Hanami 花見 Flower Viewing

Hanami　花見　Flower Viewing




I always look forward to the arrival of Spring. I love all of the young green sprouts and shoots. Watching the young sprigs develop into bigger leaves. Bulging flower blossoms on the stem of a tree or bush just pressing themselves to come out. Flowers pushing themselves out of the ground. Birds flying back in . Yeah it is a spectacular show!



While living in Japan, every year everyone looks forward to cherry blossom viewing. It is one of the most spectacular occasions of the year. There are lots of parties held under the blossoming cherry trees and many kinds of festivals held all over. Lots of fun!

After returning to the states , my heart ached to see those blossoms and to attend Hanami. I would drive down to Fort Valley Ga., the peach growing region and do Hanami with all of those peach blossoms trees there.

It is really beautiful, as you arrive closer to the fields you can smell those blossoms. Such a wonderful fragrance wafting through the air. The buzzing of bees is something else you can expect to hear.

After enjoying the beautiful scenery and a picnic lunch, it would be time to go home. While driving home I would watch the sun set and think about the earlier part of that day in the peach orchard field, what had seen and enjoyed. I would think about Japan and Hanami, Then I would think about it metaphorically, e.g., flowers are luminous and beautiful yet fleeting and ephemeral. Seasons are too the same, just like the transience of ones life.



It was said that a warrior’s life could be compared to the cherry blossom. His skill and character was very spectacular like a cherry blossom, and his life was short like a cherry blossom. Scattered blossoms symbolize a fallen samurai. My teacher Sato Kimbei said that a warriors liked the cherry blossom because it made them feel calm and neutral. I guess that is what I was feeling as I drove home.



Flowers symbolize many things in different ways depending on the country. For example, the Iris ; Iris is a Greek word for the goddess of the rainbow, which she used to travel to the earth with a message from the gods and to transport souls of women to the underworld. The three upright petals and the three drooping sepals are symbols of faith, valor and wisdom.



In Japan , the Iris leaf looks like a sword so it became a symbol for boys for there bravery.

The flower forget me not, originated from a man trying to get his lover some flowers at the edge of a cliff, and slipped and fell off. While falling he shouted ,”Don’t forget me!”

The wisteria and the pine tree, are seen as a bond of love between man and wife. Never separate.

A pine tree is an ever green, so it represents longevity.

Twin pine needles are also used in weddings to symbolize long life, however if one dies, so does the other.

Sometimes it is not the flower itself, but the name, e.g., Kake -win! For persimmon, or Take-strength for bamboo, Matsu-wait. For pine tree.

The Chrysanthemum flower was an imperial symbol for Japan. Blossom period is very long and its petal resembling the sun. The Japanese being the children of the sun.



No matter what nature symbolizes in one cultural or another, it teaches us many things. People have tried to describe, associate, explain, and compare some aspect of their lives using the flowers and other nature. Most people have only a superficial and commercial use of flowers and other nature. As for my self, I can only feel a strong bond between flowers and other nature, I am natural too.

We all can enjoy Hanami, anytime any where. but in spring there is an abundance of Hanami activity that takes place. So lets enjoy something that we all have in common, nature. Let it remind you of your transitory life, gentleness, impermanence,beauty,gracefulness , etc.,and because of that understanding , we all can appreciate  and enjoy our lives more.