To everyone’s delight, cherry blossoms in Japan are already blooming as families and friends unite for the highly anticipated, centuries-old tradition of hanami (cherry blossom-viewing). The explosion of pale pink petals is a euphoric sight to behold, but did you know there’s more to their splendour than meets the eye? The meaning of cherry blossoms in Japan runs deep, making the country’s national flower a cultural icon revered around the world not just for its overwhelming beauty, but for its enduring expression of life, death and renewal.
Cherry blossoms, also known as sakura in Japan, are the small, delicate pink flowers produced by cherry blossom trees. The springtime bloom is a lavish spectacle but remarkably brief; after only two weeks, they drop to the ground and wither, falling like snow with the ebb and flow of the winds. As flowers native to Asia, they can also be found in China, South Korea and India, but today they enjoy worldwide blooming.
Cherry blossoms hold elevated status in China, signifying love and the female mystique (beauty, strength and sexuality), but nowhere in the world are the elusive flowers more cherished than in Japan, home to thousands of cherry blossom trees. The floral imagery permeates Japanese paintings, film and poetry.
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Every April, families and friends across the country ceremoniously gather in large groups for hanami and elaborate feasts with music under giant, feathery canopies of soft pink.
Tied to the Buddhist themes of mortality, mindfulness and living in the present, Japanese cherry blossoms are a timeless metaphor for human existence. Blooming season is powerful, glorious and intoxicating, but tragically short-lived — a visual reminder that our lives, too, are fleeting.
Why don’t we marvel at our own passing time on earth with the same joy and passion? Why do we neglect to revel in life when it can end at any moment, or in the grace surrounding us everywhere: our family, friends, a stranger’s smile, a child’s laugh, new flavours on our plate or the scent of green grass? It is time, cherry blossoms remind us, to pay attention.
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In Japanese culture, sakura as the embodiment of beauty and mortality can be traced back centuries. No one in history personified this metaphor more than the samurai, the warriors of feudal Japan who lived by bushido (“the way of the warrior”) — a strict moral code of respect, honour and discipline. It was their duty to not only exemplify and preserve these virtues in life, but to appreciate the inevitability of death without fearing it —in battle, it came all too soon for the samurai. A fallen cherry blossom or petal, it’s believed, symbolized the end of their short lives.
During World War II, cherry blossoms took on a similar meaning for Japanese pilots who painted their kamikaze warplanes with the flower imagery before embarking on suicide missions to “die like beautiful falling cherry petals for the emperor”.
Sakura are also revered as a symbol of rebirth. Hanami was in fact established as a ritual as early as 710, long before the rise of feudal Japan. Believed to represent the mountain deities that transformed into the gods of rice paddies in Japanese folk religions, cherry blossom trees signified agricultural reproduction. It was during this time the Japanese travelled to the mountains to worship the trees every spring, then transplanted them to inhabited areas.
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Sakura have therefore always signalled the beginning of spring, a time of renewal and optimism. With the blooming season coinciding with the beginning of the Japanese calendar year, they also bring hope and new dreams at a time when students start their first day of school and employees their first day of a new job. When cherry blossoms are in full bloom, the future is bursting with possibilities.
When the Japanese gather under the cherry blossom trees every April, they’re not just admiring the aesthetic attributes of a flower. Over tables of sake-filled glasses, bento boxes and sweet mochi, they’re seizing the day. They’re wringing the beauty out of life. They’re commemorating the loss of loved ones and reflecting on their own precious lives with a sense of wonder while shedding the past to usher in a bright, promising new year.
Planning a trip to Japan to see the cherry blossoms for yourself? Click on one of the cities below to search for hotels on Booking.com: Tokyo | Kyoto | Osaka | Hiroshima
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Disclosure: Iearn a modest commission from Booking.com if you click on one of these links and make a hotel reservation (at no cost to you)Delicate, simple and fleeting, Cherry Blossoms are one of the most identifiable flowers in the world that are cultural icons and symbols for many people all around the world.
Known as “Sakura” in Japan, these tiny pink flowers are produced by cherry trees which bloom only in the spring for about two weeks. Where ever there are Cherry Blossoms planted in the world, you can be sure that they will draw quite the crowd of spectators to watch them bloom. Given how popular they are, you might be wondering what they symbolise? Cherry blossoms can be found all across Asia and even in the U.S.A, but their meaning is unique to every culture.
Most people think of Japan when they think of Cherry Blossoms, they are so integral to Japanese cultural identity that many deem them to be the country’s unofficial national flower (with the official national flower being the chrysanthemum as the Imperial Emblem). During the cherry blossom season, you can see cherry blossom decorations lining the streets to mark the occasion as thousands of people make their way to admire the blooming flowers. This tradition of watching the flowers bloom is known as “hanami” or “flower viewing” is a custom that dates as far back a the 3rd Century.
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Of course, there is a much deeper significance behind the admiration for these flowers. To the Japanese, cherry blossoms herald the coming of spring, hope and renewal. In a more metaphorical sense, due to their delicate nature and short life-span they are a stark embodiment of the impermanence of life and beauty. A reminder to all to appreciate what we have, while we have it, because nothing is certain and change is a necessity.
According to legend, there is a cherry tree that once grew on the land of a Samurai, as the warrior began to wither and age, so did the tree. The Samurai felt bad for the tree which he had tended, so as a final act of courage and selflessness he gave his life in a ritual act. In doing so, he gave his life’s essence to the tree which nourished it and within an hour the tree began to blossom and lives even to this day somewhere in the Iyo district of Japan. This legend came to reflect the noble and sacrificial nature of the warrior lifestyle with Kamikaze pilots taking the fallen cherry blossom as their emblem. A single fallen cherry blossom is symbolic of a fallen warrior who sacrificed their life for another.
China is one of a number of cultures that has its own cultural significance attached to cherry blossoms. The symbolism of this flower is quite different to the Japanese, in China cherry blossoms are symbolic of feminine power, mystique and beauty. They herald the arrival of Spring and new life, much like the female ability to create and carry new life. In addition, the cherry blossoms’ enchanting appearance is a reflection of female beauty and command of her own sexuality. This symbolism has transferred into tattoo culture as many women will get a cherry blossom tattoo as a celebration of their femininity and independence.
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If you’ve ever visited Washington D.C., you might have noticed the many cherry blossom trees lining the banks of the Potomac. What you may not know is that these trees were an important step down the road towards lasting peace between Japan and the U.S. In 1912 they were gifted by Yukio Ozaki, then the mayor of Tokyo to Congress in support of Teddy Roosevelt’s decision to put an end to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Japan in the Russo-Japanese War. Over 3000 trees were sent and on March 27, 1912, First Lady Helen Herron Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted two Yoshino cherry trees on the northern bank of the Potomac River.
Ozaki would continue to support peace and friendly relation between Japan and the U.S. even at great risk to his own life during World War II. He was a vocal advocate for disarmament, democracy and international cooperation at a time when few others would. These trees would become a symbol of his life’s work, in his final years he composed a poem in memory of the gift and all that it stood for:
Although it has been many years since the cherry blossoms were planted, the sentiments with which they were given and planted have not been forgotten. Thousands of spectators come to view the flowers bloom every year and even participate in hanami, allowing people to contemplate and reflect on
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