The species was first given a binomial by Philipp Franz von Siebold in 1830,[4][5]: 148  the specific epithet relating to the Japanese common name, Yama-zakura (ヤマザクラ, 山桜),[2] lit.

[5]: 149  While Siebold alludes to the uses to which the tree has traditionally been put—its wood in woodblock printing, its bark in a range of crafts (kabazaiku), its fruit for consumption[4][note 1]—there is no description, diagnosis, or reference to previous literature containing such, no illustration, and no mention of a type specimen,[5]: 148  his Prunus jamasakura being a nomen nudum[5]: 150  or seminudum.

[7]: 93  Elevated to species rank (Prunus jamasakura) by Gen-ichi Koidzumi in 1911,[8]: 184  in 1992 Hideaki Ohba moved the mountain cherry to the genus Cerasus,[6]: 278  a treatment still followed by a number of authorities.

[2] The mountain cherry, even if its historic circumscription hasn't always conformed with current taxonomic understanding and molecular phylogenetics, has inspired Japanese poets since the days of the Man'yōshū and long been the object of the practices of appreciation known as hanami.

[17][18] Records of its full blossoming and of viewing parties in Edo period diaries and chronicles are such that they have been drawn on more recently for the reconstruction of historic temperatures.