日本擁有1200年歷史的櫻花資料庫迎來新主人（1/2）

Recently the New York Times reported the following:

Japan’s Cherry Blossom Database, 1,200 Years Old, has a New Keeper (1/2)

The remarkable catalog of dates is one of the longest-running records of climate change. Its creator died, setting off a search for a successor.

The NYT - By Hiroko Tabuchi - Hiroko Tabuchi covers pollution and the environment for The Times. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years in Tokyo and New York.

Published April 17, 2026

Updated April 18, 2026, 10:43 a.m. ET

For more than 1,200 years, Japanese noblemen, monks and bureaucrats have carefully recorded one of the most eagerly awaited days of the year — when cherry blossoms bloom in the ancient capital, Kyoto.

In recent years, a climate scientist, Yasuyuki Aono, has been the keeper of this trove of dates, one of the world’s most remarkable and longest-running climate records. Cherry trees, or sakura, are particularly sensitive to changing temperatures, and as the planet has warmed, they have bloomed earlier and earlier.

Then last summer, Prof. Aono, who had meticulously updated the record year after year, died after a battle with cancer. That prompted supporters of his work to start looking for a worthy successor.

“We need help from a botanist or someone local to Kyoto, Japan!” Tuna Acisu, a data scientist at Our World in Data, posted on X this month. The key qualifications, she wrote, were scientific expertise and being “local to Arashiyama,” a district on the western outskirts of Kyoto famous for its cherry trees.

Initially, they didn’t have much luck. No other researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University, where Prof. Aono worked, would be taking over his record-keeping, Hiroko Nishino, a university spokeswoman, wrote in an email.

But now, just as Kyoto sees the last of the year’s cherry blossoms, Prof. Aono’s successor has been found, Ms. Acisu said. On Friday, a Tokyo-based environmental biophysicist, Genki Katata, said he had agreed to be the new custodian of the records.

“Making sure the Kyoto data lives on is a very important job,” Dr. Katata, a senior fellow at the Canon Institute for Global Studies, said in an interview from Tokyo. “I want to carry this forward for as long as I can.”

Cherry blossoms are beloved worldwide. Crowds flock to see them in Washington, D.C., and Vancouver, both recipients of trees gifted from Japan, as well as in Wuhan, China, and Jinhae, South Korea. But perhaps nowhere are they as deeply enshrined in history and culture as in Japan.

Cherry blossom viewing, or hanami, has been a part of daily and aristocratic life in Japan for more than a millennium, celebrated in haiku, depicted in paintings and meticulously recorded in court diaries and chronicles. Today, hanami season is a boisterous affair, marked with bento picnics under the trees and drunken parties that stretch into the night.

The historical records Prof. Aono compiled weren’t originally intended for science. But the dates, locations, and other details contained in the scripts have proven to be a rich source of data from an age that precedes the birth of thermometers.

In one diary entry dated April 14, 1644, Tokitsune Hiramatsu, a court noble and scholar, referred to a cherry blossom viewing party on the grounds of the Seiryoden palace at the Kyoto Imperial Palace, the residence of Japan’s emperor for centuries. “We enjoyed watching cherry blossoms, and took sake provided by the emperor,” he wrote.

Over the centuries, various chroniclers would note the progression of blossoms — whether they were just starting to flower, were in peak bloom or were beginning to scatter their petals, adding a level of specificity that has allowed for relatively consistent data through the generations.

Prof. Aono focused on a sturdy native variety called Yamazakura, highly sensitive to spring temperatures and long Japan’s standard cherry tree, before the more delicate Somei-Yoshino hybrid gained popularity.

Prof. Aono pored over those records, teaching himself ancient Japanese script. The effort took more than 15 years. “I was never good at literature in school, and at first I had no idea even where to look,” he said in an acceptance speech for an academic award he received in 2017. “Incredulous colleagues would ask, ‘Are you still studying cherry trees?’”

(to be continued)

Translation

日本擁有1200年歷史的櫻花資料庫迎來新主人（1/2）

這本非凡的日子目錄是紀錄氣候變遷持續最長時間的册子之一。在它的創建者去世後，人們開始尋找繼任者。

1200多年來，日本的貴族、僧侶和官員們一直認真記錄著一年中最令人期待的日子之一 - 古都京都櫻花盛開的日子。

近年來，氣候科學家青野康之(Yasuyuki Aono) 一直負責維護這份珍貴的日期記錄寶藏，這是世界上最引人注目、持續時間最長的氣候記錄之一。櫻花樹 (sakura) 對氣溫變化特別敏感，隨著全球暖化，它們的花期也越來越早。

去年夏天，青野教授因癌症過世，他生前一直一絲不苟地逐年更新著這份紀錄。他的支持者們開始尋找合適的繼任者。

資料科學家Tuna Acisu本月在X網站上發文說道:「我們需要一位植物學家，或是一位居住在日本京都的本地人！」。她寫道，關鍵條件是具備科學專業知識，並且「“是嵐山(Arashiyama)本地人”。嵐山位於京都西郊，以櫻花聞名。

起初，他們的進展並不順利。大阪市立大學發言人西野弘子 (Hiroko Nishino) 在一封電子郵件中寫道，青野教授生前所在的大阪市立大學沒有其他研究人員接手他的記錄工作。

但就在京都櫻花即將凋謝之際，Acisu女士表示青野教授的繼任者已經找到。週五，東京環境生物物理學家片田元氣(Genki Katata)博士宣布，他已同意擔任新的記錄保管人。

作為佳能全球研究所的高級研究員的片田博士在東京接受採訪時說道:「確保京都的數據得以保存是一項非常重要的工作」;「我希望盡可能長久地將這項工作傳承下去」。

櫻花深受世界各地人們的喜愛。在華盛頓特區和溫哥華（這兩個城市都曾收到日本贈送的櫻花樹），以及中國武漢和韓國鎮海，人們都蜂擁而至欣賞櫻花。但或許沒有哪個地方像日本一樣，將櫻花深深融入歷史和文化之中。

賞櫻，或稱為“花見”( hanami)，在日本已有超過千年的歷史，是日常生活和貴族生活的重要組成部分。人們用俳句歌頌櫻花，用繪畫描繪櫻花，並在宮廷日記和編年史中一絲不苟地記錄下賞櫻的場景。如今，賞櫻季已成為一場熱鬧非凡的盛事，在樹下享用便當野餐，以及持續到深夜的醉酒派對。

青野教授收集的這些歷史記錄最初並非用於科學研究。但這些手稿中所包含的日期、地點和其他細節，已被證明是了解溫度計發明之前時代的寶貴資料。

在1644年4月14日的一篇日記中，宮廷貴族兼學者 平松時庸 (Tokitsune Hiramatsu)提到了在京都皇宮青陵殿（日本天皇數百年來的居所）舉行的賞櫻活動。 他寫道:「我們欣賞了櫻花，還喝了天皇賜予的清酒」。

幾個世紀以來，不同的史官都會記錄櫻花的生長過程 - 無論是剛綻放、正值盛花期，還是花瓣開始凋落，這增加了一定程度的精確性，使得幾個世代的數據都相對一致。

青野教授專注於一種名為「山櫻」的本土櫻花品種，這種櫻花對春季氣溫非常敏感，在更為嬌嫩的染井-吉野雜交品種流行之前，它一直是日本的標準櫻花樹。

青野教授仔細研讀這些記錄，自學日本古文，這項工作耗時超過15年。 他在2017年獲得學術獎時的獲獎感言中說道:「在學校時我的文學成績不好，在開始這時工作甚至不知道該從何入手」;「同事們會難以置信地問， ' 你還在研究櫻花樹？'」。

 （待續）

Note:

1. Tokitsune Hiramatsu (平松時庸)（ひらまつ ときつね） (1599-1654) was a court noble during the early Edo period holding the official rank of Junior Second Rank, Provisional Middle Counselor (従二位、権中納言). He was the second son of Tokiyoshi Nishinotōin (西洞院時慶) （1552 - 1640）. He established the Hiramatsu family (平松家), a branch of the Nishinotōin family (西洞院家). (https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/)