Why sakura is not a simple cherry blossom

Added: 12/10/2005

Sakura is a name for a cherry blossom in the Japanese language. It is an unofficial national flower of Japan and, perhaps, the most beloved flower among the Japanese. Cherry blossoms are often depicted in art and are associated with samurai and kamikaze. There are folk and popular songs, entitled "sakura", and sakura is often represented on various kinds of consumer goods, including kimono, dishware and stationary. The cherry blossoms are symbols of a promising future and the Japanese associate them with purity, melancholy and transience.

Sakura is different from the cherry of other countries. The Japanese sakura does not produce fruit like the other cherry trees. In fact, there are more than four hundred species of sakura in Japan. The most beloved variety of locals is the Somei Yoshino. Its flowers are nearly pure white, tinged with the palest pink, especially near the stem. When all the flowers open at once, they produce a spectacular sight of the tree-all white from top to bottom.

What is more intriguing about sakura is that it blooms at different times throughout Japan and regularly change the periods of its blooming. For instance, it blooms in January in Okinawa and in late May in Hokkaido. Hence, Japan Meteorological Agency announces a cherry blossom flowering forecast every year.

Sakura means to the Japanese people much more than only the beginning of the spring; indeed, in some regions, like in Okinawa, it is not the spring at all. The Japanese people associate the flower with a bright future and annually celebrate the season of sakura, holding festivals or a sakura viewing all around the country. The sakura viewing has been a Japanese custom since the 7th century, when only aristocrats had a chance of looking at the tree blossoms and writing poems.

During the sakura viewing (hanami in Japanese), people drink, eat and sing throughout day and night. They bring food, do BBQ or buy food and picnic lunches from vendors. In Tokyo, the Ueno Park and Yoyoki Park are very popular places for the cherry blossom viewing. It is also famous among the Japanese to view sakura at night, as the cherry blossoms in a full bloom are especially beautiful against a dark sky. Hanami festivals celebrate the beauty of sakura and for many inhabitants of Japan it is an excellent opportunity to enjoy a captivating view, as well as to relax and have fun.

However, the sakura viewing is not a continuous event. The blossoms open all at once and quickly fall in a week. For this quality, the militarism used sakura for a metaphoric description of death. There was no greater honor for an ancient samurai or World War soldiers than dying on the battlefield like scattered cherry blossoms. Japanese pilots would paint sakura on the sides of their planes before embarking on a suicide mission. The government encouraged the people to entrust the idea that the souls of killed warriors reincarnated in the cherry blossoms.

The Japanese also use sakura in culinary and prepare sakura-yu and sakura-mochi. Sakura-yu is a tea-like drink that is often served at weddings or other celebrations. Sakura-mochi is a dumpling, containing a sweet bean paste, wrapped in a salt-preserved cherry-tree leaf.

It is worth noting in conclusion that sakura is also believed to be a very valuable gift. In 1912, Japan presented three thousand sakura trees to the United States to celebrate the nations' friendship. The country renewed the gift in 1956 with other three thousand and eight hundred trees, and since then, all of them have adorned the shore of the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC. Although you can see the cherry blossoms in the US, sakura has always been a popular tourist attraction in Japan.

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