What does a cherry blossom represent in the Japanese culture?
It’s just something unique to Japan, like kimono, sushi, geisha, shamisen, etc etc. Sakura are beautiful and they represent change in Japan, in fact they have a festival in the spring for the cherry blossom trees. You can read more at the Japanese wikipedia if you understand Japanese: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B5%E… It goes through symbolism, such as refresh in nature, and it also symbolizes clouds. “桜は、春を象徴する花として、 日本人にはなじみが深く、 日本で最も有名な花でもある。 風流事を称して「花鳥風月」というが、 平安時代以後の日本において、 単に「花」といえばサクラのことを指す。 なお、 平安時代以前の「花」は、 梅のことを指す。” “The sakura is a symbol of Spring flowering, Japanese people deeply savor it, in Japan these flowers are extremely famous. These flowers portray elegance ‘The beauty of nature’ is what it’s called, After the Heian period no other than Japan simply declared the “flower” as sakura. Furthermore, the Heian Period’s flower’s name is pointed out as plum like.” (taken from
