On April 8, Buddha’s birthday, we stopped by the nearby Senbon Shakado Temple between meetings, and the garden viewed from the main hall was radiant.

2,500 years ago, Prince Siddhartha Gautama of the Shakya clan was born in the Garden of Lumbini, located in present-day Nepal.

Because beautiful flowers were in bloom in the Garden of Lumbini, the Flower Festival celebrating his birth—which originated in India—became widely celebrated in China and later spread to Japan. Depending on the region and temple, the Flower Festival is known by various names, such as the Kanbutsu-e or the Kōtan-e .

Today, we are blessed with wonderful weather perfect for a birthday, and even the cherry blossoms beginning to fall in the garden of Senbon Shakado, as well as the trees with their new buds, are glowing.

According to legend, when the Buddha was born, a nine-headed dragon descended from the heavens and showered the earth with nectar;this is said to be the origin of the custom of pouring sweet tea over the Buddha on his birthday. At Senbon Shakado Temple, this ceremony is held on May 8.

Today’s clear blue sky stretched endlessly high, and as I gazed into the distance, I sensed the vastness of the universe and felt as though I were standing at its very edge.

It was a sensation akin to drifting through the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy depicted in Shiozawa’s work *Kuzuryu and Minamoto no Mitsunaka*, which was completed just before the Buddha’s birthday.