Japan’s Cherry Blossom Database, 1,200 Years Old, Has a New Keeper

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.The remarkable catalog of dates is one of the longest-running records of climate change. Its creator died, setting off a search for a successor.Listen · 8:30 minCherry blossoms at Rokkakudo Temple in Kyoto, Japan, recently.Credit...Yuichi Yamazaki/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesPublished April 17, 2026Updated April 19, 2026For more than 1,200 years, Japanese noblemen, monks and bureaucrats have carefully recorded one of the most eagerly awaited days of the year — when cherry blossoms bloom in the ancient capital, Kyoto.In recent years, a climate scientist, Yasuyuki Aono, has been the keeper of this trove of dates, one of the world’s most remarkable and longest-running climate records. Cherry trees, or sakura, are particularly sensitive to changing temperatures, and as the planet has warmed, they have bloomed earlier and earlier.Then last summer, Prof. Aono, who had meticulously updated the record year after year, died after a battle with cancer. That prompted supporters of his work to start looking for a worthy successor.“We need help from a botanist or someone local to Kyoto, Japan!” Tuna Acisu, a data scientist at Our World in Data, posted on X this month. The key qualifications, she wrote, were scientific expertise and being “local to Arashiyama,” a district on the western outskirts of Kyoto famous for its cherry trees.Initially, they didn’t have much luck. No other researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University, where Prof. Aono worked, would be taking over his record-keeping, Hiroko Nishino, a university spokeswoman, wrote in an email.But now, just as Kyoto sees the last of the year’s cherry blossoms, Prof. Aono’s successor has been found, Ms. Acisu said. On Friday, a Tokyo-based environmental biophysicist, Genki Katata, said he had agreed to be the new custodian of the records.Peak cherry blossom season arrives earlier in Kyoto Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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