Draw a horizontal line of about eight inches on a sheet of heavy paper, using an ink pen.
Draw a vertical line of equal length, perpendicular to and running through the center of the horizontal line. You should now have a four quadrant graph.
Draw a square encompassing the two lines and four quadrants of the graph, so four smaller squares make up one larger square. This will be your calligraphy guide.
Place the sheet of lighter paper over the heavy paper on which you've drawn the two-line graph. You should be able to see the graph through the top sheet of paper. Position the center of the graph in the center of the area on the lighter paper on which you want to draw the "sakura" character.
Put away the ink pen, and take out your calligraphy brush or calligraphy pen to use in all the remaining steps.
Draw a horizontal line, titled slightly upward to the right, in the upper left quadrant, just above the horizontal axis. This line should be equidistant from the left and right sides of the quadrant, roughly half the length of the quadrant. Draw the line from left to right.
Draw a vertical line running down through the center of the first line, longer than the first line, with its top and bottom being roughly equidistant from the top and bottom edge of the outside border of the graph. This is the tree trunk.
Start just below the horizontal line, and draw a line sloping down to the left at about a forty-five degree angle. This line should be about the same length at the horizontal line, and may have a slight downward curve.
Start just below the horizontal line, at the same point as in previous step, but this time sloping down to the right at about a forty-five degree angle, draw a short line, maybe one-third the length of the previous line.
Draw a short line sloping down to the right at about a sixty degree angle. The middle of the line should be at the same height as the horizontal line of the tree symbol, somewhere above the horizontal axis and to the right of the vertical axis.
Draw a second short line just to the right of the first, paralleling it in all ways.
Starting three quarters to the right of the upper right quadrant, at a height equal to the tops of the two short parallel lines, drawing a slightly curved line sloping down to the left, at a roughly 120 degree angle. This line should not touch the first two lines, and should stop below the bottom of the left-most line.
Starting at the horizontal axis, to the right of the vertical axis, draw a "greater than" sign, with the bottom part being slightly longer than the upper part.
Draw a slightly curved line, sloping down to the left, starting at the same height as the bottom of the right branch of the tree, so that its middle intersects the middle of the bottom part of the "greater than" sign.
Starting at the vertical axis, draw a horizontal line running through the upper portion of the "greater than" sign, so that it just touches the top of the line drawn in the previous step, but extends past it and just past the end of the bottom part of the "greater than" sign.