The Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival has returned to Japantown, along with the blush-pink flowers of the season. It’s a festival that not only celebrates the budding trees, but Japanese and Japanese-American culture as a whole.
Crowds gathered around a stage, on a partly cloudy but sunny day on April 18. The stage was decorated with paper lanterns, a variety of pastel colored flowers and crates with aged sake inside. On the stage was the Kanda Mikoshi Shrine, a 1,000-year-old mobile shrine brought straight from a Kanda Myojin Shrine in Japan. Surrounding the shrine were festival organizers, including co-chairs Matt Nagatomi and Yuki Nishimura in the front. After playing both the American and Japanese national anthems, the co-chairs began their speeches. They spoke about preserving culture, sharing culture with others and recognizing the history of Japantown. Afterward, organizers blessed the shrine, marking the end of the two weekend long festivals, which began on April 11.
This year’s festival was filled with vendors, with many of them lined up on Post St. and inside of the Japan Canter Mall. Lots of vendors were artists who sold fan art of popular anime like “Jujitsukisen,” “Dragon Ball Z” and “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.” Others sold traditional art like paintings, flower arrangements and bonsai trees. Additionally, there was a good variety of food being sold, like savory Hawaiian burgers, sweet fried mochi and traditional yakitori if you’re looking for that umami flavor.
One attendee Melvon Kon is a long time fan and volunteer of the festival. “I’ve been doing this for 25 years, so that means 50 weekends, that means this is my 100th time. And you know, there has never been two festivals alike,” he said.
Kon has lived in Japantown his entire life, so he’s seen how much the community has changed over the decades. For him, the festival has been an enduring tradition that reminds him of what brings Japantown together. “A lot of the people that are here right now, don’t necessarily come back to the community. It’s like a gathering of all the families and people that’ve grown up here and just like for me, it’s also traditional for them.”
Ko Ota was sitting on her chair, waiting for people to stop by when I met her. She’s a vendor who’s been setting up shop with her business, Kotas Kreations, at the festival since 2017. She sells handmade, traditional Japanese baby clothes, something that you don’t see often. Being a part of the festival means a lot of different things to her, “community, support, celebrating culture, parting that culture to our kids.”
She hopes that sharing her culture with visitors will help them appreciate Japanese culture. “Hopefully, it brings joy to them and wanting them to come back, because they’ve had a good time, and really understanding how the volunteers put their time into it, it’s for a greater cause.”
Angie Chen, a sales associate at the local business Sou Sou Kyoto, also believes that sharing culture and tradition is important. “It really brings in a cultural aspect that some people are distanced from, either if you’re Japanese-American, or even if you’re not, just seeing the cultural aspects. It’s just nice to see people be involved in it.”
Chen said, “to me it’s always enjoyable seeing people enjoying the parade, it’s very nice when you get to see all the fun parts of it, the upbeat music with Taiko drumming and such.” She has worked in Japantown for a long time, and has interacted with hundreds of people interested in Japanese culture. To her, this festival means bringing the world together, to bond over the appreciation of Japanese tradition.“This festival, it’s an epitome of fun for Japantown, especially, since it’s been quiet for so many years, that this is a great way to bring everyone back, and either touch with their roots, if they are Japanese.”
