Rose "Arabesque", Shinjuku Gyoen, Tokyo, Japan
A curious rose, this "Arabesque". Look with discernment and you will see how very different it is from most other roses. No single color or quality of color; no, not an ordinary rose. It must be exactly this whimsical and ornate quality that urged its designers - for want of a better word - to christen it as "Arabesque".
That's what it was that struck my mind when I took a closer look: a total lack of patterning; an ornate beauty of course, but verging even on the grotesque (as Edgar Allan Poe might have put it). Not unfittingly the title chosen by Claude Debussy (1862-1918) for his first two piano compositions (1888-1891) was "Arabesque", described by one critic in terms of 'unprepared modulations' .
Anyway... this was one of the beauties that I saw in the wonderful rose display in the Shinjuku Gyoen near Tokyo's Shinjuku Station, which must be one of the most complicated - yes! arabesque - places in the world. Even natives of Tokyo easily lose their way there, as I experienced when a colleague came to collect me from my hotel nearby.
PS Is anyone knowledgeable about uploading? I'm having trouble here in my hotel (in Kyoto) so I've had to reduce this to 480 instead of the usual 1024. To make it short: how come, and how do I overcome this? Thanks for your help.
Rose "Arabesque", Shinjuku Gyoen, Tokyo, Japan
A curious rose, this "Arabesque". Look with discernment and you will see how very different it is from most other roses. No single color or quality of color; no, not an ordinary rose. It must be exactly this whimsical and ornate quality that urged its designers - for want of a better word - to christen it as "Arabesque".
That's what it was that struck my mind when I took a closer look: a total lack of patterning; an ornate beauty of course, but verging even on the grotesque (as Edgar Allan Poe might have put it). Not unfittingly the title chosen by Claude Debussy (1862-1918) for his first two piano compositions (1888-1891) was "Arabesque", described by one critic in terms of 'unprepared modulations' .
Anyway... this was one of the beauties that I saw in the wonderful rose display in the Shinjuku Gyoen near Tokyo's Shinjuku Station, which must be one of the most complicated - yes! arabesque - places in the world. Even natives of Tokyo easily lose their way there, as I experienced when a colleague came to collect me from my hotel nearby.
PS Is anyone knowledgeable about uploading? I'm having trouble here in my hotel (in Kyoto) so I've had to reduce this to 480 instead of the usual 1024. To make it short: how come, and how do I overcome this? Thanks for your help.