Sakura, Sakura

I feel that I should say something about Japan’s most beloved flower, the cherry blossom or ‘sakura’, as it has recently come into season. For the weeks leading up to the trees actually blooming all weather conversations commented on how the current conditions were going to affect the sakura. The weather report itself started predicting blooming times in different regions in Japan weeks ago, and for the last couple weeks there has been a special segment showing where the sakura are at their best. I went to see some of them myself on the Imperial Palace grounds one weekend while I was taking a break from work, and was quite impressed by them. The Imperial Palace has a wide variety of species of sakura, allowing for the longest possible blooming season. The flowers precede the leaves by a fair span, it would seem, making the trees look as though they were blanketed in pale-pink snow. All sorts of people were under the trees when I went, eating, talking, playing with their children and, of course, taking pictures of each other. I’ve heard, however, that sakura are at their best when the petals begin to fall, as happens not long after they bloom. The poetic allure of the sakura is due mainly to its impermanence, a theme that is extremely pervasive in Japanese literature as well as Buddhist teachings. In ancient times the aristocracy would sit under the cherry blossom trees and write poems about their delicate beauty, and in the modern day every company, student group, and family seems to take time out to eat (and drink) under the falling petals.