The cherry trees at Tenshochi run for two kilometres along the bank of the Kitakami River, starting at the foot of the Sango Bridge. The park behind them covers two hundred and ninety-three hectares. Roughly ten thousand trees grow in it, of about one hundred and fifty varieties, which is why the flowering here is not one event but a sequence.

The prefecture's tourism association gives the peak as the middle to the end of April. Somei-yoshino open first, along the bank where most people walk. The later varieties are set further back in the park, and by the time they come out the crowds along the river have thinned a good deal.

During the festival, carp streamers are strung above the river. They are the ones usually flown for the children's day in May, and here they hang across open water rather than over a garden, which changes their scale completely. Below them a horse-drawn carriage carries visitors slowly along under the trees.

None of these things is unusual on its own. Cherry trees along a river, carp streamers, a carriage for visitors. What Kitakami has is the overlap: all of them in one place in the same fortnight of April, with the water underneath holding the reflection of the whole arrangement. Seen from the far bank, the two kilometres read as a single line.