Sakura (桜) is the Japanese cherry tree and its blossom. The custom of sitting under the trees has its own name, hanami. Sakura is the tree itself, and it holds a place in Japanese life that no other plant comes close to. It appears on the hundred-yen coin, in school songs and in poetry that goes back more than a thousand years.
One clone, planted everywhere
Most of the cherry trees you see in Japan belong to a single variety, Somei-Yoshino. Gardeners in Edo, today's Tokyo, bred it in the mid-1800s. It blooms before its leaves open, so the whole tree turns pale pink with no green to break it up. The flowers fall after little more than a week. Every Somei-Yoshino is a clone. Gardeners grow new trees by grafting, not from seed, so all of them have exactly the same genes. That is why a whole park can burst into flower within a day or two. It is also why the sight is so overwhelming. The trees truly bloom in step.
A front that moves north
The bloom is short and the trees bloom together, so Japan tracks it like the weather. Forecasters draw the sakura zensen, the "cherry blossom front." This line moves up the country, from Kyūshū in late March to Hokkaidō in May. The news reports it the way it shows a rain map. People plan trips and parties around a window of a few days. The flower's meaning comes from this short life. It is the standard image of mono no aware, the beauty of things that do not last. During the Second World War, the military used falling petals as a symbol for young soldiers who died early.
Words & idioms to take away
Idioms & proverbs to carry away
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桜前線 (sakura zensen): the "cherry blossom front," the forecast line that follows the bloom as it moves north across the country.
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満開 (mankai): "full bloom," the peak that the forecasts aim at. It usually comes about a week after the first flowers open.