- This article is about cherry blossoms; for other meanings, see Sakura (disambiguation).
 Close up on Cherry blossoms Sakura (桜) is the Japanese name for the cherry tree and its blossoms. The fruit is the sakuranbo.
A well-known symbol of Japan, sakura are said to represent the beautiful yet fleeting and ephemeral nature of life, and are a frequent subject of all forms of Japanese art, including a popular folk song, originally meant for the shakuhachi bamboo flute. The yearly Hanami festival celebrates the beauty of sakura.
Japan's most beloved variety is the Somei Yoshino. Its flowers are nearly pure white, tinged with the palest pink, especially near the stem. The flowers bloom, and usually fall, before the leaves come out, so trees look nearly white from top to bottom.
Other categories include yama zakura, yae zakura, and shidare zakura. The yae zakura have large flowers, thick with rich pink petals. The shidare zakura, or weeping cherry, has branches that fall like those of a weeping willow, bearing cascades of pink flowers.
Annually, the Japanese track the sakura zensen, or Cherry-blossom Front. It begins in Okinawa in February, and typically reaches Kyoto and Tokyo at the end of March or the beginning of April. Then it proceeds north, arriving in Hokkaido a few weeks later.
Japan gave 3,000 sakura as a gift to the United States in 1912 to celebrate the nations' then growing friendship. These trees have since lined the shore of the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC (see West Potomac Park), and the gift was renewed with another 3,800 trees in 1956. The sakura trees continue to be a popular tourist attraction (and the subject of the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival)[1] (http://www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/) when they reach full bloom in early spring.
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