Blog

April 1 is one of the most important dates in Japan.  A new fiscal year starts, and so does a new school year.  As new recruits begin their working life, school children are busy getting to know their new classmates.

These changes and many more are associated with cherry blossoms, or sakura as they're called in Japan.  Along city streets, in school playgrounds and neighborhood parks, on mountains and river banks, sakura trees are everywhere, displaying their pink and white flowers in abundance almost always around this time of the year.

To know exactly when the flower opens up is a serious matter in Japan, so people there get a daily update from news media to track the sakura zensen (cherry blossom front) that moves up from southern islands to northern regions.

Living in California, thousands of miles from Japan, I too received news from home in Kyoto, about 10 days ago that the sakura front had just arrived there.  Thinking cherry blossoms are in full bloom in about 5 to 10 days, I imagine they must be the most beautiful this week in Kyoto.  Where to go for flower-viewing must be on the mind of many people there, and I bet Arashiyama, as in this painting, is one of their top choices.


Spring in Kyoto, Japan III

Click here for an enlarged view.
Media: Original watercolor on paper
Image Size: 8.25 x 11.5 in. (on 9 x 12 in. paper)
Mat/Frame: No
Purchase: Sold