A seasonal tradition born from cloning technology: How the custom of cherry blossom viewing was created.

　It's spring, the season for cherry blossom viewing, and the east wind is blowing.

　When we think of flower viewing, Japanese think of cherry blossoms, but in ancient Japan, people viewed Plum Blossoms. The Chinese custom of viewing plum blossoms in spring was introduced to Japan through an envoy to Tang.

　Why were plums so loved in ancient China?

　Plum trees bloom bright red even in the chilly early spring. The dignified beauty of plum trees impressed the ancient Chinese, who began cultivating them over 3,000 years ago.

　Along with Orchids, Bamboo, and Chrysanthemums, they are known as The Four Gentlemen and are often used as motifs in paintings.

　Similarly, the Pine Tree and Bamboo standing majestically under the winter sky, was called The Three Friends of Winter and was admired as a noble plant.

　During the Nara period, when plum blossom viewing became popular, Japanese Gardens were created that imitated Chinese gardens.

　Until now, the garden had only been spacious, but now, with consideration given to the overall aesthetics, a pond has been built, and hills or stones have been arranged to create an artificial garden. Trees have also been planted, with plum trees being the most popular.

　While gazing at the garden from the mansion, people drink sake, compose poetry, and play music. This is the beginning of Flower Viewing.

　Around the time when the envoy to Tang were abolished in the mid-Heian period, Japanese culture began to develop, not by imitating Chinese civilization, but by building on itself.

　Architecture, painting, clothing, and other things changed to a style uniquely Japanese, and gardens also became more in line with the Japanese aesthetic sense. The favorite flower also changed from plum to cherry.

　Perhaps the quiet, pale cherry blossoms matched the Japanese psyche better than the majestic and colorful plum blossoms.

　Like plum blossom viewing, cherry blossom viewing was initially popular among the imperial court aristocracy in the capital, but gradually spread to the provinces.

　As a result, it is no longer just a time to admire flowers, but has become a lively banquet event.

　There are also large-scale cherry blossom viewing events, such as Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Daigo Flower Viewing. In the mid-Edo period, it became a popular spring event among the common people as well.

　Currently, about 80% of cherry trees are of The Someiyoshino variety.

　It was created in Somei Village, Tokyo, at the end of the Edo period and was named Someiyoshino catch onto the popularity of Yoshino, a famous cherry blossom spot in Nara Prefecture.

　Someiyoshino cherry trees are a type of cherry tree that has been selectively bred, so they leave few seeds and are propagated by Grafting.

　This technique involves fastening a Someiyoshino's branch to the stump of another tree, causing the branch and the stump to fuse together and the Someiyoshino's branch to grow into a tree.

　The tree you want to propagate (In this case, a Someiyoshino) is called The Graft, and the stump that serves as the base is called The Rootstock.

　Unlike pollination, grafting directly inherits the tree's DNA, so the resulting tree is essentially a Clone.

　There are almost no individual differences among the many Someiyoshino that grow throughout the country.

　When cherry blossom season comes, the Someiyoshino in the area do an about-face as the nature of the Japanese, they all bloom and fall at the same time, because there is no individual difference between the trees.

　Cherry blossom viewing is also popular in China, the birthplace of flower viewing.

　One of the famous spots is Wuhan University in Wuhan, Hubei province, which is famous for its rows of cherry trees planted by Japanese people before the world war Ⅱ. In recent years, cherry trees have been planted all over China, and cherry blossom viewing, where people enjoy sightseeing when the trees are in full bloom is becoming more common.

　The plum blossom viewing tradition, which was introduced the cherry blossom viewing tradition in Japan and has now been re-imported back to China.

　A country's culture develops by importing other countries' cultures and fusing them with its own. We can get a glimpse of cultural development from the Plum Blossom Viewing in Japan and the Cherry Blossom Viewing in China.