Hanami or cherry blossom viewing is a naturally occurring part of my cross country cherry blossom photo workshop.  I say it’s, ‘natural’ because as I introduce my clients to different types of blossoms across Japan, we naturally fall into a state of Zen as we enjoy the sakura.  My participants and I are naturally given pause, and we collectively take a few moments and put down our cameras and simply sit and enjoy the transient beauty that is hanami, beautiful blushing cherry blossoms that will soon disappear, as Mother Nature makes us wait until next spring to see them reappear.

The tradition of cherry blossom hanami dates back to the Heian Period (794 - 1195 AD) when Emperor Saga paired the ephemeral beauty of the cherry blossoms with Japan’s delicious rice wine and cuisine, a tradition that is still carried on today.  However, the sakura was not the original flower that was praised and viewed as part of hanami.  Before poems and tales of folklore were written about cherry blossoms, in the age before Heian, the Nara Period (710 - 794 AD), the Ume or plum blossom was considered the natural focus for hanami viewing parties.

Tracing back to the First Nations People of Japan, the Ainu, the sakura was originally thought to be a kami, or god, what Ainu refer to as kamuy, inhabiting the trees, so hanami participants would bring offerings of food and sake to the trees to help predict the year’s harvest as well as a prelude to the launch of the rice-planting season.  Initially a practice for the Imperial Court and samurais, the tradition sprinkled down to the entire citizenry of Japan during the Edo Period, and since that time every region of Japan with all of its people participate in this annual tradition, including myself.