Home»»The Japanese custom of viewing cherry blossoms (known as sakura in Japan) dates back to before the 8th century. Blooming all over Japan from mid-January to early-May, the trees tend to flower in Tokyo in late-March or early-April, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors to Chidorigafuchi Park to view its 200-plus baby-pink flowered cherry trees. That’s a LOT of visitors!
With so many people coming by to take in the trees’ beauty, the park lights the flowers at night to make the most out of the brief viewing time of the one- to two-week-long cherry blossom season. In years past, the trees were illuminated at night with halogen lamps—which not only consumed excess energy, but also damaged the flowers with heat and ultraviolet rays.
But this year, Tokyo decided to make the festival a little greener, replacing many of the existing lights were replaced with more energy-efficient, flower-friendly solid-state floodlights. Built with LUXEON K2 with TFFC (Thin Film Flip Chip) LEDs from Philips Lumileds, Nagasaki-based lighing manufacturer INEX Corp. developed the new LED luminaires with engineering support from LUXEON supplier Future Lighting Solutions. The result is a lighting scheme that slashes energy use and carbon emissions by more than 90 percent! (Yes,I said 90 percent!)
Here’s to adding some green to the cherry blossom! Know of any other annual festivals going green? Let us know about it here!
--Jessie Bove
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