The First Cherry of Nara

Nara's spring officially starts at this tree. The weeping cherry standing beside the approach to Himuro Shrine opens before any other cherry in the city, which earned it the name Nara ichiban zakura, first cherry of Nara, and turns a quiet shrine into a queue for about ten days in late March. It leans over the pond in front of the gate, so the flowers arrive twice, once above you and once in the water. The shrine underneath it is stranger than the tree. It stands on the site of a Nara period ice house and enshrines the deity of ice: blocks were cut in winter, packed into a pit insulated with straw and kept through the summer for the imperial court, and ice merchants still come here to pray for their trade. Every year at the end of May the shrine holds a festival where offerings are made in ice, including whole fish frozen inside blocks. The tree is young by the standards of this page, and its hundred years rests on a single source, so treat the number lightly and the timing seriously.