Hanami
Papers – Handmade, Fabriano, card, Optix
Framed Size 640 x 450 mm
What is it?
Hanami means “flower viewing” in Japanese and is the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the transient beauty of the sakura (cherry blossom) flowers in springtime. These beautiful flowers only blossom for about two weeks, creating carpets of pink and white when they fall from the trees. Hanami is the festive celebration of picnicking under the Sakura trees, with sake and bentos.
A more ancient form of
hanami also exists in Japan, which is enjoying the
plum blossoms
ume instead. This kind of
hanami is popular among older people, because they are calmer events.
Festival Food
Special dishes eaten at Hanami time are
dango which are rice cakes on a stick with a sweet sauce. The shops fill with all sorts of cherry blossom flavoured food including: sake, wine, green tea, soba noodles, various Japanese sweets, and Kit Kats!
History
The practice of
hanami is many centuries old. The custom is said to have started during the
Nara period (710–794) when it was
ume blossoms that people admired in the beginning. But by the
Heian period (794–1185), sakura came to attract more attention and
hanami became synonymous with sakura.
Emperor Saga of the Heian period adopted this practice, and held flower-viewing parties with sake and feasts underneath the blossoming boughs of sakura trees in the
Imperial Court in Kyoto. Sakura were seen as a metaphor for life itself, luminous and beautiful yet fleeting and ephemeral.
Sakura originally was used to divine that year's harvest as well as announce the rice-planting season. People believed in
kami (divine beings ) inside the trees and made offerings. Afterwards, they partook of the offering with
sake.
The custom was originally limited to the elite of the Imperial Court, but soon spread to
samurai society and by the
Edo period the common people as well.
Fun Facts
Thousands of people fill the parks to hold feasts under the flowering trees. Usually people go to the parks to reserve the best places to celebrate
hanami many hours or even days before.
The typical Japanese picnic is held on a plastic sheet laid on the ground. Shoes are removed to walk on this sheet, just as they are when entering the home.
The “
cherry blossom front”
sakura-zensen is forecast each year,. The first cherry blossoms happen in the
subtropical southern islands of
Okinawa, while on the northern island of
Hokkaido, they bloom much later. The television and
newspapers closely follow this cherry blossom front, as it slowly moves from South to North. The nightly news shows this forecast along with the weather!
Hanami at night is called
yozakura night sakura.
Sakura symbolizes chastity, love, affection, purity, and good luck.