Cherry blossom season in Japan

Nightly news bulletins track the progress of the ‘front’ moving across Japan at some time in April or May. Anticipation reaches fever pitch as people everywhere prepare to make pilgrimages to favourite vantage points across the country. It’s cherry blossom season once again.

A centuries-old tradition

The tradition of formal blossom appreciation and viewing goes back centuries. In Kyoto and Nara, for instance, special viewing pavilions were built for the aristocracy specifically for this purpose. Today, Maruyama Park in Kyoto’s Gion district is where numerous drinking parties are held under the blossoms in a cathartic mass-shedding of the usual Japanese reserve. And the grounds of the Osaka Mint heave with citizens trying to catch a glimpse of what is reputedly among the finest examples of the nation’s most cherished and celebrated asset.

Cherry blossom and Japanese culture

Over 150 varieties exist, varying in terms of size, colour and exact blooming time. Why the big fuss over these precious pink petals? For many Japanese, the cherry blossom epitomises the fleeting nature of beauty and purity, the concepts of transience and impermanence that imbue so many aspects of Japanese culture, psyche and even identity. During World War II, Japan’s notorious kamikaze suicide pilots were even romanticised as human cherry blossoms, their young lives abruptly ending after a supposedly dazzling moment of glory.

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