color.

Image: Courtesy of 新富町役場. “Mr. Toshiyuki and Mrs. Yasuko Kuroki in Their Garden.” Shintomi, Japan.

And now, about 7,000 people from all over Japan come to visit the garden every day in springtime, during March and April, to witness Mr. Kuroki’s labor of love and smell the fruits of his labor.

Check out the 朝日新聞社 video of this beautiful place here. And for an even bigger moss flower carpet, see the pink fields that bloom each spring at the base of Mt. Fuji.

Snow capped Mount Fuji rises in the background with hot pink flower garden in foreground.

Image: by Danny Choo. “Mount Fuji.”

Read more about Beautiful Labors. And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Wellness, Impact, Nature/Science, Food, Arts/Design, and Travel, Daily Fix posts.

Pink phlox spread color and fragrance in garden landscape in Shintomi Japan.

Image: by Rkr21Sfmfr. “Mr. Toshiyuki Kuroki’s Garden.” Shintomi, Japan.

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Image: by Yoshiyuki Matsumoto. “Shibazakura (moss phlox).”