The delicate pink sakura, or cherry
blossom, is associated primarily with the culture of its native Japan.
These trees blossom throughout Japan every spring, but their beauty
never gets old, so we’ve collected some of our favorite photos of this
year’s cherry blossoms in Japan.
In Japan, the blossoming of the sakura
begins in April, when students go back to school or people go back to
work after the holidays. Japan’s national weather service even tracks
the movement of the “sakura front,” which is an imaginary line that
travels south-to-north every season and heralds the blooming of the
sakura. This line’s progression in Japan is marked on this convenient sakura calendar.
The cherry blossom is tied to the
ancient Japanese tradition of hanami, or picnicking under a sakura tree.
The fact that the cherry blossom has heavily featured in ancient
Japanese art has made it a staple of both historical and modern Japanese
aesthetic. Although it is also native to China and Korea, it is
generally associated primarily with Japanese culture, which is why it
often accompanies the Japanese diaspora into cities around the world.
While sakuras are probably best viewed
with a Japanese castle, mountain or garden in the backdrop, they might
also be planted somewhere in your city as well. They provide a great
opportunity to go have a beautiful springtime picnic!
Image credits: 紅襪熊
Image credits: Sue Hsu
Image credits: onotch
Image credits: Masato Mukoyama
Image credits: ta3mam
Image credits: Noisy Paradise
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