Yamazakura: flowers, forests and poetry

Here yamazakura means the deciduous tree called ヤマザクラ in Japanese, a member of the rose family. It is named Cerasus jamasakura in some classifications and Prunus jamasakura in others. “Mountain cherry” can also be a general description of wild cherries in hills, and Chinese common names cover other taxa. The scientific name fixes the scope here.

Yamazakura commonly flowers in March or April. Five-petalled white to pale pink blossoms appear alongside expanding young leaves, often reddish brown but variable in colour. Flower stalks and leaf stalks are normally hairless. This differs from Somei-yoshino’s usual sequence of flowers before conspicuous leaves, making the flower-and-leaf combination a useful clue.

The elongated leaves have fine teeth and a pale underside when mature. Brown to purplish bark bears horizontal lenticels, small areas allowing gas exchange through the bark. Small stone fruits follow the flowers and ripen dark purple to black in early summer; they taste bitter. This flowering wild cherry is distinct from trees cultivated for sweet cherries.

Yamazakura occurs in the hills and warm-temperate secondary forests of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. Secondary forests develop after earlier woodland has been disturbed. Japan’s Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (FFPRI) describes the typical variety from Miyagi to the Ōsumi Peninsula in Kagoshima. Kew’s broader species treatment includes the Nansei Islands and the Tsukushi variety. Reports beyond Japan involve differing classifications and possible confusion with similar cherries.

A study examined Asiatic black bears feeding on yamazakura fruit and compared ingested seeds with seeds whose pulp was removed by hand. Bears selected ripe fruit. In the tests, ingestion did not visibly damage seeds, and germination percentages did not differ significantly. The results support bears as potential seed dispersers, connecting the tree with forest life beyond its flowering season.

Yamazakura was admired from the Heian through the Edo periods. Individual trees vary in flower colour, young-leaf colour and flowering time, so a wooded hillside need not bloom in one colour or on one day. Older writing may also use “mountain cherry” descriptively rather than for the exact taxon recognised today.

Mountain cherries predominate at Yoshino, where cherry trees have long been planted and cared for in connection with devotion to Zaō Gongen. The Shimo, Naka, Kami and Oku Senbon areas occupy different elevations and terrain. Flowering usually progresses uphill, with dates varying by year. The place name Yoshino does not mean that its trees are all Somei-yoshino.

The sakuramori, or cherry-tree caretakers, of the Yoshinoyama Hoshōkai conservation association weed and maintain the landscape through the year. The association describes planting sturdy two- or three-year-old nursery seedlings on sunny slopes during dormancy to replace lost trees, then securing them with stakes. A long tradition of donated cherry trees continues through nursery work, replacement planting and later care. The flowering woodland also records human work.

In 1790, Motoori Norinaga wrote the Shikishima poem on his self-portrait bearing the age sixty-one. It answers an imagined question about his inner life with mountain cherry blossoms shining in the morning sun. His memorial museum interprets it as an expression of Norinaga’s own feelings. The flower belongs to a particular poetic self-description, with attention to colour and morning light.

After Norinaga’s death, the poem attracted questions and criticism. It was later used in national education: the memorial museum identifies its inclusion in a state Japanese-language textbook published in 1943. Later readings also linked it with bushidō and falling blossoms. A poem centred on flowers in morning light could acquire different meanings through later use.

Yamazakura wood is hard and relatively stable, making it useful for furniture, carving and ukiyo-e printing blocks. Fine carved lines depend on a stable surface, connecting the material with printing technique. Cherry bark is also used in kabazaiku, a craft decorating containers and other objects with bark; the craft name does not mean the material must come from birch.

The Association for the Preservation of Ukiyo-e Woodblock Carving and Printing describes drying yamazakura timber for several years, cutting boards and planing both faces smooth in rough, intermediate and finishing stages along the grain. Thin strips fitted to the ends of the key block, which prints the ink outlines, help resist distortion and warping. A drawing is then pasted face down on the block, and a knife follows its ink outlines. Fine contours depend on the material together with drying, flattening and measures against warping.

The mountain-cherry materials used in Kakunodate kabazaiku extend beyond the yamazakura species discussed here: Semboku City also names ōyamazakura and kasumizakura. Japan’s agriculture ministry describes a katamono method used for tea canisters. A core is formed around a wooden mould, then cherry bark is attached with animal glue to make a cylinder. Heated metal tools help fit the bark around curves and corners. This uses bark rather than a container hollowed from solid cherry wood, and the craft name alone does not identify the cherry species.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) global assessment made in 2020 and published in 2021 lists Prunus jamasakura as Least Concern. This is a species-level threat category, rather than a guarantee about every woodland or old tree. Nursery names also require care: FFPRI notes that plants sold as yamazakura can include kasumizakura and ōyamazakura.