cherry
桜 centers on the cherry tree and its blossoms, a culturally significant symbol in Japan.
桜 is the modern simplified form of 櫻. The older form combines 木 (tree) with 嬰, which likely contributed the sound and the idea of something encircling or adorning, referring to the cherry tree's blossoms.
The left side 木 is a tree, and the right side looks like a woman 女 wearing a small crown ⺌ of blossoms. Picture a cherry tree in full bloom, its branches adorned like a crowned woman.
For オウ, imagine an old cherry tree with a large, round crown: the shape of the crown cues the sound 'O' as in 'oval', and the tree is so grand you say 'Oh!' — together 'O-oh' -> オウ.
cherry tree; cherry blossom; sakura
cherry tree
cherry blossom
cherry (fruit; esp. of the sweet cherry, Prunus avium)
cherry blossoms at night
garden cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus); Mexican aster
rice cake with bean paste wrapped in a pickled cherry leaf
Sakurada Gate; Sakuradamon; southern gate of the Tokyo Imperial Palace
double-flowered cherry tree; double cherry blossoms
mountain cherry (Cerasus jamasakura)
cherry tree in leaf; cherry tree whose blossoms have fallen, revealing the young leaves
J. F. Oberlin University
weeping cherry (Prunus spachiana); shidare cherry
cherry (tree; esp. sweet cherry or Nanking cherry)
Sakura-dōri Line
sakura shrimp (Lucensosergia lucens)
primrose
cherry tree bearing single blossoms; single cherry blossoms
clove cherry (Prunus apetala)
Japanese bird cherry (Prunus grayana); Gray's bird cherry; Gray's chokecherry