ABSTRACT
Flowering cherries have a natural and cultural history of perhaps two millennia in Japan, while feelings that accompany the blossoms are profound and complex. Blossom beauty has been used in Japan for political purposes for ages. Cherries are known as sakura in Japan and although they are not perceived as such by a large majority even today, for some patriotic Japanese sakura do represent the nation. Be that as it may, when brought outside the country without their intimate context, for just about any Japanese the blossoms are quickly understood as representing the home country with all its fond memories. It is this cherry culturalism that encourages all kinds of planting activities outside Japan, often with a role for a particular horticultural variety, the Tokyo Cherry that was the Nation’s Flower of Dainippon imperialism. This chapter explores species and varieties of Japanese cherries in public space for mechanisms of botany, aesthetics, patriotism and nationalist politics in Japan, the USA, the streets of Germany, and a mountain trail in Tanzania.
