Shiogamazakura: More Than Just A Pretty Tree

    I had been in Japan for a few years when one of my students pointed out there are different breeds of cherry blossom tree. This was after I had left my first teaching job in a mountain town with almost no young adults and even fewer good hanami spots. The most I had seen of the trees were in passing along one of the few major roads through the town, though I once spent a few hours reading underneath a sakura tree I found in a park next to my friend's apartment building near Nagoya around that same time. As the soft pink petals fluttered down around me, I found my normally pink-avoidant self willing to forgive and accept the color I associated with an aggressively feminine aspect I was never quite comfortable with. Sakura changed me then, even as I knew almost nothing about it.

    I can be forgiven for not knowing that not all sakura are exactly the same, as I had never done a proper hanami until some students took me out for it at my first long-term teaching job in Miyagi. The park they took me to had many varieties with obvious differences in petal coloration, blossom shape, and how they hang on the branch. I thought this must be some special park but it turns out that the number of parks in this area hold a number of different kinds of cherry tree, including the hanami park area at Shiogama Shrine. It was another couple of years after this revelation that I realized that Shiogama has its own special cherry blossom variety, Shiogamazakura, which blooms in abundance around the shrine.

    What I learned this year is that these blossoms tend to grace us a little later in the year than a lot of the others, meaning a trip to the shrine early in April to see all the lovely flowers revealed plenty of gorgeous blossoms, but not the city's namesake. That would have to wait another week or two.

    According to one tourist site, this specific breed of tree was mentioned in the poems of Emperor Horikawa way back in the Heian period and appears in a number of other works throughout history. It turns out there are number of sources regarding the history of the Shiogamazakura in Japanese but far fewer details available in English. An English-language pamphlet that seems to have been made by Shiogama Shrine in 2018 does explain a little bit, including that the double blooms as they were do not hold a measly ten petals (doubling the five petals of other sakura varieties) as I previously believed but upwards of 40. That means for every blossom there is at least eight times as many petals as there would be on a simpler sakura flower. This abundance gives the blossoms the visual impression of tiny spring pom poms decorating these trees, which only makes it seem more magical and unreal.

    As the second to last weekend in April came to a close, the Shiogamazakura were in full bloom at the shrine so I made my way up the side entrance stairs and into the garden. On the Shiogama Shrine website in Japanese, you can find not just which cherry blossom varieties are in bloom but also find a map in PDF form explaining the location of each type of tree as well.

    The shrine is of course the best place to see these lovely pom poms of delight as they bloom late in the season. The backdrop of the more than thousand-year-old shrine complex only adds to the beauty and charm. But all of this magic was almost for not. In 1945, Shiogamazakura were designated a National Natural Monument owing to its centuries old history and natural beauty. Unfortunately, this distinction was lost in 1959 when the one documented Shiogamazakura tree near the shrine died. Efforts were made to grow saplings from the old tree and the results were planted around the shrine with hope for a brighter future. In 1987, these hopes paid off as Shiogamazakura regained its designation as a National Natural Monument. Now the harrowing tale of a beautiful tree that was almost lost to time can be found in Japanese on the website database for nationally designated cultural properties.

    Shiogamazakura were actually not the only late bloomers about at the shrine on the day of my visit. Just Shiogama Shrine boasts about forty varieties of cherry blossom tree according to the Japanese language website for Shiogama Shrine. Around the country, more than 300 varieties of cherry blossom trees explode in shades ranging from soft white to bright pink. Not every breed has the distinction of being a National Natural Monument or being raised from the dead by extremely clever and hopeful horticulturalists.


Fliers with more information, provided by Shiogama Shrine.

    The next time you have the chance to walk by or sit under a cherry blossom tree, remember that there is more to the history and heritage of this national symbol than just a pretty tree.