Sakura (Japanese, Japanese, old. 櫻) is the collective name of 11 species and several varieties of trees of the Plum subfamily; (Latin Prunoideae) often refers to the small—sawed cherry (Prunus serrulata). Many species called "sakura" are used in culture only as ornamental plants and produce small and inedible fruits.
Cherry blossoms
In Japan, cherry blossom symbolizes clouds (due to the fact that many sakura flowers often bloom at once) and metaphorically denotes the ephemerality of life. This second symbolic meaning is often associated with the influence of Buddhism, being the embodiment of the aesthetic principle of the "sad charm of things" mono no aware. Sakura's connection with mono no aware has been known since the XVIII century, when it originated with Motoori Norinaga. The fleetingness, extreme beauty and quick death of flowers are often compared to human mortality. Due to this, the sakura flower is deeply symbolic in Japanese culture, its image is often used in Japanese art, anime, cinema and other fields. There is at least one folk song called "Sakura", as well as several j-pop songs (including Ikimonogakari, Miki Nakashima, Morning Musume). Images of sakura flowers are found on all types of Japanese consumer goods, including kimonos, stationery and tableware.
Sakura in the Imperial Palace
Sakurakai, the "sakura society", was chosen as the name of an ultranationalist society by young officers of the Japanese army who twice tried to carry out a coup d'etat. In World War II, sakura was used by militaristic propaganda as a motivating symbol of Japan. Before the start of the war, it was also used to strengthen the "Japanese spirit"; in particular, in the "Song of Japanese Youth" (Japanese seinen nihon no uta) it was said about "warriors" who were ready to die like sakura flowers. In 1932, Akiko Yosano in verse called on soldiers to endure suffering in China, comparing the dead with sakura flowers. Objections to the planned maneuvers in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, reasoned by the danger of withdrawing all ships of the fleet at the same time and the chance of losing, were met with phrases that the fleet should be allowed to bloom like flowers of death. The last message from the Japanese forces on Peleliu read: "Sakura, sakura". Japanese pilots painted sakura flowers on airplanes before going on a kamikaze mission, and even took sakura branches with them. Sakura painted on the fuselage symbolized the intensity and fragility of life, and falling flowers were reinterpreted as young people sacrificing their lives for the glory of the emperor. In the first kamikaze squad, there was a Yamazakura unit, wild sakura. The state even supported the view that fallen warriors were reborn into flowers[. To date, the five-petalled stylized sakura flower has been the main motif of the heraldry of the Japanese armed forces, being used in the same circumstances where the Western tradition uses a (five-pointed) star, for example in military rank insignia or as a cockade.
In the colonies, the Japanese tried to plant sakura flowers, which was one of the ways to claim this territory as Japanese.
Sakura is the dominant motif of the Japanese irezumi tattoo. Cherry blossoms are often depicted there along with other traditional motifs — carp, dragons and tigers.
Admiring flowers
An engraving depicting Mount Fuji and sakura; from the collection of 36 types of Fuji by Ando Hiroshige
Hanami is a centuries—old tradition of picnics under the blooming sakura or ume trees. The beginning of the custom was laid, according to legends, in the Nara period (710-794), and then the main attention was paid to the plum blossoms of ume. By the beginning of the Heian period (794-1185), sakura was already attracting more attention, and the word "hanami" became synonymous with the word "sakura". From that time on, in waka and haiku, the word "flowers" (Japanese han) meant "cherry blossom".
The hanami tradition was initially spread only among the elites, but soon passed into the samurai class, and by the Edo period, hanami was already common for everyone. Tokugawa Yoshimune planted cherry trees to encourage hanami.
Every year in spring, Japanese meteorological companies release daily reports on the movement of the cherry blossom front (sakura zensen) from south to north. Flowering begins in Okinawa in January, arrives in Kyoto and Tokyo in late March or early April, and reaches Hokkaido a few weeks later. The Japanese monitor the movement of the front and arrange hanami when sakura is fully revealed in their area.
Most schools and public institutions have cherry trees planted, and since the fiscal and academic year begins in April, in many areas of Honshu, the first day of work or study takes place when the cherry blossoms bloom.
The Japanese Sakura Association has compiled a list of the hundred best places to admire sakura, and those were found in each prefecture.
