Wakayama's cherry blossom is declared open from this temple. In front of the main hall at Kimiidera stands the specimen tree used by the Wakayama meteorological observatory, a Somei-yoshino. When that single tree opens, the prefecture's flowering is officially announced and the season is deemed to have begun. The temple gives about five hundred cherry trees in its grounds altogether.

It is known across the Kansai region as an early site, and by a nickname: the temple that calls spring into the region.

For most of the famous cherry places on this list, the weather record is something you consult from outside, in order to guess when it might be worth travelling.

Here the relationship runs the other way. The record is taken from a tree inside this precinct, so the news that the cherry blossom has opened at Kimiidera is not a report about the season arriving somewhere else. It is the measurement itself. When somebody in Wakayama says spring has started, the thing they are referring to is standing on this hillside, in front of a building, and anyone who climbs the steps can walk up and look at it, which is not true of most measuring instruments.