“If there were no cherry blossoms in this world, how much more tranquil our hearts would be in spring.” — Ariwara no Narihira
About · 序文
Few flowers carry the weight of a nation the way sakura do. For more than a thousand years the cherry blossom has stood at the center of Japanese poetry, painting, and quiet daily ritual — not because it is the most extravagant flower in the world, but because it is one of the most fleeting. A full bloom may last only a week. A heavy rain at the wrong moment can end it overnight.
That brevity is exactly the point. In Buddhist thought the cherry blossom became a living illustration of mono no aware — the gentle sadness of things that pass. Samurai claimed it as their emblem for the same reason: a life best lived bright and brief, fallen at the peak rather than wilted on the branch. Schoolchildren today still graduate beneath sakura petals every April, and the season’s arrival is broadcast nightly on the news as a moving wave of pink that climbs the islands from Okinawa in January to Hokkaido in May.
The tradition of hanami, “flower viewing,” is older than most of the world’s capitals. Families spread blue tarps under the trees, friends share bento and small cups of sake, and entire neighbourhoods walk slowly together at dusk — not to do anything in particular, but to be present while something briefly beautiful happens, and then to let it go.
Varieties · 品種
Japan recognises more than two hundred cultivars of cherry tree. These four are the ones most travellers and locals know by name.
The five-petalled pale pink blossom that defines the season. Nearly every cherry tree lining a Japanese park or riverbank is a clone of this single cultivar — which is why an entire city can bloom in the same week.
The weeping cherry. Long willow-like branches drip with deep-pink flowers, especially striking against temple eaves. The famous specimens at Maruyama Park in Kyoto are lit from below at night.
Double-flowered cherries with up to a hundred petals in a single bloom — round, plush, almost peony-like. They open a couple of weeks after Somei Yoshino, extending the season for those who arrived late.
An early-blooming cherry from the Izu Peninsula. Deep rose-pink flowers appear as early as February, drawing crowds to the small town of Kawazu while the rest of Japan is still waiting for spring.
Where to Watch · 名所
Tens of thousands of parks, shrines, and riverbanks across Japan put on a sakura show. These four have been doing it longest.