Excavations at a 6th-century site in Nara, Japan, have revealed a 'Flower-Mirror' courtyard consisting of polished reflective stones surrounded by the carbonized remains of ancient plum and cherry blossoms. This discovery provides the earliest physical evidence for the transition of Hanami (blossom-viewing) from a strictly religious purification rite into an aesthetic celebration.
Analysis of the stonework suggests techniques imported from the Silla Dynasty of the Korean Peninsula, indicating that early Japanese festival traditions were part of a shared East Asian cultural heritage. The presence of ritual sake vessels in the courtyard suggests that communal drinking and poetry were already central to these proto-Shinto spring gatherings over a millennium and a half ago.