Imperial Gardens: Kyoto

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Katsura Villa and Shugakuen: Kyoto, Japan

花見: Sakura season

The Japanese make an event of going out to see cherry blossoms, Spring emerging.   This phenomena is rooted in Japan’s art and literature that savors Buddhism’s bittersweet appreciation of the inescapable changes in life.   Cherry blossoms bloom; a week later the blossoms fall to the ground, still perfect – young and fragile.

I remember when I first lived in Japan.  A Japanese man asked me why Americans like roses so much.  He personally found roses disgusting.  Admittedly, the rose bud and its mature flower is beautiful, but the flower will slowly decay…eventually turning black on its own branch.  He preferred the cherry blossom that perched on its branch for a very short time and then gracefully floated down to rejoin the earth.  Today the Japanese like roses as much as anyone else.  But, nothing is loved as much as  cherry blossoms.

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