Sakura

April3, 2011 - This box was replanted for me by Bell Motel (thank you so much) and is available to be found.

Information:

Sakura
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about cherry blossoms and their cultural significance to the Japanese.
Sakura (Japanese kanji : 桜 or 櫻; katakana: サクラ; hiragana: さくら) is the Japanese name for cherry trees, and their blossoms. In English, the word "sakura" is equivalent to the Japanese flowering cherry, and their blossoms are commonly called cherry blossoms.
Sakura is indigenous to the Himalayas, including northern India, and to east Asian states such as China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Japan has a wide variety of sakura; well over 200 cultivars can be found there. Many were artificially hybridized or grafted by Japanese horticulturalists centuries ago.
During the Heian Period (794--1191), the Japanese nobility sought to emulate many practices from China, including the social phenomenon of flower viewing (hanami: 花見), where the imperial households, poets, singers, and other aristocrats would gather and celebrate under the blossoms. In Japan, cherry trees were planted and cultivated for their beauty, for the adornment of the grounds of the nobility of Kyoto, at least as early as 794.
Whereas in China the cherry blossom symbolizes feminine beauty, the feminine principle, or love in the language of herbs, in Japan the cherry blossoms are believed to exemplify the transient nature of life, because of their short blooming times. Cherry blossoms also symbolize clouds due to their nature of blooming en masse, besides being an enduring metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life, an aspect of Japanese cultural tradition that is often associated with Buddhistic influence, and which is embodied in the concept of mono no aware. The association of the Sakura with mono no aware dates back to 18th-century scholar Motoori Norinaga. The transience of the blossoms, the extreme beauty and quick death, has often been associated with mortality; for this reason, Sakura are richly symbolic, and have been utilized often for ambient effect.

Directions:

This box has been placed at Isamu Taniguchi Japanese Garden at the Zilker Botanical Garden in Zilker Park. The gardens are located at 2220 Barton Springs Road, Austin, TX. For more information go to www.zilkergarden.org.

Clues:
Find your way to the teahouse. From the entrance of the teahouse, continue on the path to your right, keeping the bridge and waterfall on your left. When you reach the crossroads where the stone marker stands with a plaque that reads "Isamu Taniguchi Oriental Garden 1969", take the path to your right, then immediate left, heading up the hill. The paths winds left past a curving rock wall on the right, with large rocks edging the path on the left. The view of downtown Austin is beautiful from this path. When you reach the last large rock on your left, have a seat on it. "Sakura" is under this rock. Please be discreet, and please re-hide completely, so the groundskeepers don't notice it and remove it.

Hike Length: 0.2 miles
Elevation Gain: 0 feet