una rosy white storm. The wind that shakes i cherry blossom is the most enchanting atmospheric phenomenon in Japan, punctual every year in spring. Flowering lasts about ten days from North to south, from Hokkaido to countryside with Mt Fuji view, from Ueno Park in Tokyo to Nishi Park in Fukuokaon the southern island of Kyushu. And it is a powerful event, of extreme symbolic value: it is the transience of life, the lightning of the moment to be seized, the secular rite of the “hanami”, beauty to be contemplated with a mixture of joy and melancholy. A party without excesses that starts from Tokyo to involve Milan and Rome, Amsterdam and Washington…
The prints of the masters
Meanwhile, celebrating hanami is an art. That of the great masters of Japanese prints from Hokusai to Hiroshige (and many others) is now enclosed in a small volume of enchanting grace: The cherry blossoms by Anne Sefrioui (The Hippocampus). A casket of seventy works in 112 leporello pages, like a gallery of yesteryear. Protected by umbrellas, women in kimono stroll under a shower of petals. Families gather for “picnics” from the aromatic menu: green tea and sakura mochi, the sticky rice cakes.
The birds play hide and seek among the fronds of the en rose trees. sakura it is also a popular song composed in Edo period, perhaps the most loved: “Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms in the wild mountains, in the villages, as far as the view extends. Fog? Clouds? In the rising sun, perfume yourself…”. An idyllic past that sweetens the present.
Left, a print by Shiro Kasamatsu and, right, one by Kawase Hasui, dedicated to the Tosho-gu shrine in Ueno. Taken from “Cherry Blossoms” The Hippocampus.
Trip to Tokyo
On the eve of spring you can still book a trip to Tokyo. The bulletin of the Japan Meteorological Corporation gives the sakura protagonist from 18 to 25 March, when the peak of flowering is reached. To participate in the collective rite of hanami, just lay down a plaid on green of the great parks, beauty is free. And then get on the shinkansen, the bullet train, to chase the wonder of nature in Kansai, from Kyoto to Osakawhere the floral show will start on March 23rd with a peak on April 2nd. Or in the northern island of Hokkaidothe one with the coldest climate, where the show begins and ends still later (https://n-kishou.com/corp/news-contents/sakura/?lang=en).
The book “The Cherry Blossoms” by L’Ippocampo.
Cherry blossom between Milan and Rome
With us, purists can admire the Japanese sakura nei NHK satellite channel services, where the blooms bloom generously even among the news headlines. Those who are content (and do well) with local buds and corollas have more destinations of choice. In Milan, in viale Sarca, the “Collina dei Ciliegi”a mini park to the west of the Bicocca district, is an artificial hill that collects flowering cherry trees of different species and varieties. The spiral path soars up to 25 meters.
In Rome, in the Eur lake parkthere is indeed a “Promenade of Japan” where the 150 Japanese cherry trees donated by the city of Tokyo to the capital in 1959 bloom. More in the centre, in Parioli, via Panama it is a corridor of cherry trees, a personal gift from Emperor Hirohito in the 1920s.
And then, from Florence (the Via dei Ciliegi di Scandicci) a Vignolain Novara, at Dop cultivations of Etnainebriating colors and scents.
Two prints by master Hiroshige dedicated to cherry blossoms in Japan. Taken from “The cherry blossoms seen by the great masters of Japanese printing” by Anne Sefrioui (The Hippocampus).
East-West
For a truly “alternative” hanami ritual, Washington makes an appointment from March 20 to April 16 For thethe National Cherry Blossom Festival (https://nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/), along the Potomac and around the Tidal Basin. You can even adopt one of the 3,700 cherry trees in the Trust for the National Mall. And, in early April, ad Amsterdam the rain of petals invests the Kersenbloesempark (Cherry Blossom Park of Amstelveen), where they grow the 400 cherry trees donated in 2000 by Japan to the Netherlands, and in the Westerpark. Also note the Langelinie Park in Copenhagen and Kew Gardens in London: even if you pass by, in spring, the cherry trees steal the show.
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