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White Coral
           
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White Coral


 
        

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The sky was deep blue and endlessly clear in the Izu Peninsula.
All the way from Shuzenji to Doi Onsen the car ran smoothly
at a pleasant speed without anything in the opposite lane.

About half way, the road widely curved to the left, the driver of
our limousine taxi stopped the carat the outer curve to take
a rest

It was on April 18, 1968; 22 years ago, during our short
honeymoon trip of 2 nights and 3 days With little money

At the edge of the cape, a huge black pine rises high, and the
scene of a sacred figure of white porcelain, Mt. Fuji Is just in
front of our eyes filling our sight.
To the left, the ocean expands widely the straight horizontal
line of dark blue splits the sky beneath our eyes
Deeply below our feet, White billows are broken against the
precipitous rocks. "What a magnificent view!"

Near this place, there was a street vendor, an aged woman
selling various corals. We bought from her a good sized white
one of about a foot diameter wearing deeply waved folds.

In the beginning, it was placed on the shelf in our entrance
Some time afte,rit was moved onto the book shelf in my study
or onto the side table in our living room.
But for some period, it was in the water of a glass tank
together with small fish.
Most recently, it has been on the pedestal of an old fashioned
chair in the corner of our living room


One day, some months ago, with a bang, the chair fell down,
and the coral rolled close to my feet
Fortunately I found that it was only damaged slightly
In such case, my daughter knows my shouting in a big voice, so
she said with a shocked look
"Oh! I made a mistake" watching my face
"It's okay, no problem, the place was wrong. I will change it later"
I said gently, then I told her to put it back as it was and put the
broken pieces into the water tank in the entrance

An attachment to an object exceeding more than 20 years
seems to fade over time, to become a part of my body of no
importance, like a member  of one's family, there, untouched,
without any particular care But this incident moved me to
clean the smudged surface of the coral  untouched for many
years After washing it, I put the wet coral on the table in my
living room and looked at it intently sitting on the chair

The surprisingly beautiful transparent white light!
The deeply engraved intricate form of waves!
The complicated light and shadow!

This made me recall the scenes of 22 years and 2 months ago
At the time of our unexpected meeting with this coral, and
I just could not help shivering from a deep impression of
The result of the time accumulated by
The unlimited number of lives and deaths of corals
Exceeding millions or billions of years