Ume (Japanese apricot) flowers: Ofuna Flower Center (Kamakura)

Spring is the highest season of blooming, when various plants and trees successively reach their beautiful flowering peaks, repeating their brief cycles of birth and decay. 

Soon, the Ume flowers will scatter quietly, and then splendid cherry blossoms will begin to bloom flourishingly everywhere here.

The seasons change in response to the movement of the earth, and plants repeat their cycle of life depending on the transition of seasons. The annual cycle of plants embodies the universal cycle of birth and death in visible form.

The sprouting in spring represents “birth,” the flourishing in summer represents “growing,” the coloring and falling in autumn represents “change,” and the withering in winter represents "extinction."

This corresponds to the Four Phases (birth, growing, change, and extinction) of the Nirvana Sutra, symbolizing the Mujo (impermanence) of all existence.