In his poem “Ah Sunflower” English poet William Blake rhymes:

“Ah Sunflower, weary of time,

Who countest the steps of the sun;

Seeking after that sweet golden clime

Where the traveller’s journey is done;

Where the Youth pined away with desire,

And the pale virgin shrouded in snow,

Arise from their graves, and aspire

Where my Sunflower wishes to go!”

This beautiful flower that inspire the poet William Blake, also inspired anime, games and movies. In Samurai Champloo a girl named Fuu looks for a samurai who smells like sunflowers, with the help of two samurai and in the Pokemon games and anime, there is a sunflower inspired Pokemon named Sunflora. Another example of sunflower inspiration is Vincent Van Gogh’s most famous still life, Sunflowers. The sunflower is not just a muse to poets, painters, mangaka and game designers, it is also a plant that has become dear to Japan. 

The beautiful sunflower may be a native from the American continent but it has touched many cultures to become ingrained in them. In Japan the sunflower has its own festival in Zama City, Kanagawa prefecture. It is also revered because it is an ‘earth healer’. It has a special ability to extract toxins from soil through a process called phytoremediation. Lead, arsenic, uranium and other toxins get sucked up by the sunflower roots and they are grown in multitude in Japan for this specific reason. In Japan they started the Fukushima Sunflower Project to remove radioactive waste that polluted the earth after the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. (The same was also done in the Ukraine after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster). Sunflowers it seem, is more than just a symbol of hope, they have the seeds of hope within that brings healing to the Earth. Sunflowers heal, inspire and can bring beauty to bad days. Sometimes we must just relax and watch the sunflowers grow.