About Sakura

Cherry blossoms captivate the hearts of Japanese people. Japan is home to more than 600 diverse varieties of cherry blossoms.

The most famous cherry blossom is Somei-Yoshino (Prunus×yedoensis), and its blooming is known throughout Japan in late March. Somei-Yoshino is much loved, and its blooming time and flower shapes are diverse. Not only Somei-Yoshino in March and April, but also Jugatsu-zakura(Cerasus×subhirtella’Autumnalis’) in October, Kawazu-zakura(Cerasus lannesiana’Kawazu-zakura’) in February, Yae-zakura(Prunus lannesiana) in April, and many others bloom beautifully over a long period of time.

Cherry trees in Japan today are derived from 11 wild species. Cherry trees easily interbreed in the natural environment and varieties have been established in a natural way. Somei-Yoshino is also believed to have originated from the natural hybridization of Edohigan cherry(Prunus itosakura) × Oshima cherry(Prunus speciosa), and Amagi Yoshino(Cerasus×yedoensis’Amagi-yoshino’) and Izu Yoshino(Cerasus×yedoensis’Izu-yoshino’.) have a similar background or history.

Furthermore, Kawazu-zakura is a natural hybrid of Kanhizakura(Prunus campanulata) x yamazakura(Cerasus jamasakura). In addition to this, hundreds of horticultural varieties have been created through artificial hybridization.

The varieties of cherry trees you see and hear about are either wild, cultivated through natural hybridization, or cultivated through artificial hybridization. Most cherry trees sold as cut flowers are cultivars. Somei-Yoshino cherry trees are commonly planted throughout Japan. In the late Edo period (1603-1868), they were sold as “Yoshino cherry trees” by a gardener in Somei-mura, Edo (now Tokyo) and renamed Somei-Yoshino cherry trees in 1897 to avoid confusion with the Yoshino cherry trees in Nara.Somei-Yoshino is a clonal plant grown by grafting or cuttings. While the parent species, Edohigan-zakura, lives for more than 1,000 years, Somei-Yoshino has a short life span of about 60 years. Growing from seed lengthens the life span, but the characteristics of Somei-Yoshino are lost. The variety that falls into this category is the America (Cerasus×yedoensis’akebono’).

染井吉野（Prunus × yedoensis ‘Somei-yoshino’）The flowers have a faint reddish tint and become even redder than the center as they disperse.

染井吉野（Prunus × yedoensis ‘Somei-yoshino’）　Location：Ueno Park　

衣笠（Cerasus jamasakura ‘Kinugasa’）

八重紅枝垂（Cerasus spachiana ‘Plena-Rosea’）

八重寒緋桜（Cerasus campanulata ‘Plena’）Unusual cherry blossoms with purple-red color

御衣黄（Cerasus serrulata ‘Gioiko’）Unusual cherry blossoms of light yellowish green

About Sakura dye

The conventional cherry blossom dyeing technique of making cherry blossoms bloom on fabrics is not the same as dyeing with cherry blossoms, but is generally called “sakura gasane,” in which a white cloth is layered on top of a red cloth dyed with safflower to express the gentle color of the flowers, or sakura-dyeing, in which a thin layer of cloth is dyed with madder. In other words, “sakura-zome” was a technique in which only cherry blossoms were used for dyeing. In other words, it was not “cherry blossom color” dyed only with cherry blossoms. The reason for this is that the dye from cherry trees contains a lot of orange and beige, and it was technically impossible to extract only the pink color. In addition, if we dye the same cherry tree this year because it was dyed a beautiful pink color last year, it often turns out to be dyed a completely different color from last year.

Cotton fabric dyed with twigs of Somei Yoshino. Different mordants produce different shades of color.

Dyeing method

Dyeing is performed using the mordant dyeing method.
Put finely chopped cherry twigs or bark chips and water in a stainless steel pot, add a small amount of rice vinegar, and bring to a boil over heat. After about 120 minutes, strain the mixture through a cloth and extract the infusion three or four more times. Allow the extracted decoction to stand for about one week to allow it to oxidize and become reddish in color.
When dyeing plant fibers, pre-dyeing is done with bean juice or similar. First, aluminum mordanting is performed, followed by repeated dyeing to complete the dyeing process. It is better to dye many times in a short time because yellow or brown color will be dyed in if one tries to dye a darker color at a time. Aluminum mordant dyeing can dye yellow to cherry red, copper mordant dyeing can dye brown, and iron mordant dyeing can dye purplish gray to silver gray.
There are also staining methods using chlorophyll and autumn leaves of green leaves.

Once the twigs are obtained before flowering, they are chopped into small pieces on the same day and the pigment extraction begins. Fresh wood with yellow-green inside of the branch is preferred.

Back：Branches over 1 cm in diameter. Front: twigs and buds under 9 mm in diameter. Branches from cherry pruning or snow breaking are often used.

It is being boiled and roasted about 4 times. You can see the reddish color on the branches. After this, the type of water is changed, rice vinegar and natural ash are added, and the water is further boiled and roasted.

After three hours of boiling and roasting, the reddish color gradually increases. After this, it is strained through a cloth and allowed to oxidize for about a week.

The colors dyed with the extracted dye solution are like cherry blossoms blooming on the cloth.

Color Difference by Mordant