Mankai – Reflections on Sakura

Author: Ren Ito

Photo – Lunchtime at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, Tokyo (Steven Deutscher-Kobayashi)

Mankai is Japanese for “full bloom.” It means “fully opened,” when blossoms are flowering at their peak.

Every spring, the cherry blossoms swell to mankai, only to scatter in the breeze a few days later. We love them for their beauty, and for their brevity, a reminder that nothing in this life lasts forever. And so, every spring, we turn out in droves to admire the cherry blossoms, or sakura, while we can.

But things are different this spring. After a stretch of cold weather, the blossoms have fully opened, but our pandemic-stricken world has not. And as the lockdown continues, many of us are feeling the strain of isolation, and are grieving the loss of our old ways of life. For many of us, a day in the park under blossoms at mankai is exactly the kind of return to normalcy we’ve been longing for.

We will not, and are asking you to do the same. Not to stay indoors, but to avoid going out of your way—by taking transit, parking in crowded lots, or walking on busy streets—to see the sakura. If you do, we ask that you not crowd or take up public space, form groups, or otherwise ignore public health directives. Because if we don’t continue to be careful, this pandemic will never end, and the most vulnerable among us will be left defenceless, with the rest of us soon to follow.

Japanese Canadians, too, are grieving. We have a special connection to the sakura in Toronto: from the first trees planted in 1959 to commemorate our communities’ forced postwar relocation, to the grove gifted in 1984 as “a joyful symbol of life” by Yoriki and Midori Iwasaki, to the many that have since been planted across the city by the Consulate General of Japan in Toronto, the sakura trees have been a reflection of our presence in this city, and on this land. Many of us have gathered to see them in years past. This year, many of us will not.

Above all, we are asking you to respect each other and the land we all share. This is the spirit in which our communities have planted the sakura trees: not for the enjoyment of any one person or group, but for the well being of all who live here.

This spring, prioritizing our well-being means not enjoying the sakura as we have in years past. We can still admire them through other avenues, though, including the City of Toronto’s 24-hour BloomCam.

But if you do miss them this year, don’t worry. The blossoms will be back at mankai again next spring, and every spring thereafter, so long as we continue to care for the land.

Hopefully, by then, our world will be closer to being fully opened, too.