Basic Information
Description
Kyoto's first public park, established in 1886, located behind Yasaka Shrine. In spring, over 800 cherry trees bloom all at once, and the park is packed with hanami visitors day and night. The weeping cherry is especially famous.
You might think the crowds make it impossible to actually enjoy the blossoms, but the philosopher Kuki Shuzo wrote passionately about this very tree — how he'd never seen anything more beautiful, how it stood majestically against the hazy spring sky and the green of Higashiyama. At night, with the sky deepening to indigo and the mountain darkening to purple-black, the weeping cherry seems to float like a dream under modern lighting. He compared the experience to contemplating Aphrodite in marble in Rome or Naples. The bonfires blazing around it felt like offerings to a goddess of beauty. He even forgave the drunks and the chaos — in front of this cherry tree, nothing could truly be unseemly.
The tree Kuki saw has since been replaced by a newer generation, of course. Come to think of it, the whole area around Yasaka — Yasui Konpiragu, Rokudo Chinno-ji, Kennin-ji, the Gion district — has this appealing mix of the sacred and the profane.