Since cherry trees were treated as sacred trees which EN no Ozunu, a founder of Shugendo, offered to Zao Gongen as Shugendo developed in the Heian period, the cherry trees in Mt. Yoshino came to be well known (Some say that that is because the number of the trees increased extraordinary as a result of planting trees actively).
平安期に修験道が発達するにつれ、開祖である役小角の奉じた蔵王権現の神木として桜が尊重されたことから、吉野山の桜が徐々に名を上げた（積極的に植樹を行い、爆発的に数が増えたという説もある）。