日本人とお花見-Sakura Craze

英語講師から「お花見について書いて」と言われて書いたもの。気が向けばいつか日本語にしてみます。

As a childhood, I did not go out for ohanami because my family did not have such a custom.  Therefore, when I first started working I was so surprised to see how enthusiastic people are about ohanami.

Sakura is not just a flower which could be an excuse for binge drinking.  Love for the flower is rooted deep down in the mind and spirits of Japanese people and our attachment to the flower is special.  

Many people have certain memories accompanied by sakura.  This is because its blooming season is the season to mark the start/end of a certain phase of life of Japanese people.  In other words, sakura memories overlap with his/her special memories of life.  They are Nyugaku-shiki (school starting ceremony, fond memories of childhood), Sotsugyo-shiki (graduation, farewell to school and old friends), Nyusha-shiki (start working), Tenkin (relocation), retirement, etc.  People sentimentally look back his/her stories with sakura.

Literature also tells us how Japanese people loved and cherished the flower.  Saigyo, a monk and poet (1118-1190) put he "wished he could die under a sakura tree in spring".                                                                                           「願わくは花の下にて春死なんそのきさらぎの望月のころ」

Old song "Sakura Sakura" was composed by an unknown composer for children in Edo period.   

Ango Sakaguchi (1906-1955) wrote "sakura is madness".                               Motojiro Kajii's (1901-1932) novel famously starts with a passage "there is a body buried under a sakura tree".  These are just name a few.  

In Showa period, "Sakura saku" meant you passed an entrance examination.  "Sakura chiru" is you failed.

Sakura also symbolize people's life.  In a war time military song, people sang "Do ki no sakura" and encouraged soldiers.  Sakura which is fallen easily by a wind was compared with soldiers who fall in a war.  Sadly enough, at that time dying and falling like sakura was deemed not to be a tragic but a graceful and a heroic death for their own mother country.  People who lost their loved ones consoled themselves by thinking that their loved ones's death were not meaningless.

I think I am privileged that I can appreciate the flower in that way.  Nevertheless, I stay away from ohanami people.  Some of them are just non-environmentally friendly people scattering bins and noises.  The worst case scenario is that young people lose their life by "ikki-nomi", chugging a class of drink in one go, as this happens at other occasions, too.  It is a shame and I strongly condemn this kind of fashion.  It is deplorable and I feel so sad about the way they take to end their life.

I would rather enjoy sakura personally by myself.  It would be nice to walk around the tree or watch them from a distance and sometimes think about my father passed away in April.

End