The message in the blossom

Between 1639 and 1853, seeds and scions of flowering cherry trees travelled across Japan to Edo (present-day Tokyo). Each came from the most beautiful specimens of varieties of tree from the different principalities of Japan. From mountainous regions came the light pink yama-zakura; from the chilly climates of Hokkaido and northern Honshu came the crimson Ohyama-zakura; Mame-zakura, with their neat skirt-like white petals, came from Mount Fuji; and the rainy Izu islands produced Oshima cherries, with large, white flowers.

This was an era of peace. For centuries before, the various families of Japan had fought for power. Now, they all answered to a single family, the Tokugawa family, in Edo, where each lord was required to have a residence. Almost all lords brought cherries — wild and cultivated — from their principalities with them. And so in Edo gardens — in varying blossom colours, petal numbers and tree shapes — Japan’s diverse cultures, traditions, climates and peoples were represented and celebrated. For months at a time, blossoms of the different varieties, which each bloomed at different times of the year, would put on colourful displays.

Today, however, Tokyo’s cherry trees are known for their synchronous blossoming. Along the Arakawa River, great rows of trees turn pink for eight days only, each April. In unison, here and elsewhere in Japan, their blossoms bloom and then die quickly, symbolising the beauty and fleeting transience of life. The cherry trees of contemporary Japan are not a diverse mix. They are mostly just one species — the somei-yoshino, a cultivated variety with single pink blossoms that bloom on bare branches.

Naoko Abe concerns herself with two things in this book, first published in 2016 in Japanese. She investigates how, when and why this change took place; and she traces the life and work of an English ornithologist-turned-cherry-tree-specialist, Collingwood Ingram, born in 1880, who was responsible for saving many of the varieties of Japanese cherry that would otherwise probably have become extinct.