SADO is the repository of herbs and wild grasses, and the whole island looks like a big herb garden.
It’s covering point of both of warm & cold currents, and it makes this place unique to have plants & creatures of both northern and southern Japan.
So you can see plants & creatures that live in Okinawa and Hokkaido here.
Surprisingly, more than 1700 kinds of plants grow naturally.
For example, Mugwort, Houttuynia cordata, Psyllium, Chickweed, Bracken, Osmund, sprouts of Aralia elata, Viburnum,Udo, Rubus palmatus var. coptophyllus, Rhododendron japonicum, Erythronium japonicum, Adnis,Camellia, Poeny, Hemerocallis middendorffii var.exaltata, Primula farinosa subsp. modesta as well as Alpine plants such as Rhododendron metternichii and Glaucidium palmatum Siebold et Zucc.
There is the Aoneba valley close to Donden plateau, one of the 100 famous mountains in Japan and well known as the place for mountaineering and trekking.
In this wonderful island, Mrs.Harumi Kikuchi discovered and studies Japanese herbs and wild grasses here.
She was born and grew up in SADO Island. After working as a pastry chef out of island, she encountered a book written by abotanist Kunio Ito, who had been born and studied wild grass.
Japanese naturally feel calm and relax encounting some plants which our remote ancestors were familiar with
by Kunio Ito
She also put them in her life by making some herbal sweets and products.
Once I had a chance to have sweets made of Japanese herbs and wild grass in SADO at her house, and I was so surprised at the taste of it.
The wild herbs seem to be very raw and have strong grass smell, but it’s just fresh and so tasty.
She used to work as a pastry chef and made it with her skills. Also, I’m sure that she put some “spice” of respect and passion to these grasses. 🙂
A cup of coffee made of lindera and herbal tea was served with the sweets. Lindera may help prevent cold as herbal medicine, so that’s good, too.
She also sells some herbal products at the local market, and I bought these products the other day.
- Viburnum balm
- Herbal soap
- Herbal incense
The natural light pink color is beautiful. I and my family used this as lip balm. This protects our skin from dry air in autumn and winter.
Herbal soap is gentle even on my dry skin.
It improved darkened pores on my nose!
Personally, I like this design of khamsa’s hand which is the symbol of Judaism.
They say that the hands protects us from maloik, so this soap maybe work in a same way.
The herbal incense has smell of grass and tree.
I feel relax when I see the small fire and smoke rising slowly and freely into the air.
It’s interesting that these grasses surrounding us change their form like this and support our lives again.
It seems that they let go all our fatigue, stress and something negative in lives into the universe.
We are surrounded by these grasses in our life.
People relate and support each other with nature and plants as well as human being
by Kunio Ito
These Japanese herbs and wild grasses have been here since long ago, and they are still loved by lots of people.
They support our lives and the earth to be better.
It’d be wonderful if we could remember this and appreciate them by having them in our lives.
