Hirosaki’s cherry tree doctors

The Manila Times

Hirosaki’s cherry tree doctors  The city of Hirosaki, in Aomori, is one of the most famous places in Japan for cherry blossom viewing, attracting huge numbers of tourists in the spring sakura season. The city’s cherry trees are cared for year-round by tree doctors who call themselves “Team Sakuramori.” These specialists employ pruning techniques developed for the region’s apple industry to keep the trees free from disease, prevent falling branches and extend their lives.  VIDEO BY MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF JAPAN  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe  Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net  Follow us: Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion  Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital  Check out our Podcasts: Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer Stitcher: https://tmt.ph/stitcher Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein  #TheManilaTimes #Japan #cherryblossom  #sakura  #season

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:09 [Music]

00:11 Hirosaki City is an old castle town in Aomori.

00:15 Here in the Tohoku region, winters are cold with heavy snow.

00:25 When spring arrives in late April, the cherry blossom festival in Hirosaki Park always draws huge crowds.

00:31 The park has about 50 varieties of sakura, over 2,600 trees blooming at once.

00:41 So many blossoms, the water is hidden under the fallen petals.

00:50 When night falls and the illuminations come on, the park is transformed again.

00:55 I love the way the flowers are so densely packed you can't even see the sky.

01:00 It's the most beautiful sight in Tohoku.

01:04 For the Japanese, cherry blossom viewing celebrates the arrival of spring.

01:14 The tree doctors who keep Hirosaki Park's cherry trees healthy call themselves Team Sakura Mori.

01:20 As a child, Hashiba Nakiko loved to play under Hirosaki's cherry blossoms.

01:26 Today, her job is to look after these trees all year round.

01:32 We do our utmost to keep these trees healthy and ensure they live as long as possible.

01:42 I feel it's important to take care of each tree however old they get.

01:46 Most of the park's cherry blossoms are the variety called Soumei Yoshino.

01:53 These are normally thought to live only 60 years, but Hirosaki has 100-year-old trees that still blossom profusely.

02:00 Hashiba tells us the secret to long-lived cherry trees is regular pruning.

02:10 They trim any branches that appear sick or are preventing other branches from growing.

02:15 Hashiba pruned this branch today after finding mushrooms on it.

02:24 As mushrooms grow, they rot the branch inside.

02:29 This weakens the wood and the branch is more likely to fall.

02:35 It was always believed that you should never prune cherry trees.

02:39 But 60 years ago, the tree doctors at the time found a way to make it work.

02:44 They were inspired by pruning techniques used on Hirosaki's most famous farm product, the apple.

02:55 The region's apple farmers experimented and refined their pruning methods to reduce insect damage and make the apple more edible.

03:04 Team Sakuramori's predecessors at the time decided to apply those methods to improve their management of the park's cherry trees.

03:12 Apples belong to the same botanical family as cherry trees, so it seemed likely a similar approach would work.

03:21 They found that pruning the park's cherry trees reduced disease, prevented falling trees, and lengthened lifespans.

03:33 Hashiba and her colleagues inherited this know-how and use it to keep their trees healthy.

03:38 It's all thanks to our local apple farmers that we could develop better ways to care for our cherry blossoms.

03:49 My main motivation has always been seeing how the people of Hirosaki really treasure our park.

03:55 Their work continues throughout the icy winter. The park must be ready for spring.

04:02 And when sakura season arrives, after a winter of loving care, the flowers are as spectacular as always.

04:11 Know-how and technique based on regional wisdom, working behind the scenes to protect this magnificent site.

04:22 [Music]

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04:35 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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