Cherry Blossom

Through court poetry, harvest rites and blossom-viewing parties.

The Kojiki, an early chronicle of Japan completed in 712, records the family name Wakazakurabe, now written with 桜 (sakura). Cherry blossoms already appear in the Man'yōshū, a Nara-period poetry anthology, though plum blossoms from China appear more often. In the Heian period, the imperial court's poems and blossom-viewing parties made sakura Japan's emblematic spring flower. Picnic-style hanami for ordinary people spread later, in the Edo period.

In traditional rural rites, the timing of the bloom was read as a sign for the coming harvest. A tree's blossoms last only about a week or two, so they also came to stand for how short beauty and life are.

Why can 🌸 feel political in Korea?

Its history includes war imagery and colonial rule.

During Japan's imperial expansion and World War II, cherry blossoms appeared in military propaganda that presented dying young as honourable. In Korea, mass planting under Japanese colonial rule made the tree a Japanese emblem and drew resistance. Later, cherry blossoms also became part of Korea's own spring landscape, with big blossom festivals, so a spring post with 🌸 is usually just about spring.