Hanami (花見), literally "flower viewing," is the Japanese custom of gathering each spring to admire the cherry blossoms, or sakura (桜). For a few short weeks, the trees burst into clouds of pale pink. All over the country, people stop to look. They stroll under the petals, picnic in the parks and celebrate the brief peak of Japan's best-loved flower.
The cherry blossom is the great symbol of mono no aware. This Japanese phrase names a gentle, bittersweet feeling that all things pass. People do not love the blossoms in spite of their short life. They love them because of it. Their beauty and its brief life are one and the same.
A short history
In the Nara period, in the 8th century, Japanese nobles admired plum blossoms, a fashion that came from China. By the Heian period (794–1185), taste had turned firmly to the native cherry. The word hana, "flower," came to mean the cherry blossom by default, and court poets wrote verses under the trees. The custom also has older, rural roots. Farmers read the blossoms as a sign of how the rice harvest would go. One popular theory explains the name sakura as the seat (kura) of sa, a rice god who came down to rest in the trees. Later the samurai took up hanami, and then ordinary townspeople. In the 18th century, the shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune planted cherry trees in public places so that common people could enjoy them too.
“Are we to look at cherry blossoms only in full bloom, the moon only when it is cloudless?”
Where to go
In Japan, the timing of the bloom is a national obsession. Full bloom, or mankai (満開), lasts only a few days, and a single rain can scatter the petals. So forecasters track the sakura zensen, the "cherry blossom front." It moves north from Okinawa to Hokkaidō over about two months, and the news follows it day by day.
- From Tokyo: Ueno Park is the loud, happy classic. Shinjuku Gyoen is calmer, and its dozens of cherry varieties stretch the season. At Chidorigafuchi, by the moat of the Imperial Palace, you can row a boat under the branches. The Meguro River, lined with trees and lanterns, is the top spot for yozakura (夜桜), blossoms at night.
- From Osaka and Kyoto: in Osaka, Osaka Castle Park surrounds the castle tower in pink. In Kyoto, the heart of Maruyama Park is a giant weeping cherry, the city's traditional hanami spot. The Philosopher's Path and Arashiyama follow close behind.
- The pilgrimage: Mount Yoshino in Nara has about 30,000 trees in tiers up its slopes. It has been Japan's most famous cherry mountain for over a thousand years.
The ritual
A modern hanami is part party, part quiet ritual. Friends, families and co-workers spread blue plastic sheets on the ground and settle in for an enkai (宴), a feast of food, drink and talk. Getting a good spot, or basho-tori, is serious business. A company may send its newest employee hours ahead to guard the place. The food is half the point. The season's signature sweet is hanami dango (花見団子), three rice dumplings on a skewer in pink, white and green.
Words & idioms to take away
Idioms & proverbs to carry away
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花より団子 (hana yori dango): "dumplings over flowers," choosing the useful or filling thing over the merely pretty. It is 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." Things change fast when you look away.
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花見酒 (hanamizake): sake that people drink under the blossoms.