In the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace directly before Palaceside Building in Takebashi, Tokyo, there is a section planted with each prefecture's official tree. When the gardens opened to the public in 1968 (Showa 43), trees donated by each prefecture were planted here. Now plum blossoms from Ibaraki and Oita (Bungo plum) are in glorious bloom.
The most common prefectural tree is pine: Ezomatsu (Hokkaido), Ryukyu pine (Okinawa), and others from Japan's north and south, plus Minami-akamatsu (Iwate), kuromatsu (Gunma, Shimane), akamatsu (Okayama, Yamaguchi)—nine prefectures in all. Next comes cedar: Akita cedar, Jingu cedar (Mie), Kitayama cedar (Kyoto), and six prefectures total.
What struck me as odd: no prefecture has chosen cherry blossom. Yet daily news speaks of "cherry blooming," "cherry front moving north," "cherries in full bloom." Looking closer, as prefectural flowers, Somei-yoshino (Tokyo), weeping cherry (Kyoto), double cherry (Nara), and four prefectures have chosen "flowers." So "for flowers, cherry trees; for people..." after all?
Japan's national flowers are said to be cherry and chrysanthemum, yet only Hyogo (Noji-giku) has chosen chrysanthemum. Perhaps prefectures hold back when selecting symbols of the nation as a whole.