The name describes what it looks like from far off. Kamagatani is a valley on the slope of Mount Ikeda planted with about fifteen hundred cherry trees of some eight kinds, wild cherry and Somei-yoshino and weeping varieties among them. Gifu prefecture's account says the place is named for the way it appears at a distance: as though a pale pink haze had settled on the hillside.

The flowering runs from the middle of March into the first days of April, earlier than most of the hundred.

Up close it does not look like haze at all, which is obvious once you think about it but still slightly disappointing.

The trees separate into individuals, the different kinds become distinguishable from one another, and the ground turns out to be ordinary hillside with paths on it. Nothing about the name is visible from inside it. That is worth knowing before you go, because it means the view the place is named for is one you have to arrange for yourself: from the road below, or from across the valley, before you drive up. Most famous sites reward getting closer to them. This one keeps something back for the distance, and if you drive straight up you will never collect it.