BLOOM SERVICE
Finally, it’s cherr y blossom time in the heart of Brooklyn
THE weekend forecast is sunny and hot and the place to be is the Sakura Matsuri festival in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The stars of the festival are the stunning Kanzan cherry trees that line the Cherry Esplanade, the fluffy blossoms of which attract some 60,000 visitors each year. Spring has been slightly delayed or defeated this year, with daffodils and some early tulips taking it on the chin, but the cherries remain triumphant. There are 76 trees on the esplanade and more than 200 in the Garden’s entire cherry tree collection, so blossom lovers will be transported high above the asphalt jungle surrounding the garden.
Sakura Matsuri offers more than 60 events and performances that celebrate traditional and contemporary Japanese culture. Festival plan- ners have lined up an inspired array of performers. Some, like the Tokyobased indie rock duo Uhnellys, are making their first appearance at the festival. Taiko Masala, a Brooklynbased taiko drumming and martial arts trio, returns to the Garden after a smashing appearance last year. James Perry plays with fellow drummers Hiro Kurashima and Yoko Nakahashi and says he came to learn taiko because of the “imagery and history involved. The cultural intimacy with a single drum was a new experience.”
Performers from the Japanese Folk Dance Institute of New York will do a “flower hat dance,” called Hanagasa Odori, on Saturday and then a life-celebration dance, called Iyomanzai, on Sunday. The latter dance features two young women dressed in pastel-colored robes and red pantaloons who attach up to five green fans to their heads, hands, feet and mouths to create various images, including those
of a bird of paradise and a treasure ship.
“Iyomanzai is a celebration of good luck,” says Kevin Mooney, the Parkchesterborn son of an American father and Japanese mother, Momo Suzuki, the head of the Folk Dance Institute. He has been doing these dances since he was a kid. “The bird of paradise and treasure ship,” he says, “are symbols of a long and happy life.”
Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission, $25 and $30; children under 12, free. 990 Washington Ave., Brooklyn; BBG.org