YUKI, Japan —
Japan’s famed cherry blossom season blankets the country in the delicate white
flowers of the prized and popular “somei-yoshino” tree, delighting residents
and visitors alike. But some want change.
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The season produces a nationwide frenzy, as
forecasters compete to declare when full bloom will arrive, and Japanese unfurl
picnic blankets for sometimes raucous flower-viewing parties — at least in
pre-pandemic times.
The blooms of the ubiquitous somei-yoshino strain,
which accounts for more than 90 percent of the cherry trees planted in Japan,
last only around a week and tend to emerge simultaneously in a given region
because the trees are clones of a single specimen.
And while the tree has become synonymous with
blossom season, it is a growing headache for city planners because the strain
is prone to disease and tends to grow too large to be well managed in urban
settings.
“It’s all about planting the right flora in the
right place,” says Hideaki Tanaka, an expert on sakura — Japanese for cherry
blossoms — who is trying to popularize other strains.
“There are all kinds of sakura, not just
somei-yoshino. I want to help recreate the old times when people enjoyed a wide
variety,” added Tanaka, 63.
He runs a farm in Yuki, in eastern Japan’s Ibaraki
prefecture, with around 1,000 sample trees of 400 cherry varieties.
His goal is to convince local officials across Japan
to consider alternatives with petals in all shades of pink, or even rare green.
As Tanaka sits on the grass among his trees,
nail-sized petals of pale pink flutter down in the gentle breeze, while
elsewhere other flowers are still coming into bloom.
It is a scene more like the cherry blossom seasons
Japanese enjoyed several centuries ago, with a range of blooms arriving at
different times.
Promoting diversity
His farm is operated by the
Flower Association of Japan, which gives cherry saplings to communities that
want to create scenic spots to draw tourists and please residents.
The farm has distributed about three million
saplings, including somei-yoshino, but it is now promoting the “jindai-akebono”
variety which is more resistant to infection and grows smaller, making it
easier to prune.
Its flowers bloom around four days earlier than
somei-yoshino’s and are a stronger pink color.
But convincing Japan to turn its back on the
somei-yoshino strain may not be easy.
As urban development swept the country from the
1950s to 1980s, cities competed to plant countless millions of fast-growing
somei-yoshino trees.
Decades on, many of those trees have not been
properly pruned, leaving them vulnerable to an infection called “witch’s broom”
that deforms twigs, discourages flowering and can kill the trees.
Somei-yoshino also grows large — as high as
five-story buildings in some cases — with sprawling branches stretching from
enormous trunks that can develop hollows, and bulky roots that can crack
pavements.
Older trees are at risk during the country’s typhoon
season, giving city planners plenty of reasons to consider replacing them.
But residents are less convinced.
‘Green shoots of feeling’
In western Tokyo’s
Kunitachi, it has taken officials three decades to remove around 80 of the
approximately 210 trees that have been designated as needing to be felled or
replaced.
The trees formed an elegant floral tunnel every
spring and residents wanted to keep them, said Ryusuke Endo, an official at the
city’s roads and traffic division.
“Some people moved here to enjoy them and bought
apartments along the street,” he said, describing locals as emotionally
attached to the trees.
Elsewhere, efforts in Yokohama to axe around 300
cherry trees along a busy street caused public outcry and made television news.
In Kunitachi, officials have started planting the
jindai-akebono variety promoted by Tanaka’s farm, and residents are starting to
embrace the new arrivals.
“I believe green shoots of feeling are emerging
among residents who are starting to see that they too are very beautiful,” Endo
said.
But Tanaka said even diversity evangelists like him
are convinced the somei-yoshino will never be dethroned as Japan’s sakura king.
Instead, he hopes to encourage people to “learn
about the profound diversity of cherry trees”.
“The somei-yoshino will always be the main draw for cherry
viewing. I want to help communities create other places where people can enjoy
all kinds of cherry varieties.”
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