Cherry Blossom – Sakura – more than a simply tree
The stream in the valley;
Stones too sing songs
Under the cherry-blossoms.
Uejima Onitsura
(1660-1738)
Cherry Blossom also know as Sakura or Oriental Cherry – famous symbol of Japan and the Japanese culture which have been composed very often in many tankas and haiku from old times.
Thousands of Sakura trees were put before temples and monasteries. Since Mejdzi the Oriental cherry image is on headdresses of students and military men, as a rank indicator. And today the Oriental cherry symbol is used on the arms of police and armed forces of Japan. Besides, an Oriental cherry — a traditional Japanese symbol of a female youth and beauty. Cherry Blossoms, Tama River Embankment, from the Series One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo by Utagawa Hiroshige 1856
Blossoms in the spring, flowers colored from bright-pink to the white. The annual period of flowering lasts less than week. From March to April, when the news of cherry blossoms flowering is received from south, people from all around the world came to see those cherry blossoms in a body.
March, 27 – Holiday of the Sakura’s Flowering since 4-th Year of Heisei.