Life in Kansai

“Wa-a-a…kirei,” which means “how beautiful” in English, are the words you are likely to hear when a Japanese person reacts to seeing 40 to 50 cherry blossoms in full bloom lined up in one place. Next comes a respectful silence for the overwhelming beauty and the emotions that it stirs inside. Finally, there is the pose with a peace sign for the obligatory photo in front of the cherry blossoms. This is Japan after all.

Cherry blossoms in Kansai typically bloom from the end of March to the first week of April. Their buds first appear around the spring equinox and wait patiently on their branches for a couple days of warm sunshine before popping out like popcorn on a stick. When unaffected by rain or strong gusts of wind, they will remain on the trees for three to five days before scattering in the wind like falling snowflakes.

Every April starts a new business and academic year in Japan, and in Kansai the appearance of cherry blossoms often coincides with company and school entrance ceremonies. Similarly, many young couples choose this time of year to get married. In this way, cherry blossoms mark the passage of time and inspire a feeling of hope in those starting a new path in their lives.

Hanami Parties for Viewing Cherry Blossoms

Hanami is a Japanese word for the traditional custom of Japanese people sitting underneath a cherry blossom tree, eating a packed lunch, drinking beer and sake, and even singing karaoke. In a typical year, mothers with their small children, families, close friends, and colleagues find a place to spread out their blue plastic tarps to enjoy seeing the cherry blossoms together.

While it sounds like jolly good fun, the ground can be quite damp and cold, the wind chilly, and the thought of drinking cold beer slightly less appealing, especially during night-viewing. Nevertheless, these hanami parties renew relationships, build camaraderie, and strengthen social bonds while giving people an opportunity to engage in shared humanity.

This is why the voluntary (and not so voluntary) restraints placed on the movements of people in Japan these past two years for COVID-19 have been so stressful on the Japanese people. Fortunately, the recent semi-state of emergency was lifted on March 21, 2022, enabling people to take a step forward toward normalcy.

Visiting Some Famous Places in Kyoto

As with its temples and shrines, Kyoto has hundreds of places that are famous for cherry blossoms, and even taking five days to tour the city would not be enough time to see them all. For a day trip, limiting your destinations to East Kyoto can help maximize your time for viewing cherry blossoms since the distances between the famous gardens inside temples and shrines are smaller.

Unfortunately, a significant number of temples and shrines are either undergoing major renovations or preparing for renovations since tourism for these past two years has been exclusively domestic and restricted by state of emergency proclamations. Visitors in 2023 can expect those renovations to be completed.

Maruyama Park

Philosopher’s Walk

Kodaiji Temple

Siege at the Gates of Osaka Castle

Being closed to picnickers and alcohol meant that the appeal of going inside the Osaka Castle garden to see the cherry blossoms was significantly diminished. Undeterred, throngs of Osakans stretched out their blue plastic sheets under the cherry trees bordering the moat to lay a daylong siege outside the castle wall with their lunches, snacks, and beverages of choice.

Some even mocked those behind the castle walls by throwing discs to each other, engaging in random frolicking, and doing cartwheels on the grass lawn in front of the main gate. The message was clear: “We reclaim our weekend territory.” In normal times, Osaka Castle is a popular place with plenty of space for friends and family to hang out together.

Keep Walking at Shukugawa Park

“No alcohol and social gatherings” was the message sent to Nishinomiya residents over the LINE social media app when the cherry blossoms started blooming and people started flocking to see them. While a few people had already enjoyed their hanami parties prior to the edict, the remaining faced strict enforcement of the city ordinance by an elderly man with a yellow vest and an attitude.

While the prohibition of alcohol and social gatherings was disappointing, the park is located in a residential area where large crowds provide little economic benefit while the trash left in their wake creates enormous work for the volunteers, mostly retirees, who tidy up the park.

Another reason for maintaining the strict restrictions is the lingering fear among residents of the recent coronavirus variants. While the number of deaths from COVID-19 in Japan may seem minuscule to people in Europe and the United States, there has been noticeable rise from the omicron variant, and the populations in Nishinomiya and nearby cities are largely comprised of elderly people.

That is not to say that there are not a number of grumpy, authoritative elderly people living in Nishinomiya and Hyogo Prefecture-because there are-but in typical years prior to COVID-19 the spirit of hanami had permitted both alcohol and social gatherings.

Even as the expectations for 2022 seem more hopeful than the previous year, people in Kansai wonder when life will get back to normal. Still the cherry blossoms fills us with hope for the future and a communal spirit that believes that we will overcome all the obstacles before us.

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The firstborn in a family enjoys a celebrity status right up to the birth of a sibling, at which time the child gets unceremoniously pushed aside and forgotten. The plum blossom tree, or ume in Japanese, is that firstborn child.

Arriving from China in the 8th century, plum blossoms occupied a preeminent position in the Imperial Court of Emperor Saga during the Nara Period (710–794 CE). At that time, Japanese aristocrats attended garden hanami (flower viewing) parties to gaze at the beautiful pink and white flowers and write poems about the beauty of plum blossoms.

Then came the Heian Period (794–1185) and the appearance of the precocious cherry blossoms, which supplanted plum blossoms as the object of adoration in the eyes of the Japanese aristocrats.

Nevertheless, there are still a few places around Japan where plum blossoms are celebrated for their beauty. Two of the most famous places in Kansai are the Jonan and Kitano Tenman shrines in Kyoto.

Jonan Shrine

Built when the capital moved from Nara to Kyoto in the 8th century, the
Jonan Shrine, or “shrine south of the capital,” was established in the southern part of Kyoto to ward off calamities and offer prayers for the prosperity of the country. It is also a shrine for people who are bad at directions and seek safe travels.

Throughout the year, mikos, or shrine maidens, offer a ritual kagura dance to the gods before blessing shrine visitors with bells and a seasonal flower branch. In ancient times, shrine maidens served as a spiritual medium to communicate with the dead, perform healing rituals for the sick, and foretell the future.

There are seven gods enshrined here including Amaterasu Ōmikami, the sun goddess,  Ōkuninushi, the deity who protects Japan, and Sugawara no Michizane, known posthumously as Tenjin, the deity of learning in Japan.

Rakusuien Garden

The Rakusuien Garden, which covers approximately 30,000 sq. meters, surrounds the Jonan shrine and is comprised of five gardens. The Spring Mountain Garden treats visitors to roughly 150 plum blossoms trees and camellia plants before leading them to the Heian Garden where they can see a small stream and lush moss. Across from these gardens are the Muromachi, Momoyama, and the Jonan Imperial Villa gardens where visitors can see a pond with carp, a teahouse, rock garden, and flowers that include cherry blossoms and azaleas.

The garden is impressive no matter the season and is often called the Tale of Genji garden since all of the 100 different types of plants mentioned in the Tale of Genji can be found at the Jonan Shrine.

Kitano Tenman Shrine

Located in west Kyoto, this shrine was established in 947 and enshrines the spirit of the scholar and poet Sugawara no Michizane, who was canonized after his death as Tenjin, the deity of learning. He was the first person to have been deified in Japan.

While the Jonan Shrine also has a small shrine devoted to Sugawara no Michizane, the Kitano Tenman Shrine was the first established for the deity Tenjin, and it currently serves as the head shrine for the various Tenjin shrines throughout the country.

Sugawara no Michizane had been a gifted civil servant who quickly rose up the ranks to become advisor to Emperor Uda. Unfortunately, when  Emperor Uda abdicated his throne, people who had been jealous of the civil servant’s success had him banished in 901 to the faraway island of Kyushu where he lived in obscurity until he died two years later.

Following his death, Kyoto suffered severe thunderstorms, earthquakes, and outbreaks of the plague, and there were sudden, mysterious deaths among the people who had banished him and members of the imperial family. People concluded that the angry spirit of Sugawara no Michizane was to blame for these misfortunes, and the Kitano Tenman Shrine was established to appease his angry spirit.

Bai-en Garden

Plum blossoms were a personal favorite of Sugawara no Michizane. For this reason, the Bai-en Garden within Kitano Tenman Shrine has nearly 2,000 plum blossom trees. From mid-February through early March, the garden is open to the public for a small entrance fee. On February 25, the shrine holds its annual Ume Blossom Festival, and there is a tea ceremony on the day where geikos and maikos (Kyoto geishas and apprentices) from the nearby dKamishichiken district come to the shrine to serve matcha tea and Japanese sweets.

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