Glasgow Botanic Gardens is located in the city’s West End. This is a place where people can relax. Mr. Gerry Loose, who led the project, is a poet and organizes various events as the “Poet in Residence” in the gardens. He visited the the Kaki Tree Project secretariat when he visited Japan in the spring of 2001.
It was a beautiful sunny day without the cloud in the sky on the day of the tree planting ceremony. The participants ranged from children to the elderly. They started to gather around when the time came and those with dogs and in a wheelchair also casually joined. A variety of performances that involved several schools in Glasgow was held through the efforts of Mr. Loose.
The song they sang along with guitar immediately after the speech together with handicapped people was particularly beautiful because everyone could join in a very natural way. There were also performances of dance, Taiko and Tai Chi and the ceremony which lasted an hour quickly came to an end. Those performances were very rich in content and the Tai Chi performance by Mr. Larry Butler was especially impressive since it gave us a feeling of connection between human beings and the earth. The recitation reflected ethnic problems that are non-existent in Japan.
The planting site was a sunny and prominent place, on top of a small rise of land where you can get a view of the entire gardens. When we taught how to make Origami persimmon after the tree planting ceremony, they told us that they wanted to try at the workshop in June. The ceremony was attended by pupils and students of East Park School, Glasgow College of Nautical, Hillhead High School and a number of organizations from the local community such as Rising Dragon Tai-Chi, Psycho Taiko, and the refugee support group of Cleveden Secondary School.
