花見

Every year, when the sakura is in bloom, tens of thousands of Japanese people gather together for 花見 (hanami), or cherry blossom viewing. Hanami is a social event, and everyone shows up to celebrate the beauty of the sakura, young and old, male and female alike. My host family is no different, like many other Japanese families, they have a tradition of going to hanami every year, and made it clear to me that it was a very important event and it would mean a lot to them if I came to Kyoto with them, which of course I did.

Sakura Blossom at Heian Shrine, Kyoto

Yozakura in a park near my host family's house

We spent the entire day at hanami, first in Kyoto at Heian Shrine (平安神宮) and then after dinner at a park near my host family's house to see the yozakura (night sakura). Groups of smiling people strolled along the crowded street with cameras, gazing at the glowing white branches that arched over their heads. The atmosphere was lively, and the experience reminded me of going to a fair or to see fireworks on July 4^th in the US. There were even stalls to buy food and other things, with tables outside where people gathered to eat.

One of the many stalls selling food to sakura viewers

I would never have guessed from looking at the crowd that they were all there for flowers. But, in Japan, sakura and hanami have been important parts of the culture for a very long time. Sakura is incredibly striking for the short time it is in full bloom, but soon the petals fall to the ground and the trees are bare again. Because of its short life, sakura has become a symbol of the impermanence of life and is often  associated with samurai who, like sakura, were admired while they lived but often had their lives cut short. This use of sakura as a symbol of impermanence did not disappear with the samurai; in WWII, kamikaze pilots often painted sakura blossoms on their planes and were associated with sakura because they were seen as pure and short-lived, like the sakura itself.

Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka Kamikaze plane with sakura on side (photo borrowed from blueyonder.co.uk)

And sakura continues to come up in popular culture in places I would not have expected to see it. In the US, a delicate pink flower would never be considered masculine in any way, but here men look forward to hanami just as much as women do, and I have seen male singers perform on stages decorated with sakura blossoms. Where US culture sees the fragility and impermanence of the sakura blossom as a weakness and a fault, Japanese culture sees it as a symbol of the inevitable transient nature of life. A symbol of life and death at the same time. Of course they also know it's just a flower.