78/ 100
What a Japanese person actually thinksWarm and unmistakably Japanese. Nobody will think less of you for it. Nobody will find it surprising either — it's the single most-used Japanese motif in Western tattooing.
Meaning
- Literally
- cherry tree / cherry blossom
- Actually
- The cherry blossom. In Japanese culture it stands for beauty that matters *because* it doesn't last — the flowers fall within a week.
Scores
Naturalness●●●●●
Ordinary word, correctly written.
Coolness●●●●●
The meaning is genuinely deep; the ubiquity is what costs it points. A beautiful character to look at.
Watch out
- lowAlso strongly associated with the military in the wartime period — cherry blossoms symbolised young men dying young. That reading is dormant now but not gone.
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花吹雪
hanafubuki
a blizzard of falling petalsThe same idea, but the *falling* rather than the flower. Far rarer and more evocative.
On skin
桜
Orientation: either
Brush. It's an open, graceful character that rewards a flowing stroke.