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[Opinion] Sakura

Posted March. 03, 2004 22:57,   

한국어

As spring closely approaches, flowers begin to open their buds after the long winter. The cherry blossom, the flower which represents Japan, is heading north towards Tokyo. Japan is dressed in pink from mid March to early April. People wonder when the cherry blossoms will visit their area along with the sound of spring. This is in order to plan for a picnic with the full blossom. Thus, the weather forecast never fails to give information of the blooming time for each district.

The Jinhae Gunhang festival is most famous domestic cherry blossom festival, however, enjoying it in cherry blossom-filled Japan adds an extra spice. Even the reputation-stressing Japanese throw away their decorum and saturate themselves in alcohol in parks and streets with the excuse of seeing the flowers. Police become lenient during this season of blossom. Ueno Park is a noted place for cherry blossoms in Tokyo and thus it attracts more than 200,000 people a day. New employees rush to the park every morning to reserve a good place for the company’s evening flower party.

The reason why cherry blossoms have captured the Japanese hearts is because of its fast fading characteristic after a full blossom. In the feudal period, it symbolized chivalry, thus coining the saying, “Flowers are sakuras and people are samurais.” Knights, who give up their lives without a second thought for the just cause, are similar to sakuras which, after showing off its beauty, drops its leaves in a blink of a second. Japan made Changgyeong Palace their playground by cutting the original flower trees and planting cherry blossoms. Sakura consists of painful memories of the colonial period.

After the independence, sakura had a rebirth in Korean politics. During the military autocracy period, the sakura was used to point out those who were in the opposition party during the days and in government party during the nights. In this period, the sakura was not used to indicate flowers, but came from Japanese, which means frivolous character. With democratization, the word “sakura” disappeared. However, there still exist migratory politicians who move from one party to another, in other words to where the power lies. Are they not the “21st century Sakura?” In April, when the election takes place, Korea will have full cherry blossoms blooming. We should not lose ourselves in the new sakura by the scent of the flowers.

Tokyo Correspondent Park Won-jae parkwj@donga.com