Spring for me comes with the sea breeze. The smell of the sea tells me that the seasons are changing. I was born in a seaside town on the Sea of Japan. In the Nara period (710-794), Ōtomo no Yakamochi, a poet, was appointed as the governor of Ecchu Province and composed many poems there. The poem “Ayu no kaze / Itaku hukurashi / Nago no ama no / Tsuri suru obune / Kogi kakuru miyu (East wind / blows fiercely / Nago’s fisher / the small boat on which he is fishing / rowed to hide from the wind) ” is a poem about a scene he saw at the seaside.

Nago no Ura of Toyama Bay is now a harbour area with Toyama New Port at its centre, but if you close your eyes and look out at the sea in the sea breeze, you can still easily imagine the scenery of the past. The sea has not changed.

There is a lyric in a congratulatory song called “Shinminato Medeta”, which is still sung in the area, which says “Ebisu of Korei is a good Ebisu”. Ebisu was originally a Japanese deity, the god of fishery, and I don’t know why Korei (Goryeo dynasty of Korea) was added here, but it may have been because of the trade connections that the Sea of Japan had. In this area, an elder often sings during celebrations.

Goryeo as a kingdom was founded in 918 and lasted until the establishment of the Joseon dynasty of Korea in 1392. It was a state that existed between the United Silla. It is often featured in Korean period dramas.

The traffic to and from the Korean peninsula has of course influenced our own aesthetic sense and style, but it has also stimulated the desire of Japanese art lovers. The Baekje period preceded the United Silla. One of the pottery items that would have been placed on the walls of buildings where the kingship showed its power and authority, in a decorative sense, is Sen. The phoenix design made in the Baekje period, which is part of the Buyeo National Museum collection, is of such high quality and elegance that it shows the great sense of beauty and skill of the artisan. The image of a phoenix in flight, with its head and body facing sideways, within a banded circle of beads. In mythology, the spirit bird was a symbol of good omens. The better the image, the more likely it is to be passed on to future generations.

I have a Sen with a phoenix design, possibly made by the same hands. It is said to have once belonged to a great lover of Korean art. I don’t know where it came from originally, and would like to find out more about it, but it seems to carry the smell of antiquity like a spring sea breeze in the blink of an eye. The word “Korei” still remains in Ebisu, and the cultural relics have passed through various periods and remain to this day. It is impossible to know all the joys and sorrows of each era. But I find a happiness to have a little time to feel as if I have something in common with the people who lived in that era through the scents that remain.