“In the April of blossoms anyone may come,” runs an old proverb. It is a time for general outing. Even old women and the laziest stay-at-homes go out to call on friends, or make pilgrimages to temples of the dead or to Shinto shrines, not necessarily for flower-seeing, yet the gateway to the temple and the courtyard of the shrine are invariably studded with cherry trees.
The eighth of April is the birthday of Shiddhattha Gautama or the Buddha, and celebrations in his honor — the Festival of Flowers — are held at every Buddhist temple. That of Hibiya Park with its dazzling pageant of chigo (temple pages) and other ceremonies is typical, and the day sets the zenith of the sakura season. Little wonder that sightseers and devout pilgrims from rural districts should choose this time to visit Tokyo and other urban centers.
As for youths and maidens, ever on the alert for pleasure, it is, of course, the time of their life, as witness their joyful presence and their gay manners everywhere. Young students are on holiday in the sakura season, as the academic year begins about the middle of April. Alike on those happily graduated or matriculated, and on those “plucked,” the gods cause the blossoms to smile. All are out for flower-viewing, either to celebrate success or to dissipate gloom.
No more motley throngs of humanity can be seen on the face of the earth than at flower-viewing in the height of the sakura season. All grades of society are represented: bourgeoisie jostles with proletariat, smart city people mingle with ruddy country folk. There are ladies, factory girls, soldiers, students, merchants, artists, and many varieties of young and middle-aged men generally known as “salary men,” with their wives and children.
Occasionally one meets with foreigners, conspicuous by their tall stature and, if tourists, by their curious glances. Beggars are conspicuous by their absence. Is it due to the police control or what? They have no need to beg in spring. There are enough leavings of food, half empty bottles, and forgotten odds and ends to be garnered. Close observation will show some wretches silently cleaning up in the footprints of the holiday-makers. The magnanimity of nature, so beautifully symbolized in spring, is emulated at every scene of hanami, reminding us of the Lord’s miracle of the bounteous feeding of the multitudes.
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