"Spring arrives, cherry blossoms bloom", April in Japan is the season of cherry blossoms full of cherry blossoms, and in this cherry blossom season, which symbolizes the spring of cherry blossoms, cherry blossom viewing parties, cherry blossom-themed creative products, and various things related to cherry blossoms form the focus of Japanese daily life in April.
In fact, there are widely distributed "primroses" in Japan, as well as Xinyi (commonly known as "magnolia") and witch hazel, but other flowers have not been able to capture most Japanese senses and hearts for as long as cherry blossoms. One of the most characteristic Cultural Phenomena of Japan is the flower viewing event where you can sit under the blooming cherry blossom trees and enjoy delicious food while admiring the beautiful flowers.
In the Japanese people's understanding, there is no doubt that cherry blossoms are native Japanese flowers, and cherry blossom viewing is a cultural practice that has been continuous in the archipelago since ancient times. However, recently, some Korean media have argued that the birthplace of The most beloved Japanese, Somei Yoshino, is actually in Jeju Island, South Korea, which has triggered another round of fierce air war between the Japanese and South Korean media.
The cherry tree is a widely distributed plant in various parts of the northern hemisphere, and its birth long before the ancestors of humans came out of the Great Rift Valley. From this point of view, the war of words between Korea and Japan over the origin of cherry blossoms really does not know where to start.
Sakura's Latin scientific name for botany, "prunus serrulata", is a general term for more than a hundred species of woody plants under the plum cherry species. Commonly known as the hill cherry or japanese cherry, the cherry tree itself is a small deciduous tree that can reach an altitude of 8 to 11 meters when grown. Cherry trees belong to the same genus as our most common edible fruit trees, plum and peach trees. Native to China and Europe, the cherry fruit is sweet and delicious, so it is cultivated as a fruit tree. Japanese mountain cherry blossoms get fruit but are too bitter to eat. Nevertheless, perhaps the cherry blossoms with five petals are particularly in line with the Aesthetic Taste of the Japanese, or because the mountain cherry blossoms happen to be a common vegetation that can be found everywhere on the slopes and rivers of Japan, in short, sakuragi is loved in Japan as an ornamental plant.
However, natural factors alone are not enough for cherry blossoms to enjoy their place in Japanese culture today. As a cultural phenomenon, the "cherry blossom" must start from the ancient Japanese court culture. There is no doubt that most of the resources of Japan's ancient court culture originated from our country, especially the culture and system of the Tang Dynasty that was introduced to the Japanese archipelago during the Nara period. Among the many cultural elements that the ancient Japanese people learned from the Sheng Tang Dynasty, the Shangmi Festival has contributed to the emergence of cherry blossom viewing customs. The Shangwei Festival, the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar, is the day of the spring festival in the pre-Qin Dynasty. "Qi" means to remove diseases and cleanse the body and mind. "Zen" means to repair and purify the body. The custom of spring bathing in Shangwei originated from the Zhou Dynasty waterfront. "Zhou Li" Zheng Xuan notes that there are clouds: "When I was old, I was removed, and now in March it is like water." To put it more in layman's terms, people should go to the river on The third day of March to bathe and purify themselves to wash away the "obscurity" of the body. During the two Jin Dynasties, holding such a banquet as "Qu Shui Liu Xiang" became a new fashion for the family to celebrate the Shangwei Festival. In the Nara period, Japan learned from this elegant "Feast of Qushui". The earliest historical book in Japan, the Nihon Shoki, has a record of holding a qushui banquet in Heijo Palace. Of course, in this elegant place of drinking and singing, flower viewing is also an indispensable program. However, in the Nara period, cherry blossoms were not the object of attention of the Japanese royals and nobles who admired the "Tang style". From the Japanese name of the Shangmi Festival, "Peach Festival Sentence", it can be seen that the Japanese at that time admired the beauty of peach blossoms with a Chinese atmosphere.
In the Heian period, the rise of Japan's "national style culture" made the more local cherry blossoms the new favorite of the Japanese court and aristocratic society. Emperor Saga's cherry blossom viewing banquet is the originator of all cherry blossom viewing parties today. His son Emperor Renmei replaced the plum blossom planting in front of the Purple Palace, and the "Left Cherry Blossom" is still one of the most important symbols of Japanese cherry blossom culture (the current cherry tree was planted in 1992). Nevertheless, cherry blossom viewing at that time was limited to the enclosed courtyards of the royal family and a few nobles, and far from spreading to the common people. It was not until the 15th century, with the development of Japanese culture during the Muromachi period, that large-scale cherry blossom viewing activities in open spaces came into being. In 1598, Taikoku Toyotomi Hideyoshi held a cherry blossom viewing ceremony at the back hill of Daigo-ji Temple in Kyoto, with thousands of participants, which is somewhat similar to today's cherry blossom viewing activities.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi Sumidagawa cherry screen (Edo period)
In the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate transplanted mountain cherry blossoms originally from Yoshino at Ueno Kanei-ji Temple, which was dedicated to the lord of the shoguns, thus forming the first cherry blossom viewing place on the ground in Edo. Subsequently, through the efforts of the eighth shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune, Mt. Goteon, Mt. Asuka, and Sumida Kawakami became the three most prestigious cherry blossom viewing spots in Edo. The custom of the common people flocking to cherry blossoms and feasting under the cherry trees also became popular. At that time, the wild mountain cherry blossoms of Yoshino, which were mainly planted in the name of cherry blossom viewing, not only grew for a long time, but also the flowers were not very large. From an ornamental point of view, this is not an ideal breed. As a result, people have tried to use Oshima cherry blossoms native to the Izu Peninsula, and have also used yamazaku and Oshima cherry blossoms to cultivate a special variety of Yae sakura for appreciation, but neither of these varieties was promoted in the Edo period.
In the 1860s, at the end of the shogunate and the turn of meiji, the Village of Somei in Edo was grafted and improved with Yoshinoyama cherry blossoms as its mother, and finally cultivated the famous cherry blossom "Somei Yoshino", which has the characteristics of rapid growth, beautiful flower shape, and simultaneous bloom of flowers. "Somei Yoshino" can grow to about 10 meters in five years, compared to ordinary mountain cherry blossoms that take 10 years to reach this height. Not only that, but the flowers of "Somei Yoshino" are also significantly larger than the mountain cherry blossoms. As a result, "Somei Yoshino", a variety that can create a beautiful garden full of flowers, was first transplanted in Hirosaki Park in Hirosaki City, Aomori Prefecture in 1882, and after a generation of efforts to replace the original wild mountain cherry blossoms, it spread throughout Japan. Of course, "Somei Yoshino" also benefited from Tokyo's unique demonstration role as the capital, and only Kyoto and Osaka, which did not dare to live below Tokyo, have not been introduced for a long time.
Cherry blossom viewing party at the beginning of the Meiji era
Until the early Meiji period, the Japanese people's love of cherry blossoms was based on the aesthetic and cultural accumulation of nature. However, as the Meiji Restoration progressed, cherry blossoms were inevitably given a "nationalist" color as Japanese politicians and intellectuals sought symbols that could embody the subjectivity of the "Japanese nation" and "Japanese culture." Since the implementation of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan in 1890, Yoshino Sakura has become a symbol of the legitimacy of the Meiji country and the unity of the people. It has even become a symbol of the spirit of loyal and loyal soldiers. The phrase "cherry blossoms are the king of all flowers, flowers are cherry blossoms, and people are samurai" that many people are familiar with today came from the "Naval Reader", an ideological education manual compiled by the Naval Education Headquarters in 1905.
According to the Yasukuni Shrine Chronicle, from 1891 onwards, the Yasukuni Shrine in Kudansaka, Tokyo, began to be officially cultivated with "Somei Yoshino". People today probably don't think that the victory memorial tree planted at the Yasukuni Shrine after the Russo-Japanese War is not a cherry tree but a laurel tree of the more Western military tradition. At that time, "Somei Yoshino" was planted in large quantities, mainly because of the advantages of fast growth rate. However, as Japan rapidly moved toward militarism after 1920, many so-called traditions were mixed with the grand themes of cherry blossoms and war and sacrifice, so that the originally relaxed garden viewing became a temple of militarist ideological education, and even became the name of a suicide plane. Only the defeat of the war made cherry blossoms once again an important part of the daily life of ordinary Japanese people.
The Cherry Blossoms of Somei Yoshino in full bloom in front of Hirosaki Tenmangu Shrine in Kiyomori Prefecture
Finally, I would like to come back to the issue of the dispute over the birthplace of "Somei Yoshino". The existence of cherry blossoms on Jeju Island, a variety similar to "Somei Yoshino", was established in 1912 by the German botanist Kenne. In 1923, Genichi Koizumi, a botanist at Tokyo Imperial University, first proposed the theory that "Somei Yoshino" originated in Jeju Island. In recent years, the South Korean side has begun to cultivate a large number of "Somei Yoshino" (known in Koreans as "Wang Sakura" in the country) to create a cherry blossom culture in Korea. However, at the time of the restoration in 1945, the "Somei Yoshino" planted throughout Korea was cut down in a short period of time as a symbol of the evils of the "Japanese empire colonization". History is sometimes really heavy and complicated.
In the current season of cherry blossom viewing, let us still have a pure love of beauty to appreciate the beauty of the cherry blossoms that nature has given us all human beings.