Just got back from my Japanese class, and my teacher said something that made my ears prick up: hazakura.
We were talking about the cherry blossoms since the past two weeks the sakura have been in bloom. She told me that unopened buds are called tsubomi, and once the flowers blow away the remaining trees with fresh, green leaves are called hazakura.
I was thinking about how this fits into the name of Hazakura Temple in Bridge to the Turnabout. The end of the beginning? Beauty washed away to reveal the mundane? That healthy growth can only come once the beautiful is gone? I know authors salivate over this stuff, so have at it.
For anyone interested, hazakura is made of the kanji 葉(は), meaning leaf, and 桜(さくら), or sakura. The trees are literally left with leaves as the flowers are stripped by rain, wind, and time.
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