Ephemeral Bliss
The Japanese spring-time ritual of ‘flower viewing’ or hanami is well known these days. Travel companies run special holidays for tourists to visit Japan and take part in festivals dedicated to cherry blossom – or at least they did, pre-pandemic. Incredibly, the first references to hanami can be found in Japanese scriptures dating from as long ago as 720AD. In 8th-century England, meanwhile, the old Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were at war, the Picts kept trying to invade Northumbria while Vikings pillaged the east coast. The Japanese tradition of spending spring admiring exquisite cherry blossom sounds so peaceful in comparison.
It was hundreds of years or ‘mountain cherries’ for the wild plants, and or ‘village cherries’ for the garden selections.
