Early spring is the time of breaking bud. My apple and pear trees shrug off their winter dormancy, and every day they awaken so quickly, reminding me to stop and appreciate them. Spring holds new wonders, and I look forward to my favourite season. Sometimes in dreams, I’m carried back to spring in Japan and the traditional custom called Hanami, which literally means “flower viewing.”
Hanami is a time out from work and stress, when people gather and share a meal under their beloved cherry blossoms, called Sakura. Whether it’s during the day or at an evening event (called Yozakura or night Sakura) lit by lights, Hanami is a time of enjoyment for the Japanese and tourists. This ancient tradition welcomes the start of spring but also carries a deeper meaning—an understanding of the transient nature of life expressed in delicate flowers.
Traditional and contemporary Hanami
The tradition of Hanami dates all the way back to the Nara period (710 to 784 A.D.), when the nobility ventured outside to enjoy the blossoms. It was originally a Chinese tradition. Farmers would begin planting rice when the cherry blossoms bloomed, for it was at this time that the deity of grain came down from her mountain abode. Cherry blossoms were revered in the form of a “Sakura Princess,” who was also the goddess of Mount Fuji and volcanoes. Somehow, she kept Mount Fuji dormant.
The Hanami of today involves the entire country, and the weather forecasters attempt to predict when the time is right for Hanami each year. Walking around Tokyo’s Ueno Park, which is famous for its Yoshino cherry trees, I found that everyone was either partying, eating, taking pictures (a Japanese passion) or sitting quietly on a bench admiring it all. There were more than 400 Yoshino trees in this one park alone. Representative of so many Japanese cherry trees, the Yoshino had light pink petals that were almost white.
I hold my own Hanami, alongside my mini orchard, watching in silence and wonder as the buds burst, burgeon, fall and inevitably fade. Spring is an unfolding: one delicate, ephemeral bloom after another. Each day, something disappears and something emerges. White blossoms generally appear first from the pear trees, followed by the various varieties of apples, with each tree obeying its own timetable to emerge from winter.
Saigyo Hoshi’s poetry
Sakura blossoms were the subject of many Japanese poems and stories. Saigyo Hoshi was a 12th-century Japanese poet who became a Buddhist monk. He wrote about mono no conciente (the bittersweet transience of all things), the deeper contemplation that Hanami time brings to Japan:
the spring winds
scattering cherry blossoms
I saw it in a dream
but when I awoke the sound
was still rustling in my chest.
The cherries’ only fault:
the crowds gather
too early or two late
to dream with me.
«LECTURA RELACIONADA» A CHERRY BLOSSOM CHILDHOOD: A reminder to appreciate the beauty of a child’s milestones»
imagen 1: PickPik; imagen 2: Wikimedia Commons
