After leaving Chidori-ga-fuchi Green Road, I stopped by the gate of Nippon Budokan again. More than an hour had passed since I first visited this morning, and the number of people had increased.
(On the early morning of March 24, 2023 in Chidorigafuchi)
Sakura. Chidori-ga-fuchi, Kitanomaru Park at Chiyoda-ku in Tokyo. From flickr user Yoshikazu TAKADA (Creative commons license.)
Hello folks! As you read this blog post, I’m in the process of heading to Japan. JAPAN! In all my forty-seven-and-a-half years I’ve only been on the continent of North America and have only visited the US (of course) and Canada. The only time that I was in a land where…
Will you be visiting Tokyo during the cherry blossom season? 🌸 This photo was taken last year at Kitanomaru Park in Tokyo. Chidori-ga-fuchi is a moat that dates back to the Edo Period. It is located northwest of the Imperial Palace. There are many varieties of cherry blossom trees that surround the moat. The trees are lit up at night during the cherry blossom season. It’s definitely worth seeing! ✨ Admission is free. The Somei Yoshino cherry blossoms are predicted to reach their peak in Tokyo around March 29. The blooming of the blossoms depends on weather conditions and the forecast may be updated later.
For the last leg of our Asia trip, we arrived in Tokyo just in time for cherry blossom season, Tokyo’s most treasured time of the year. Hanami, or ‘cherry blossom viewing’ is a tradition practiced throughout the season, and friends and family often organize outdoor gatherings to admire the flowers together. The Brooklyn Museum has many fine works from the 19th century that illustrate how cherished this tradition is, particularly in the history of Tokyo’s urban culture, given that cherry blossom viewing has always been a popular diversion of the urban establishment. During the Edo period (1603-1868), this was one of the few times in the year when the social barriers that kept Tokyo’s highly stratified society in place were loosened, and people from all classes could gather together outdoors to exchange greetings, write poetry, drink, and enjoy the festivities.
This Asia trip began in South Asia, the birthplace of Buddhism, before moving to Southeast and Northeast Asia, where we saw how the religion spread and was assimilated. And because our journey started in early March during Holi, when the advent of spring is celebrated in India, it was perfectly fitting that we concluded at the opposite end of the continent with the Japanese celebration of spring in late March. Our pick of places to view the cherry blossoms included Shinjuku gyoen, Aoyama reien, and Naka meguro. However, we also took a rowboat out at the moat Chidori ga fuchi to see the blossoms that bloom along the banks of the imperial palace up close. And with that, we flew back home just in time to see our own blooming cherry blossoms in Brooklyn!
We hope you enjoyed seeing our Asian works in their original contexts and look forward to welcoming you when we re-open our Asian and Middle Eastern galleries. Stay tuned for more!