TRAVEL
THE ANNUAL
Cherry Blossom
Festival An Enduring Celebration of Transient Beauty by Zach Brown
eginning on March 20 and running through April 16, the 2017 Annual National Cherry Blossom Festival will herald the return of spring in the nation’s capital. For more than 100 years, Washington D.C. has been home to a grove of Japanese cherry trees that is the catalyst for a grand, four-week festival that includes food, entertainment and art, which expands across the culture of America and Japan. The history of the celebration of the cherry blossoms, however, extends beyond the Capital or even the founding of America. Since the 8th century, the cherry blossom has encapsulated an allure and appreciation of life that has echoed in the millennia since. There exists a feudal Japanese proverb that states “among blossoms, the cherry blossom; among men, the warrior.” At the time of the proverb’s origin, Japan was controlled by the revered samurai. As such, the cherry blossoms’ beauty was considered unmatched in the same way a samurai’s abilities, authority and honor were unrivaled. Throughout the country’s history woodblock prints, haiku and currency would often laud the beauty of the cherry blossom.
It is not simply the blossom’s appearance that gives the tree such weight through the history of Japan, but rather the symbolic nature the trees carry with them. The Japanese concept of mono no aware or the “pathos of things” — a Japanese term for the awareness of impermanence — takes root in the symbolism of the cherry blossom through its graceful, but wholly volatile, beauty. To this end, mono no aware, and by extension the cherry tree, serve as reminders of the beauty and fragility of life even beyond our own. It was with this concept that Tokyo Mayor Yukio Ozaki gifted Washington D.C. 3,000 cherry trees in 1912. It wasn’t until 1927 that the first “proper” Cherry Blossom Festival took place on our nation’s capital when a group of school children reenacted the initial planting that had taken place 15 years prior. Since that time, the festival has continued to grow. A century later, the spirit of Ozaki’s initial gesture of friendship and empathy holds true. What once was a single day of watching the blossoms has become a four-week celebration of culture, art and unity. A near month of events, parades and celebration surround the symbolism of the cherry blossom as visitors from across the globe migrate to
“In the cherry blossom’s shade, there is no such thing as a stranger.” — Kobayashi Issa
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