The Party Under the Cherry Trees Japan Has Thrown for Over 1,200 Years

Updated October 15, 2026 | By Tokyo Paul

Somewhere in a Tokyo park on a late March morning, a young employee sits alone on a plastic sheet, guarding a patch of grass for colleagues who will not arrive until evening. It is a familiar sight, and a slightly comic one, but the job matters. Beneath the cherry trees, a good spot is a prized thing. The occasion is hanami (flower viewing), the springtime custom of gathering under blossoming trees to eat, drink, talk and watch the petals fall. It looks like a casual picnic. It is also one of the oldest continuous traditions in the country.

Hanami has a documented history of more than twelve centuries, and it still shapes how Japan marks the arrival of spring, from the evening weather report to the seasonal sweets in every shop window. Knowing where the custom came from, how the blossom forecast works and which unwritten rules apply will help you join in comfortably. This guide follows the story from the Nara court to the crowds of the Edo period, then covers timing your trip and the manners that keep a busy park pleasant for everyone.

From Plum Poems to Imperial Parties

The first flowers admired in Japan were not cherry blossoms at all. During the Nara period (710 to 794), people borrowed a Chinese habit of enjoying poetry and wine beneath blooming plum trees. The custom began among city elites. By the Heian period (794 to 1185) the mood had shifted, and cherry blossoms overtook plum in the court's affections. The word hanami itself came to mean sakura viewing, and court records place the first observed cherry bloom in the year 812.

Emperor Saga is credited with holding flower-viewing parties at the imperial court in Kyoto, with sake and a feast, and many accounts treat these gatherings as the start of hanami as a social event. The Tale of Genji, the great Heian-era novel, is the first text said to use the word for cherry viewing. Behind the elegance lay something older. Cherry trees were once used to read the coming harvest and to signal the start of rice planting, and people believed that spirits (kami) lived in the branches, so offerings were left and then shared with sake.

How Hanami Reached Ordinary People

What began with the aristocracy spread down the social ladder. Samurai took it up, and in 1598 the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi staged an enormous blossom party and procession at Daigo-ji, a temple in southern Kyoto. He had around 700 extra cherry trees planted for the occasion, and the temple is still celebrated for its blossoms today. That event is remembered as one of the grandest hanami ever held, a show of power dressed up as a picnic.

The real turn came in the Edo period (1603 to 1868), when townspeople joined in. The shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune planted cherry groves to encourage outdoor gatherings, and more than 200 cherry varieties were recorded in this era. Later, in the Meiji period, the Yoshino cherry (Somei-Yoshino) spread across the country and became the standard hanami tree. The old proverb hana yori dango (dumplings rather than flowers) teases that many guests care more about the snacks and drinks than the blossoms, which tells you how relaxed these gatherings had become.

Reading the Sakura Forecast

Cherry blossoms do not keep to a calendar. Depending on the region, they open anywhere from late March to early May, and in Okinawa as early as mid-January. Each tree's flowers last only about one to two weeks. The result is the sakura-zensen (cherry blossom front), a wave of bloom that travels north across the archipelago, and people follow it closely. Weather companies and apps publish forecasts every spring, and the progress of the front is a regular feature of the news.

The official language is precise. The Japan Meteorological Agency declares a bloom when five or six flowers have opened on a designated tree, and for Tokyo that tree stands at Yasukuni Shrine, one of 58 preselected trees nationwide. Full bloom (mankai) is declared when about 80 percent of the flowers are open. Records show how much timing can drift: in 2021 the peak in Kyoto arrived on March 26, the earliest since written records began in 812. Plan with some flexibility, because the forecast moves with the weather.

What a Hanami Spread Looks Like

A typical gathering is simple. Friends, families or coworkers lay out sheets, often blue, and share bento boxes, rice balls, dango (sweet rice dumplings), snacks and drinks. Music and sake are part of the tradition, and the mood is closer to a relaxed outdoor party than a formal event. In the evening, many people stay on for yozakura (night blossoms), when the trees are lit up. Ueno Park in Tokyo is known for hanging paper lanterns among the branches for this purpose.

There is also a quieter cousin. Umemi (plum viewing) is the older form, and it tends to attract older visitors who prefer a calmer afternoon to a sakura party. Plum trees bloom earlier, so the season for flower viewing in Japan starts well before the cherry front arrives. If crowds are not your preference, a walk through a plum grove in late winter gives you the same ritual of slowing down for a few flowers, with far more room to stand and more time to look.

Manners That Locals Notice

Most hanami etiquette comes down to leaving the place as you found it. Take your rubbish home or use the marked collection points, and follow any signs, since some parks limit alcohol, barbecues or amplified music. Do not shake branches to bring down petals, pick blossoms or climb the trees. Remove your shoes before stepping onto a sheet, and keep noise reasonable, especially in the evening when neighbors and other groups are nearby. These are small habits, but they are what make a packed park feel calm.

The other unwritten rule concerns space. Office groups often send someone early to claim a spot, so the best patches go quickly, and the polite response is to arrive early yourself or choose a weekday. Spread out only as much as you need, and leave paths clear. Park staff generally ask visitors to stay off tree roots, which are easily damaged by foot traffic, so choose open grass instead. Rules vary by park, so read the posted notices when you arrive.

Plan Your Visit

Start with a forecast a week or two before you travel, and keep your plans loose. Famous spots such as Ueno Park, Chidorigafuchi and Shinjuku Gyoen in Tokyo, or Daigo-ji in Kyoto, are busiest on weekends, so a weekday morning is calmer. Northern areas such as Hirosaki usually bloom later, around late April to early May, which can rescue a trip if the southern blossoms have finished. Evenings can be cold, so bring a warm layer.

Prices, opening hours and park rules change from year to year, so check the official site of each park or garden before you go. Some gardens charge admission and some close early during peak weeks. If the blossoms have already fallen, do not be disappointed. A carpet of petals on the ground, or on a river, is its own kind of beauty, and Japanese poetry has praised it for centuries.