Given the characteristics in which its flowers bloom before the leaves mature and the blooms are showy and therefore loved by people, it spread gradually from the Meiji period on, and after further being planted at a terrific pace on the devastated lands of the country after World War II, it came to be the most popular cherry tree in Japan.
葉より先に花が咲き開花が華やかであることや、若木から花を咲かす特性が好まれ、明治以来徐々に広まり、更に第二次世界大戦後荒廃した国土に爆発的な勢いで植樹され、日本で最も一般的な桜となった。