I recently visited the wildflower conservation area again.

 I visited again the "Zazen-sō" conservation area I wrote about in my blog post on the 3rd of this month.

I'll explain this flower in the end.

This area is situated in a woodland like this. Visible in the distance is Rinzōbō, an ancient temple of the Shingon Buddhism; it is said to be associated with the Toi clan, who ruled this area during the Warring States period. The wooden statue of Fudō Myōō , 40 cm height, inside the temple dates from the Muromachi period (1336～1573）, but the temple building itself is rebuilt in recent year.

The leaves of the "Zazen-sō" had grown quite large.

However, the flowers are still thriving. They last longer than I had thought.

These are the buds of the "Katakuri", a dogtooth violet. I'll go back to see them when they bloom, probably early in next month. This flower is called the mountain fairy heralding spring. I’d really love to see that.

There are many dark, stain-like spots on the leaves, so for a moment I thought it was a plant disease.

This is a "Shō-Jyō-Bakama"in Japanese. All the leaves look like they've been torn off. Perhaps it's damage from a wild deer. This flower was outside the netting, but most of the "Shō-Jyō-Bakama" are inside the fenced-in netting. They're fine here.

These are inside the fenced-in netting. These showy flowers are easy to spot.