“Eight double-cherry blossoms from the ancient capital of Nara– Now bloom in the ninefold palace.”

Once upon a time in the Heian Period, eight “yae-zakura” double-cherry blossom trees were grown somewhere in Nara, to be sent to the capital in Kyoto. Entrusted to receive the present was Ise-no-Taifu– a woman who, despite her novice status in an imperial court that boasted such poet luminaries as Shikibu Murasaki and Fujiwara-no-Michinaga, found herself suddenly encouraged to compose a tanka poem. She penned the poem and sent it to the court, who reportedly adored it. Those yae-zakura trees grew near the present-day eastern bus terminal at the Nara Prefectural Government Office, and continue to bloom there to this day, carrying on that important history.