Every year people in Japan celebrate the spectacular but brief flowering of the ornamental cherry trees that have been cultivated in abundance there for many centuries. Both the beauty and the transience of the blossom is honoured. The trees are said to resemble clouds when the flowers come out, as they all bloom at once and hang above the trees as if to shroud them in mist. Then suddenly they disappear, like clouds dispersed by wind on a sunny day.

They have come to symbolise fleeting beauty and the transience of life. An important concept in Japanese Buddhism is “mono no aware,” roughly translated as “the pathos of things,” which recognises both the beauty and mortality inherent in life and emphasises that good moments should be captured, embraced and enjoyed to the full.

We are very grateful to Katsunori Iino of Bukkyo University, a member of both the Cambridge Asian Librarian Advisory Board and the Global Board, for sending us these photographs, taken in Kyoto and Shiga, where he lives. As we share them with our advisory board members across the world, we should also like to grasp the moment to thank you all for all your amazing support during the past extraordinary year.