Legend of the cherry blossoms
NAGALAKSHMI SANTANAGOPALAN
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The Sakura is highly prized because its blossom is of very short duration. The Buddhist faith stresses the importance of life as symbolised by the blooms.
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From the time of the vernal equinox in March, days gradually lengthen, cold abates and the uncertain sunny days of spring are followed by the blossoming of an occasional, soft warming flower. Then "Sakura" (Japanese Cherry) — the pride of Japan — the coronation of spring bursts forth into glorious pink and pinkish white blossoms. This is the season when Japan becomes the "Land of Cherry Blossoms".
The sakura is glorified, worshipped and enjoyed so much as it is only natural to have the status of the flower of Japan. Poets and artists have depicted the beauty of the blossoms through the centuries. When the Japanese use the word `hana' (flower) they mean sakura. Hanami (flower viewing) means viewing the sakura blossoms and no other flower, for, this symbolised perfection and satisfaction to their aesthetic taste.
Symbolic
One reason the sakura is so highly prized is that the blossom is of short duration. The Buddhist faith stresses the importance of life as symbolised by the blooms. A cherry blossom falls from the calyx after being in bloom for two or three days and this beautiful but transient existence is representative of the spirit of Samurai warriors and the willingness to die for a cause.
Japanese soldiers were wont to compare their few hours of glory in combat to those of the short lived sakura blooms. The life of the Samurai in feudal days with his uncertain life in the service of his master was considered parallel to that of the brief beauty of the cherry blossom. So closely associated were Samurai and cherry blossoms that it is claimed that during the kamakura period a Samurai heading into battle would stop his march if the only way led over a path strewn with cherry petals. He considered it desecration to trample on the blossoms. Perhaps that may be one of the reasons that castles in Japan rise above circlets of misty pink sakura. Another interesting connection between sakura and the Japanese life can be observed in the practice that in weddings a special tea is prepared with salt preserved cherry petals, which open when steeped, ensuring the happiness of the couple.
During the short blooming season, cherry trees are the topic of the hour. People, all over, discuss the best places to enjoy the beauty of the flowers and their varieties. All through the month of April people enter into a holiday mood and have sakura-viewing parties with drinks, song and merry dances.
There are about 16 principal species and 400 varieties of sakura. The first trees to flower are the pink and white single petalled variety, the kind generally preferred. Then can be seen the double petalled varieties in exuberant abundance for about two weeks.
Mount Yoshino is the place from where the cult of sakura began. But long before language immortalised the romance of the cherry blossom princess who married the grandson of the sun goddess, cherry trees had grown, bloomed and died on Yoshino.
While the people of the Japanese islands from one century to another nurtured imported traditions, they shaped them to their needs, absorbed foreign culture but mingled it with their own,adopted the Chinese writing system but adapted it to fit their tongues and blended religious beliefs, their reverence for sakura has remained uniquely their own.
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