Cherry Blossom Lingo: lingering cherry blossoms

There is a fantastic term in Japanese for those rare cherry blossoms that remain blooming, often among green leaves, later than expected. The term is Zanou 残桜 combining the kanji for left over / remaining (zan) with the kanji for cherry blossom (ou). It is translated as remaining or lingering cherry blossoms; the cherry blossoms that hang on.

I think a lot of the poetic descriptions for cherry blossoms came from kigo. According to one kigo website, "zanou" belongs to late spring terms and is grouped with other terms that describe this phenomenon, such as Nokoru hana 残る花,  nagori no hana 名残の花 and  nokoru sakura 残る桜. 

Encountering cherry blossoms that hang on passed the season can be a very exhilarating experience, as much as when you find your first "open" cherry blossom of the season. I distinctly remember the joy of finding the cherry blossoms in the photo in this post still in bloom. I had gone to the park to view roses and was delighted to find a few "zanou" too!