ABSTRACT

This chapter provides an insight into the nature of homogenizing discourse in the historical context of Japanese culture and cherry blossoms. It demonstrates that the historical evolutional process in which the multilayered meanings of cherry blossoms are reduced to a singular homogenizing discourse. The chapter shows how cherry blossoms have successfully helped the Japanese construct their homogeneous identify. It attempts to portray the taken-for-granted assumption of Japan's homogeneity as a spur to further inquiry. The chapter also reviews how cherry-blossom discourses have been constructed, maintained, and shared with a focus on the Someiyoshino. It discusses how the history of cherry blossom is reconstructed when encountering cultural others. The chapter then examines the historical horizon of cherry blossoms that has been shared by the Japanese, placing a particular focus on the transformation that occurs when encountering cultural others.