The cherry season here lasts about a month. The Nara city tourism association gives it as late March through to late April, which is unusually long for one place, and the reason is that three different kinds are involved: Somei-yoshino first, then double cherries, and then Nara-no-yae-zakura.

That last one belongs to the place in a literal sense, not just by association.

It is the prefectural flower of Nara and it appears in the city's own crest, and the tourism association traces the variety to a parent tree found at Chisokuin, inside the Todaiji precinct, a few minutes' walk from where it now grows.

A cherry named after the province, growing in the province, and used as the symbol of the city: the loop closes in a way that almost never happens with a plant, and it happened here without anyone planning it. The other thing about hanami at Nara Park is the deer. Kasugano-en is a wide lawn with Wakakusayama to the east and the Great Buddha Hall to the north-west, cherry trees around the edge of it, and deer lying on the grass underneath them, entirely unbothered by any of it. The deer have no interest in the blossom whatsoever, which is part of the effect.