Japanese seven spring herbs
🌿 “Spring Inside the Pack”
Story by Aqua, Illustration by Copilot, Editing by Mizuho
🌿 “Spring Inside the Pack”
Story by Aqua
On the supermarket shelf
sat a clear plastic pack of seven spring herbs.
A child stopped in front of it.
“Hey, what’s this?”
“These are the seven herbs.
We eat them tomorrow morning,
to give our stomachs a rest after the New Year feast.”
“Hmmm… but where did they come from?”
The parent thought for a moment.
“From a field, I guess… Farmers grew them for us.”
At that moment,
a tiny droplet on a seri leaf inside the pack shimmered.
“I used to be the morning dew in that field.
Seri grew by the riverside.
Nazuna swayed in the wind,
and Hotokenoza waited quietly for spring in the frost.”
The child stared at the pack.
“These herbs worked really hard, didn’t they.”
“Yes. So when you eat them,
make sure to say ‘thank you.’”
On the morning of January 7th,
the child put their hands together before the bowl of nanakusa-gayu.
“Itadakimasu.”
At that word,
the droplet inside the pack glowed softly—
and disappeared.
Japanese seven spring herbs
The seven plants of spring include the following seven species
Oenanthe javanica、
Capsella bursa-pastoris、
Gnaphalium affine、
Stellaria neglecta）、
Lapsana apogonoides、
Brassica rapa var. glabra、
Raphanus sativus
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🌿 “Spring Inside the Pack” Japanese seven spring herbs
