The sixteen petal chrysanthemum is one
of the crests of the Imperial family.
Long ago there grew in a meadow a white and a yellow chrysanthemum
side by side. One day an old gardener chanced to come across them and
he took a great fancy to Lady Yellow. He told her that if she would
come along with him he would make her far more attractive; that he
would give her delicate food and fine clothes to wear.
Lady Yellow was so charmed with what the old man said, that she
forgot all about the white sister and consented to be lifted up,
carried in the arms of the old gardener and to be placed in his
garden.
When Lady Yellow and her master had departed, Lady White wept
bitterly. Her own simple beauty had been despised; but what
was far worse, she was forced to remain in the meadow alone, without
the companionship of her sister, to whom she had been devoted.
Day by day Lady Yellow grew more fair in her master’s garden. No one
would have recognized the common flower of the field, but though her
petals were long and curled and her leaves so clean and well cared
for, she sometimes thought of Lady White alone in the field, and
wondered how she managed to make the long and lonely hours pass by.
One day a village chief came to the old man’s garden in quest
of a perfect chrysanthemum that he might take to his lord for a
crest design. He informed the old man that he did not want a fine
chrysanthemum with long petals. What he wanted was a simple white
chrysanthemum with sixteen petals. The old man told the village chief
to see Lady Yellow, but this flower did not please him, and, thanking
the gardener, he took his departure.
On his way home he happened to enter a field when he saw Lady White
weeping. She told him the sad story of her loneliness, and when she
had finished her tale of woe the village chief informed her that he
had seen Lady Yellow and did not consider her half so beautiful as
her own white self. At these cheery words Lady White dried her eyes
and she nearly jumped off her little feet when this kind man told her
that he wanted her for his lord’s crest!
In another happy moment the happy Lady White was being carried in a
palanquin. When she reached the Daimyo’s palace all warmly praised
her perfection of form. Great artists came from far and near, set
about her and sketched the flower with wonderful skill. She soon saw
her pretty white face on all the Daimyo’s most precious belongings.
She saw it on his armour and lacquer boxes, on his quilts and
cushions and robes. She was painted floating down a stream and in all
manner of quaint and beautiful ways. Every one acknowledged that the
white chrysanthemum with her sixteen petals made the most wonderful
crest in all Japan. While Lady White’s happy face lived forever
designed upon the Daimyo’s possessions, Lady Yellow met with a sad
fate. She had bloomed for herself alone and had drunk in the
visitor’s praise as eagerly as she did the dew upon her finely
curled petals. One day, however, she felt a stiffness in her limbs
and a cessation of the exuberance of life. Her once proud head fell
forward, and when the old man found her he pulled her up and tossed
her upon a rubbish heap.