The most beautiful tree: Sakura

kw: book reviews, nonfiction, photography, sakura, flowering cherry

In Cherry Blossoms Jake Rajs presents about 150 images of flowering cherry trees in the U.S., primarily in Washington, D.C. and New York City, which has several major botanical gardens and arboreta. To minimize copyright concerns, I've excerpted only four images from the book, and supplemented with three of my own from Japan. To me, the Sakura is the loveliest of trees.

I took my family to Japan to visit relatives several times, and in 1992, we went at Sakura time, thei first week of April. This image was taken at Odawara castle, across the moat with its arched bridge, deep in shadow and varely visible below the profusely blossoming trees.

Later that week we were in Gifu, an agricultural area. Though I saw a few Sakura bonsai, none were close enough to photograph. This little Momo (flowering peach) was right on the doorstep. This is one of my favorite photos from that trip.

I should say as an aside that I've seen more bonsai in the U.S. than in Japan. Where a Japanese family may have one or two, both Japanese and non-Japahese bonsai fanciers in the U.S. tend to have many. My brother-in-law had perhaps two hundred.

I suppose it relates to the American (and British) passion for making collections. Older cultures live among antiquities. Americans make collections of other folks' old stuff.

We also visited an art center at Narikawa. This image is scanned from a post card I bought there. The artist makes huge canvases, six to eight feet high by as long as the wall you plan to use. He uses a stenciling technique to put the thousands of flowers on the tree. Indeed, his paintings are produced in a multilayered way, and have fractal characteristics.

Sakura blossoms may be single or double. To my eye, the "double" ones seem to be at least quadruple. The single blossom is usually faintly pink, though an individual tree may be nearly white, or more richly pink. This is the traditional Sakura.

(This image and those that follow are from Rajs's book.)

Double blossoms are darker in color. A tree with white double blossoms is more likely to be a peach, and one with a richer purplish pink than shown here, it is probably a plum. Japan has quite a variety of very lovely early Spring flowering trees.

This is one of several photos from the book that shows the color contrast between various Sakura varieties. The Brooklyn Botanic Gardens staff tend to juxtapose contrasting varieties, while the Japanese habit is to plant masses of the same variety.

The afternoon light makes the Washington Monument and the Sakura trees nearby take on a golden hue.

If I have any quibble with the book, it is that the pages are only 5"x7" in size (13x18cm). A coffee-table book would be excessive, but a nice octavo volume would be quite stunning.