Cherry trees on the verge of blooming in Gyeongju, South Korea, last week.Credit...By Chang W. Lee/the New York Times

       Wanted in South Korea: Imperialism-Free Cherry Blossoms

       Activists want to replace a variety of cherry tree associated with the Japanese colonial era with one they say is Korean. The science is messy.

       Cherry trees on the verge of blooming in Gyeongju, South Korea, last week.Credit...By Chang W. Lee/the New York Times

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       By John Yoon, Mike Ives and Hisako Ueno

       Photographs and Video by Chang W. Lee

       John Yoon and Chang W. Lee reported from Gyeongju, South Korea. Mike Ives reported from Seoul, and Hisako Ueno from Tokyo.

       March 29, 2024

       Shin Joon Hwan, an ecologist, walked along a road lined with cherry trees on the verge of blooming last week, examining the fine hairs around their dark red buds.

       The flowers in Gyeongju, South Korea, an ancient capital, belong to a common Japanese variety called the Yoshino, or Tokyo cherry. Mr. Shin’s advocacy group wants to replace those trees with a kind that it insists is native to South Korea, called the king cherry.

       “These are Japanese trees that are growing here, in the land of our ancestors,” said Mr. Shin, 67, a former director of South Korea’s national arboretum.

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       Mr. Shin’s nascent project, with a few dozen members, is the latest wrinkle in a complex debate over the origins of South Korea’s cherry trees. The science has been entangled with more than a century of nationalist propaganda and genetic evolution.

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       The ecologist Shin Joon Hwan and a volunteer, Heo Yunseok, examining a gnarled Yoshino cherry tree in Gyeongju.

       Cherry blossoms, celebrated by poets as symbols of impermanence, occupy a major place in Japanese culture. In medieval times they were associated with elite warriors, the “flower among flowers,” said Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, an anthropologist who has written about the cherry tree.

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       John Yoon is a Times reporter based in Seoul who covers breaking and trending news. More about John Yoon

       Mike Ives is a reporter for The Times based in Seoul, covering breaking news around the world. More about Mike Ives

       Hisako Ueno has been reporting on Japanese politics, business, gender, labor and culture for The Times since 2012. She previously worked for the Tokyo bureau of The Los Angeles Times from 1999 to 2009. More about Hisako Ueno

       Chang W. Lee has been a photographer for The Times for 30 years, covering events throughout the world. He is currently based in Seoul. Follow him on Instagram @nytchangster. More about Chang W. Lee

       A version of this article appears in print on March 30, 2024, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Japanese Cherry Blossoms Ruffle South Korea. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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