WEBVTT - How Do Cherry Blossom Trees Work? 0:00:01.960 --> 0:00:07.120 Welcome to Brainstuff, the production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff, 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:12.080 Lauren Vogelbaum. Here in Japan, the annual spring explosion of 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.760 blushing pink cherry blossoms has been celebrated for over a 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:19.560 thousand years, and now there are cherry blossom festivals around 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:23.040 the world in Sweden, Canada, Spain, and Washington, d C, 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:26.360 just to name a few. Every spring, some million and 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:29.240 a half tourists visit d C to witness the fleeting 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:32.720 flowering of more than three thousand, seven hundred cherry blossom 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:35.760 trees encircling the tidal basin, a reservoir in the middle 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:38.559 of the city with West Potomac Park and many monuments 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:41.840 around its banks. For the article, this episode is based 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:44.400 on How Stuff Work. Spoke with John Malott, a former 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:46.960 president of the Japan America Society of Washington, d C 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:49.680 and a former Director of Japanese Affairs at the US 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:53.320 State Department who served diplomatic roles in Kobe and Osaka, Japan. 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:58.760 He said, it's very, very picturesque. You have the blue 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:01.120 of the water and the blue of the sky. Then 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:03.640 you have the whitish pang of the cherry blossoms against 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:06.440 the incredible white of the Jefferson Memorial in the distance. 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:11.080 It's very beautiful and also very peaceful. The story of 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:14.240 how and why thousands of cherry blossom trees were gifted 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:16.679 from Japan more than one hundred years ago and planted 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:21.000 in America's capital city is fascinating. But first let's learn 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:23.040 a little bit more about the cherry blossom tree and 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:26.720 its history. Flowering cherry trees are native to a number 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:30.160 of places with temperate climates around the world, but in 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.920 Japan these have been cultivated and celebrated since around eight 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:37.280 hundred CE, which is when they and their blossoms, called 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.959 sukura in Japanese, first began to appear in poetry and 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:44.360 picture scrolls. They're related to the cherry trees that we 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:47.600 humans get fruit from, but whereas cherry fruit trees have 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:50.440 been bred for their tasty fruit, but cherry blossom trees 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:53.920 have been bred as ornamentals, that is, for those beautiful flowers. 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:58.120 Most varieties do still grow fruit, but they're small and 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:01.760 not delicious. The birds and other non human animals will 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:04.960 eat them, though they are. Flowers range in color from 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.360 white to deep pink, depending on the variety. While they 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:11.160 typically only live about thirty to forty years. With care 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:14.320 and good conditions, they can go much longer. More on 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:17.720 that later. For more than a millennium, people in Japan 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:21.000 have celebrated the arrival of spring with parties called hanami, 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:25.160 meaning flower gazing. The idea is to have a picnic 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:28.640 of varying complexity out under the blooming trees to enjoy 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:32.200 the blossoms while they last. A cherry blossom tree only 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:35.560 blooms for about ten days every year, just as the 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:37.880 weather begins to warm up after the cold of winter. 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:42.760 So in Japan from about mid March through April, families 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:45.600 and groups of friends vie for picnic spots under a 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:49.440 canopy of pink blossoms, and companies throw rowdy, sake fueled 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:53.120 parties that run laid into the night. Malott said they 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:55.280 get the lowliest staff member to go out early in 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:57.200 the morning and stake out a spot under the trees. 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:00.440 The poor guy has to be there all day, which 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:03.280 doesn't actually sound all that unpleasant, but I'm sure it 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:08.040 has its low points. The Japanese Meteorological Agency tracks the 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:11.440 so called cherry blossom front as bloom worthy warmer weather 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:14.760 slowly makes its way from southern to northern Japan from 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:18.040 March through May each year, and offers predictions for when 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:20.200 the peaks will be in different areas so that people 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:24.560 can plan their hanami. But okay, so these trees are pretty, 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:28.440 But how did sakura become such a thing in Japanese culture? 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:32.040 As with any cultural thing, there isn't a single answer, 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:36.640 but a number of dovetailing reasons. Their early spring blooming 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:40.000 coincides with a season of renewal and new beginnings In Japan. 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:42.280 April is the start of the new school year for 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:44.880 kids and the start of the new fiscal year for companies, 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:47.560 and part of the draw of the blossoms is the 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:51.680 knowledge that they'll soon be gone. That blooming window is 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:55.160 so short, partially because cherry blossom trees shed their petals 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.440 while they're still springy and colorful, not once they're faded 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:02.000 or wilted. The bright pet can create lovely clouds in 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:05.680 the breeze and on bodies of water. This simple fact 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:09.440 of botany has become symbolic for the beautiful but ephemeral 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:14.040 nature of all life. A malot said, because they fall 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:16.159 off the tree and die at the peak of their bloom. 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:19.120 Whenever you see a cherry blossom in a Japanese movie 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.640 or TV show, that usually means that someone young has died. 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:25.880 If the heroine is in the hospital getting sicker and 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:27.800 sicker and they cut to a shot of a cherry 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:31.800 blossom falling to the ground, you know she's gone. It's 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:35.080 a symbol that carries a lot of weight. During World 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.760 War Two, the planes flown by Japanese Kamakazi pilots were 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:42.960 named after another word for cherry blossom Oka. The young 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:46.280 cadets who piloted the planes were also called cherry blossoms, 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:49.000 and their uniforms and aircraft were stamped with the image 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:53.799 of a single pink flower. The Japanese word natsukashi describes 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.960 a nostalgic feeling of happiness tinged with sadness, and is 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:00.599 associated with cherry blossom season as a whole. In addition 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:02.520 to being a time of renewal, it's a time of 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:07.000 endings too. A school graduations, for example, are held in March. 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:10.240 A Malot reported that they're often accompanied by and I 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:15.160 quote tear jerker songs about cherry blossom's falling. You can 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:18.800 still find wild flowering cherry trees around the world but 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:22.480 most cherry blossom trees grown are cultivated varieties from Japan 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:26.800 or hybrids grown using trees from Japan. A sum like 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:30.560 many in Brazil, were brought over by Japanese immigrants. Others, 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:32.920 like many in Australia and the ones in Washington, d C, 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:37.240 were gifts from the Japanese government. On March twenty eighth 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.440 of nineteen twelve, a one paragraph article appeared in The 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:45.200 Washington Post with the underwhelming headline Missus Taft plants a tree. 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:49.240 The day before, first Lady Nelly Taft, a wife of 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:52.440 President William Howard Taft, had planted the first two cherry 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.039 blossom trees in Washington, d C. As gifts from the 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:58.320 Mayor of Tokyo. And that's the story that most people 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:01.279 know that the entire chair ry blossom tradition in DC 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:04.479 started with a Japanese gift in nineteen twelve, But that's 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:07.080 not the half of it. The real story starts with 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:10.200 what Eliza Skidmore, a photographer and writer who was the 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:11.880 first woman to sit on the board of the National 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:16.400 Geographic Society. Skidmore traveled extensively in Japan and came back 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:19.279 to d C in eighteen eighty five, convinced that cherry 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:23.560 blossom trees should be planted in Potomac Park. This was 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:25.920 a then new bit of land that had been under 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:29.159 the Potomac River until an engineering project to protect the 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:32.159 city from flooding was enacted earlier in the eighteen eighties. 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:35.880 It changed the banks of the river, created the title Basin, 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:38.599 and left the city with this new stretch of land. 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:43.040 Skidmore later wrote, since they had to plant something in 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:46.360 that great stretch of raw reclaimed ground by the river bank, 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:48.760 they might as well plant the most beautiful thing in 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:53.520 the world, the Japanese cherry tree. Skidmore campaigned tirelessly for 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:57.080 more than twenty five years, petitioning every president in DC 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:59.360 official she could get a hold of to plant cherry 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:04.400 blossom tree, but her idea was ignored. Then one David 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:08.240 Fairchild came along. A Fairchild worked for the brand new 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:12.360 US Department of Agriculture as a plant explorer who traveled 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:14.960 the world looking for plant species that could be cultivated 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:19.360 in America. While in Japan, he also fell for cherry blossoms. 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:23.560 In nineteen oh nine, Fairchild showed that cherry blossom trees 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.640 thrived in the temperate climate of the DC area, which 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:29.400 emboldened Skidmore to write one more letter to the new 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:33.400 First Lady, proposing to pay for the trees herself. To 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:37.280 her amazement, Nellie Taft replied two days later, writing I've 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:41.080 taken the matter up and promised the trees. That's when 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.200 a wealthy Japanese chemist by the name of doctor Jokichi 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:47.560 Takamine got involved. He was the first person to isolate 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.400 adrenaline by the way. He lived in the US and 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.080 had campaigned for cherry blossom trees in New York City. 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.800 Skidmore told him about the First Lady's promise, and Takamine 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:59.320 came up with the idea of making DC's cherry blossom 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:03.880 trees again from Japan. Unfortunately, the first shipment of two 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:07.360 thousand trees was plagued with insects and disease and had 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:10.920 to be burned. But two months later, on March twenty 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.720 sixth of nineteen twelve, a shipment of threeenty twenty healthy 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:18.560 trees arrived. Missus Taft planted the first two the very 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:21.840 next day, and Skidmore was there to witness the fruition 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:26.080 of a decade's long dream. Now cherry blossom trees line 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:28.520 the tidal basin and other parts of the park, as 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:32.480 well as other areas of the city, and incredibly, a 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.480 few of them have been there this whole time. The 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.520 two original trees planted by Nelly Taft one hundred and 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:41.880 twelve years ago are still standing, along with a handful 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:45.480 of others from that shipment. Many others are related to 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:49.160 those first trees, brought to new life through cultivated clippings. 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:52.760 The park's arborists keep a database containing the personal health 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.840 record of each tree. If you go, be aware that 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:59.360 the trees are delicate. It's actually illegal to touch them. 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:04.040 Just enjoyed with your other senses and from a respectful distance. 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:12.040 Today's episode is based on the article The Very Short 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.000 Symbolic Life of the Cherryblossom on how stuffworks dot com, 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:17.480 written by Dave Ruse. A brain Stuff is production of 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.000 iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and is 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:23.640 produced by Tyler klang Afore more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.599 the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:27.559 your favorite shows.