Sakura (桜) is the Japanese cherry tree and its blossom. The custom of sitting under it is 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 going back more than a thousand years.
One clone, planted everywhere
Most of the cherry trees you see in Japan are a single variety, Somei-Yoshino, bred in Edo in the mid-1800s. It blooms before its leaves open, so the tree turns pure pale pink with nothing green to break it up, and the flowers drop after little more than a week. Every Somei-Yoshino is a clone, propagated by grafting rather than seed, which means they are genetically identical. That is why a whole park can come into flower within a day or two of itself, and why the effect is so overwhelming: the trees are literally in step.
A front that moves north
Because the bloom is short and the trees are synchronised, Japan tracks it like weather. The sakura zensen, the "cherry blossom front," is a forecast line that moves up the country from Kyushu in late March to Hokkaido in May, and it is reported on the news the way a rain map is. People plan trips and parties around a window of a few days. The flower's meaning follows from that brevity: it is the standard image for mono no aware, the beauty of things that do not last, and its falling petals were used during the Second World War as a symbol for young lives cut short.
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 tracking the bloom as it moves north across the country.
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満開 (mankai): "full bloom," the peak stage the forecasts aim at, usually about a week after the first flowers open.