Cherry Blossom Mythology

By Lauren Jacobs

When I was a child I used to spend hours looking up at the sky through the blooming branches of the cherry blossom tree that grew in my front yard. I was in awe of its beauty. I thought that was what people meant when they said that heaven was too beautiful for humans to comprehend. My neighborhood had so many cherry blossom trees their petals would be floating on the air every spring. Cherry blossoms are delicate, ephemeral, and stunning even after falling from the tree. Called the snow of spring, or compared to misty sunset clouds, the cherry blossom has inspired poetry, art and mythology for centuries.

 

 (Image: Lauren Jacobs)

The following is a selection of myths and legends that highlight the importance of cherry blossom trees in Japanese culture.

Cherry blossoms are especially sacred to Shinto goddess Konohana Sakuya Hime “maiden who causes trees to bloom”. Daughter of the mountain god Oyama Tsumi, and mother of the progenitors of humankind, she lives in the sky, and creates the blossoms with her breath.

Cherry blossoms are part of the brocade of the Lady of Mount Sano, who embodies spring.

The blossoms, beautiful even in death, represent a short, but well-lived life. One of the lessons of the cherry blossom is that happiness is a sudden gift, and should be cherished in the moment.

Cherry blossoms as a symbol were especially important to samurai warriors, who were often asked to sacrifice their lives at a young age (and like the blossoms, lived in a burst of brilliance, but died too soon). This metaphor carried through to the kamikaze pilots of World War II.

DC's own blossoms. (Image: Flickr)

There is a legend about a soldier who mourned the death of the cherry blossom he had played under as a boy. In the dead of winter, the soldier committed hari-kari under the tree, in hopes that his sacrifice would convince the tree to bloom one more time. The soldier’s life force passed to the tree, which instantly bloomed, and continued to bloom every year on the anniversary of the soldier’s death, even with snow on the ground.

“…it is as though…clouds faintly tinged by sunset have floated down from the highest sky to fold themselves

about the branches…there is only one glorious burst of blossoms, beneath each tree is covered…as by a drift of pink snow.” 

— Lafcadio Hearn, ‘In a Japanese Garden’

Bibliography

Sacred trees by Nathanial Altman, Copyright 2000

The Cherry Blossom Festival, by Ann McClellan, Copyright 2005

Myths and Legends of Flowers, Trees, Fruits and Plants, by Charles M. Skinner, Copyright 1911

The Meaning of Trees, by Fred Hageneder, Copyright 2005