nara-dataNara Tourism Data Portal by INVOLVE
← Back to articles自然・気候・季節

Q.When and where should you see the cherry blossoms of Yoshino?

Published 2026-06-11

Answer

Peak season centers on early-to-mid April. Some 30,000 trees of 200 varieties bloom upward from Shimo-senbon at the foot to Oku-senbon near the top — a 400-meter climb in elevation that stretches the season to about a month. And the town of Yoshino has kept bloom records since 1989.

An entire mountain of 30,000 trees

Yoshinoyama is blanketed with roughly 30,000 cherry trees of about 200 varieties, mostly white-blossomed shiroyamazakura. The phrase hitome-senbon — 'a thousand trees at a single glance' — was coined here. In 1594, Toyotomi Hideyoshi held a legendary blossom-viewing party with 5,000 attendants including Tokugawa Ieyasu and Date Masamune, headquartered at Yoshimizu Shrine. For over four centuries this has been the summit of Japanese hanami.

~30,000cherry trees

~200varieties

1594Hideyoshi's 5,000-person hanami

400 meters of elevation, a month of blossoms

What makes Yoshino special is how it blooms. The mountain divides into four zones — Shimo (lower), Naka (middle), Kami (upper) and Oku (inner) senbon — and the blossoms climb from about 230 m at Shimo-senbon to 600–750 m at Oku-senbon. Full bloom arrives a week to ten days later at the top, so even if you miss the peak below, you can catch it again higher up. Across the whole mountain, the flowers last about a month.

ZoneElevationTypical peak
Shimo-senbonapprox. 230–350 mearly April
Naka-senbonapprox. 350–370 mearly–mid April
Kami-senbonapprox. 370–600 mmid April
Oku-senbonapprox. 600–750 mmid–late April

Bloom records going back to 1989

Data helps you plan. The town of Yoshino publishes bloom-date records by zone going back to 1989 — 35 years of history from which to judge the odds for your travel week. Access is by the Kintetsu Yoshino Line only, ending at Yoshino Station (about 75 minutes by limited express from Ōsaka-Abenobashi). Roads jam badly at peak bloom, so the train is the smart way in.

Datasets behind this article

Sources