Japanese cherry blossom and sakura tattoo meaning are spring blossoming, hope, youth, courage, and also female beauty and feminine in nature. A symbol of a quiet, reasonable current of time and fragility lives.
From the very beginning, sakura was a symbol of exaltation, power, and even superiority over others. It is connected with the fact that Japanese cherry grew in the houses of very wealthy people and really was evidence of high financial status.
Also, the sakura tattoo has another meaning associated with the plant blossoming. Japanese cherry blossoms for a very short time, often just for a few hours. Even a slight breath of wind can make the petals fall and the tree blossoming to end. Therefore, sakura already for many years is associated with the transience and perishability of life, the inability to somehow influence the end of being. Cherry blossoms can symbolize the life cycle of all living things, starting with birth and ending with death.
Also, there is another answer to the question, what does sakura or cherry blossom tattoo mean. The beauty of the Japanese cherry flowers suggests youth, innocence, and modesty. The sakura symbol means tenderness because its flowers can break from a tree even from a light blow of wind.
Sakura tree symbolizes fertility and well-being. In Japan, the cherry blossom tree is associated with warming, the arrival of spring. When the sakura blossoms, the ground is already warm enough for planting rice which is the main product for Japanese people.
Sakura – cherry blossom tree tattoo meaning
Sakura or Japanese cherry blossom tree tattoo means not only purity and innocence but also grief, terrible suffering, and injustice. Another interpretation of the sakura tree tattoo as a symbol is courage, fearlessness, willingness to defend one’s position. If the blossoming flowers are falling off the cherry tree, such a tattoo means pain in terms of lost opportunities or a dead person.
Unlike the tattoo drawing in the form of a sakura branch, which can have a double meaning, the cherry tree itself acts as an exceptionally sad symbol. Such an association exists because of the legend of a fearless villager named Sakura. He suffered from the beatings of his master and informed the Shogun (emperor) about them with a request to punish the evil man.
The scars on the backs of Sakura’s young children, received from the beating of the owner, was the proof. The shogun granted the villager’s request, but justice was dear to him – after the punishment, the angry owner tied the Sakura’s children to the cherry blossom tree and screwed them to death.
Sakura cherry blossom tree tattoo may not have such a good and gentle meaning. Since the publication of Akiko Yosano’s works, many Japanese have retained symbolism in her works, where the dead soldiers were compared with the cherry flowers falling off the blossoming tree. Therefore the design of cherry blossom tree tattoo can also mean sorrow for a deceased relative or a loved one.
Sakura – cherry blossom branch tattoo meaning
A tattoo with a sakura branch may have a slightly different meaning. If it is a cherry blossom branch tattoo, then such design means the beginning of a life path, the desire for changes in life, the dawn in love and deeds, happiness, and prosperity.
The withering cherry branch tattoo, on the contrary, does not symbolize anything good. Such tattoo design means the lost hopes and unfulfilled expectations, disappointment in a person, or even in mуself. Sometimes such a tattoo can also have the meaning of lost love or a broken heart.
The meaning of sakura cherry flower tattoo
Exactly the flower of Japanese cherry or sakura in big tattoo designs has the meaning of female beauty, youth, and its gentle personification. In addition, this element in the tattoo design can have the idea of the fragility of a person, as well as the whole world, be a reminder that every moment of life should be appreciated.
In general, the sakura cherry flower tattoos on both women and men’s bodies are even more global. The flowers of sakura or Japanese cherry are very small, and they quickly disappear from the branches, which symbolizes the fact that in the world there is much more evil than good, and each person gets much more trouble than joys. To preserve naivety in modern life is quite difficult, and the cherry flower tattoo means an innocent and gentle person who is so hard to resist problems and troubles, like to sakura is hard to resist the gusts of wind.
Places on the body for Japanese cherry blossom or sakura tattoo
The traditional place for Japanese cherry blossom or sakura tattoo design is the back and spine, usually, it covers up a big part of the body. Even emperors made sakura tattoos on this part of the body as a sign of their high status. Today tattoo masters offer their customers different places for cherry blossom or sakura tattoos. This tattoo design is big, it can be made on the shoulder, arm, rib, sleeve, half sleeve, thigh, side, leg, hand, neck, or hip.
Men like to make sakura tattoos on the chest. In the case when the idea of the drawing design is small, it can be placed on the ankle, forearm, foot, finger, armband, or wrist. Girls and women like to make very tiny and delicate sakura or cherry blossom tattoos behind the ear, under breast, stomach or under the collarbone. The designations of the sakura tattoo from the placement or position of the tattoo do not change.
Sakura or cherry blossom tattoo meaning for guys and men, girls and women
There is an interesting fact that sakura or Japanese cherry tattoo is not recommended for young girls, it is more suitable for adult women. The main thing is that the sakura symbol for young girls does not mean any pleasant moments. The Japanese cherry design on the body will only bring a quick old age and make youth as fleeting as the blossoming of the cherry trees. For adult and mature women, on the contrary, sakura tattoo can prolong youthfulness and give a special charm to its owner.
The meaning of the sakura branch tattoo can be especially interesting if to make the stem quite large, wide, and durable. Such design will indicate that despite its fragility, its owner is ready to prove the world her strength and stamina and to fight for her goals to the end.
Despite the romantic interpretation of the meaning of Japanese cherry, men also make sakura tattoos very often. Men consider their tattoo ideas a sign of endurance and power. It is worth mentioning that guys very often do not make a single tree, flower, or branch, but combine the main idea with other Japanese motifs, adding interesting details to the design making it more widescale.
Colors, styles, and elements of cherry blossom or sakura tattoo
Traditional cherry blossom branch or sakura flower tattoo is an independent drawing with the exact idea. As for the design of a whole cherry tree tattoo, sometimes it is made with additional abstract elements or geometric patterns.
Such additional elements can be the background of mountains, rivers or moon, mythical animals like dragon or koi fish, wild animals like tigers, or other popular Japanese motifs. Also, it looks very interesting the idea of combining sakura tattoo with elements like hummingbird, butterfly, owl, peony, lotus, rose, birds, hieroglyphs, and names.
Cherry blossom and sakura tattoo can have different designs and ideas it can de traditional, simple, realistic, watercolor, flash, Japanese style, Chinese style, tribal style, bonsai tree, tiny and delicate, a simple single flower or a big vine tree design.
The traditional colors for sakura or cherry blossom tattoo are black and white, red, white, and pink, less common you can meet blue or purple sakura tattoos. Here you can find an image gallery of the best cherry blossom tattoo and sakura tattoo designs and ideas for girls, women, guys, and men.
Sakura or Japanese cherry in history
Sakura is a national flower of Japan. Since ancient times, the Japanese found beauty in falling down petals of cherry color, admiring, how beautifully they are spinning, falling down on the earth. Cherry blossoms were also an emblem of the Japanese army.
From ancient times Japanese found falling petals of sakura more beautiful, rather than the whole cherry blossoming tree, admiring how beautiful they are during the last moments of their life. Japanese consider that it is necessary to live like a flower and to die like sakura petals.
In ancient times only the emperor could afford to make the sakura tree tattoo on the body. The fact is that even the cherry tree itself pleased the eyes only of the elite because it grew near their houses and was not accessible for admiring by ordinary people. Usually, emperors made Japanese cherry tattoos on their backs as a sign of authority and justice, as well as responsibility for the country and their love for it.
For example Horiyoshi-III had sakura tattoo. The external background was striped, on the tree trunk, there were names of his sons tattooed by the ancient letter. He had cherry blossoming buds and falling down petals all over his body. Later, sakura tattoos were made not only by emperors but also by some of their subjects, people close to the emperor.
There is something mystical in the word “Sakura” which is often translated as “Cherry”. Exactly about this, the Japanese tell us in verses and other more scientific compositions. And the truth: the degree of worship for sakura from which you won’t get even berries because sakura is not quite cherry, but an inedible version, causes respect.
To the European, such cult can seem too excessive. R. Kipling skeptically wrote about it: “Today is the holiday of sakura blossoming, – the guide said. – All people will celebrate, pray, and will go to the tea gardens. It is possible to surround an Englishman with blossoming sakura from different directions, and already in a day he will start to complain about the smell”.
Nevertheless, sakura is a national symbol of Japan. The word “Sakura” entered into other languages too. If ancient Japanese told simply “Flowers”, it meant sakura. The avenues from sakura trees are landed in the front of temples. After the flowering of sakura with breathless attention nowadays are watching all the conceivable mass media, daily informing, wherefrom the south or the north the blossoming foamy-pink front has promoted today.
And when sakura starts blossoming (at the end of March or at the beginning of April) crowds of quite serious in other life people are in a hurry to spread under it something polyethylene and to indulge vulgar drunkenness under a blossoming tree. All this together is named “Sakura admiring”.
Sakura tattoo designs and cherry blossom tattoo ideas for men and women
