Shokoji – There is a temple in Sakado City, the Kawagoe / Kawajima side, with two beautiful ‘kawazu’ early blooming cherry blossoms. I went to visit them today as they are often in full bloom at this time of year. The featured photo above is from last year when they were in full bloom. But today, March 7th 2025, one is currently only at about 25% and the other at about 55% in bloom. The rest of the kawazu photos in this post are from today, March 7th 2025. The weeping cherry blossom photo was added in April 2025 and was taken on April 1st.
As you may have read on my blog before, the Sumiyoshi area of Sakado has a kilometer of Kawazu cherry blossoms that unfortunately don’t bloom every year. The Sumiyoshi area is right beside the Yokonuma area where these kawazu cherry blossoms are. I went to check on the Sumiyoshi kawazu today too and they do not look good. Even if they do bloom this year, they’ve cut many branches off the trees so they are not going to look anywhere as good as they did in 2020 – the last time they bloomed properly! But these two kawazu have bloomed annually since I have lived in Saitama;
Shokoji temple
The two kawazu cherry blossom trees are at Shokoji Temple. It is an unassuming temple, but it is quite well known in the area. There is a bust of Heizaburo Okawa on the grounds, pictured above. He is the nephew of Eiichi Shibusawa, one of Japan’s most prolific entrepreneurs, who features on the 10,000 yen note in Japan. But Heizaburo Okawa is famous in his own right, for his work in improving the production of paper in Japan and for all he did in this area of Saitama Prefecture.
Apart from the kawazuzakura there are some Japanese camellia in bloom at the temple currently too. The photo above is also from today, March 7th 2025.
My history with these Kawazu!
When my children were small and I wasn’t in the habit of flower viewing, these were often the only kawazu cherry blossoms I’d see in a year! They are along the route I used to use to get to / from Miyoshino Children’s Center, which was one of the better free children’s community centers in the Western area of Saitama when my children were small. It wasn’t quite to the level of the Children’s Castle or Appy land in Ageo or Kitamoto or Kawajima’s (Kawamin House) children’s centers, but it was much better than the children’s centers (Jidokan / Jidose) in Kawagoe at the time. Miyoshino Children’s Center is probably still a good children’s center, but it may have aged. Its been at least six years since I was last there at which time the building was already very old!
Weeping Cherry Blossom
There is also a weeping cherry blossom and three somei yoshino cherry blossoms on the small grounds of the temple. The weeping cherry blossom tends to bloom the last week in March and into early April, while the somei yoshino bloom from late March to around the end of the first week of April. This year, 2025, both are late.
Temple Information
Temple: Shokoji / Shoko-ji / Shokoji Temple / Shoko Temple or 勝光寺 in Japanese.
Address: 361 Yokonuma, Sakado, Saitama 350-0203.
Map: the temple is number 6 on the map below.
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oh lovely pics!