Hanami and the soul of Samurai

They show every spring
beauty in their life and death.
Cherry blossoms fall.

Cherry blossoms fall,
and where once we saw deep snow
we now see all pink.

We now see all pink
in the distant western sky.
Twilight at springtime.

Kasamatsu, "Cherry Blossoms at Ueno Shrine"




In Japanese culture, cherry blossoms, or sakura, have served as a reminder that life is brief, and beauty fleeting; they represent a deep sense of melancholy in the presence of the ephemeral, the sense of uncertainty or transitoriness which is represented by the sakura flowers at the height of its beauty, for a very short period of time. No sooner does the sakura reach full bloom then it begins to shed its blossoms.
For the Samurai warrior, Hanami (the art of flower gazing) represented a moment of reflection and communion with the possibility of death, but always in a vitalistic way; for them the Hakura was a symbol for the
samurai soul because it fell at the moment of its greatest beauty, an ideal death for the samurai.
So this sort of melancholiness and also joy of looking at the full bloom flowers coexist in Japanese culture..