Cherry blossoms and the beauty of things that pass

Every spring, Japan follows the cherry blossom almost like a weather system. News programmes report when the trees are expected to bloom in each region, and people plan picnics, walks and evenings around a window that lasts only a week or two. Then the petals fall, and the trees go back to being ordinary trees for the rest of the year.

Hanami

The custom of gathering to look at the blossoms is called hanami, literally "flower viewing". Today it often means a picnic under the trees with friends, family or colleagues, sometimes lasting well into the evening. But the practice is old, and poems about cherry blossoms run through Japanese literature for more than a thousand years.

Mono no aware

The idea most often linked to the blossoms is mono no aware, usually translated as a gentle sadness or sensitivity towards things that pass. The cherry blossom is loved not despite its short life but because of it. A flower that lasted all year would be pleasant; one that lasts a week asks you to pay attention now.

What the photographs show

This set moves through the different ways the season is seen. Roads become tunnels of pale pink. Branches lean over calm water and a mossy stone wall. Blossoms frame the most modern landmark in Tokyo, the Skytree, as easily as they frame Mount Fuji behind a woman in kimono. The last frame is not cherry at all but plum, which flowers earlier, in late winter, and announces that the cherry season is coming.

What connects them is softness. Blossoms diffuse light, lower contrast and turn hard places, roads, towers, walls, into something gentle for a short time.

A reflection

When I first read about mono no aware as a student, it felt distant. After years of living away from home, it feels much closer. The things we miss most are rarely the permanent ones. They are seasons, short meetings, a particular light on a particular afternoon. Cherry blossoms are simply the most visible reminder.

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Photos: 7010naoto, dep377, kanenori, mak0t0, phgvu307, u_hyyc32u22d on Pixabay, used under the Pixabay Content License. These are not my photographs.