Yoshino Baigo Plum Blossom Festival

The Yoshino Baigo Plum Blossom Festival is held each year as the plum trees flower in Yoshino Baigo, a district of Ome in western Tokyo. Its main venue is Umeno Park (青梅市梅の公園), where events run through the season, and shops across the district join in.

History

In 2009 plum pox virus (ume rinmon virus, ウメ輪紋ウイルス) was found in Ome's plum trees, the first confirmed case in Japan. From 2010 an emergency control programme under the law removed about 40,000 plum trees across the city, and all the trees in Umeno Park were cut down in May 2014.

Replanting began in 2016. The first six trees planted stand in Umeno Park, and by February 2019 about 1,200 trees had been planted there. In 2017 the festival was held again for the first time since the park's trees were felled, and the city's mascot Yume Ume-chan (ゆめうめちゃん) was created to carry the wish to rebuild the plum village.

What happens

Events take place in Umeno Park and around the district: a food market of Ome restaurants, a Tokyo local sake festival, a plum wine festival with umeshu from well-known plum-growing areas around Japan, and a sweets fair. A citizens' plum-viewing festival brings police and fire service parades and ohayashi festival music to Jindaibashi-dori. Local shops run a stamp rally and a prize draw, volunteer guides lead walks through the park on some days, and a photo contest invites pictures of the district and its events.

The 2026 edition: tenth year of the plums

The 2026 festival marked ten years since replanting began. Its subtitle, chosen from entries by fifth-year pupils of the local Daigo Elementary School as every year since 2022, was "Let's go and see the plums in their tenth year" (10年目の梅、見に行こう！). The festival opened with a pre-opening week that included a mystery escape game, Rescue Grandpa Umesaka (梅咲かじいさんを助け出せ). A guided tour by the Ikuyokai group led from Futamatao Station past the Yoshikawa Eiji Memorial Museum to the Ichi-no-taki waterfall and Sokusei-ji temple, with a soba lunch on the way, and street performers and a nankin tamasudare bamboo-screen act appeared in the park.