kerria rose

地元の図書館に、英訳されたOsam Dazaiの小説が "No Longer Human" の他にもう一冊、「斜陽」、英語の題名は "The Setting Sun" があったので読むことにしました。
小説の語り手が昔の事を語っている個所からの引用です。

I was walking by the pond intending to cut flowers for the service. I stopped by a bank of azaleas and suddenly noticed a little snake twined around the tip of an azalea branch. This startled me a little. Then when I went to cut off a bough of kerria roses from the next bush, I saw a snake there too. On the rose of Sharon next to it, on the maple, the broom, the wisteria, the cherry tree--on every bush and tree--there was a snake.

花や植物が好きなので "kerria roses" がどんな植物か調べます。

・Collins Dictionary: any of a genus (Kerria) of Chinese plants of the rose family, esp. an ornamental species ( K. japonica) with slender, green twigs and bright yellow, often double flowers
・Merriam-Webster:　a shrub (Kerria japonica) of the rose family that is native to China and Japan and has solitary yellow and often double flowers

Wikipedia にはKerria japanicaの項があり、そこには写真も載っています。
"rose of Sharon" は大分前に二度（12/17/2007と7/7/2007）もとり上げた植物で、韓国の国花になっているムクゲです。