Hanami (花見, literally "flower viewing") is the Japanese custom of gathering to admire the cherry blossoms, or sakura (桜), each spring. For a few short weeks the trees erupt into clouds of pale pink, and across the country people stop to watch, strolling beneath the petals, picnicking in the parks, and marking the fleeting peak of the year's most beloved flower.
The cherry blossom is the supreme emblem of mono no aware, the gentle, bittersweet awareness that all things pass. The flowers are loved not in spite of their brevity but because of it: their beauty is inseparable from the fact that it cannot last.
A short history
In the Nara period (8th century) the aristocracy admired plum blossoms imported from China, but by the Heian period taste had shifted decisively to the native cherry, and hana, "flower," came to mean sakura by default. Court poets composed verse beneath the trees. There was an older, rural layer too: farmers read the blossoms as an omen for the rice harvest and believed a deity, sa, settled in the trees, sakura as the seat (kura) of the rice spirit. Later the samurai class and then ordinary townspeople took up the custom; the shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune planted cherry trees in public spaces in the 18th century specifically so commoners could enjoy them.
“The flowers are loved not in spite of their brevity but because of it.”
Where to go
The timing is a national preoccupation. Because the window is so narrow, a few days of mankai (満開), full bloom, before a single rain scatters the petals, the weather agency issues a sakura zensen, a "cherry blossom front," tracking the bloom as it sweeps north from Okinawa to Hokkaidō.
- From Tokyo: Ueno Park is the loud, joyous classic; Shinjuku Gyoen is calmer and holds dozens of varieties that extend the season; Chidorigafuchi, by the Imperial Palace moat, lets you row a boat beneath the branches; the Meguro River, lined with trees and lanterns, is the favourite for yozakura (夜桜), blossoms by night.
- From Osaka & Kyoto: Osaka Castle Park frames the keep in pink; in Kyoto, Maruyama Park centres on a giant weeping cherry that is the city's traditional hanami spot, with the Philosopher's Path and Arashiyama close behind.
- The pilgrimage: Mount Yoshino in Nara has some 30,000 trees rising up the slopes in tiers, the most celebrated cherry mountain in Japan for over a thousand years.
The ritual
A modern hanami is part banquet, part quiet rite. Friends, families, and co-workers spread blue tarps and settle in for an enkai (宴) of food, drink, and talk. Claiming a good spot, basho-tori, is serious business: a company may send its newest employee hours ahead to hold the ground. The food is half the point; the tri-coloured hanami dango (花見団子) skewer is the season's emblematic sweet.
Words & idioms to take away
Idioms & proverbs to carry away
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花より団子 (hana yori dango): "dumplings rather than flowers," preferring the practical or substantial over the merely pretty. The most quoted hanami proverb, and a gentle joke about everyone who really comes for the picnic.
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三日見ぬ間の桜 (mikka minu ma no sakura): "the cherry blossoms in the three days you didn't look," how swiftly things change while your back is turned.
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花見酒 (hanamizake): sake drunk under the blossoms.