As the prints show, many classes of people visited sites known for the spectacle of blossoming cherry trees. Once an activity reserved for the elite in Japan, cherry-blossom viewing became a popular activity with a wider audience. In the Edo period, ukiyo came to mean the superficial pursuit of pleasure and the concern for living for the moment, best defined by the leisure activities of Edo's urban culture. This poem reflects the traditional Buddhist concept of ukiyo, or “floating world”-one's transitory existence, or the impermanence of nature. Anonymous poem from the Kokinshū (10th century), translated in Hiroaki Sato and Burton Watson, eds., From the “Country of Eight Islands” (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1981), p. No sooner have they opened than they begin to fall The word “flower” (hana) is equated with the cherry blossom, emblematic of this season in Japan: The most popular activity of the season is flower viewing. Blossoming plum trees are associated with the middle of spring, signifying the end of the cold season and the beginning of warm weather. Typically, early spring is marked by the festivities celebrated at the New Year, which begins the season. Scenes 1 though 42 represent the First to the Third Months, which are considered in Japan to be the spring season.
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