The cherry blossom has always held a particularly important place in Japanese culture, providing reassurance each spring following the passage of winter. Last year, after experiencing the very worst forces of nature, the country was ready to embrace its most beautiful natural treasure perhaps more than ever.
     At the same time, in the context of so much suffering, there’s also another more melancholy aspect to the interest in the cherry tree’s blossoms. That’s because the flowers are gone almost as quickly as they have arrived. Beautiful though they may be, as Walker describes, “With one big rainstorm, that’s it – the end. They’re all blown down, and that’s it until next year.” In that, there’s a reminder of the fragility of life and the passage of time, one that understandably came into sharper focus last year.
     The transient nature of the blossom was what resonated with Ms. Walker personally when she shared an appreciation with her dying mother for the momentary brilliance of the flowering trees in what turned out to be her mother’s final spring. The experience motivated her to one day make a film, and it just so happened that she had been set to visit Japan to shoot what she calls a short 5-minute “visual haiku” to cherry blossoms when the earthquake struck. Undeterred though extremely uneasy, she went through with her trip and found that she was far from the only one to appreciate the significance of the blooming. An entire nation shared her interest.