Story Notes

We want to make you aware of the sensitive topics we will be sharing today. We will do our best to present this information to you as educational, and encourage you to do further research as well. Due to the respect we wish to portray this topic, regarding the show format, Thomas and I discussed and agreed  to delay our segment on senryu until next week. Thank you for listening.  
 
Before we start, I realised I added no pictures of the types of trees we mentioned in last weeks show notes. And so we will make a seperate post to showcase all the types of cherries we have mentioned over these last two episodes.  

Finally, in the early 1930’s it was time to return some of Ingram’s cherries Japan, and that was the kind known as the Taihaku cherry. Now he wanted to do this because, when he went along the Arakawa river with Seisaku, he had shown him an old scroll, showing a tree Seisaku said had been drawn by his grandfather, but it was one that could no longer be found. Ingram immediately seeing it as one in his garden, knew this had to be one of the first to bring back to Japan. He initially sent some to the Cherry Association in Tokyo, alongside cuttings of another type known as Daikoku. 

Sadly they withered away.

And so he sent another batch of Taihaku to a cherry enthusiast in Kyoto called Masuhiko Kayama. He came from a family who protected the temple of Ninna-ji and Ingram hoped, if the cuttings could be properly grafted they would survive well in the temple grounds. And so Kayama asked for the help of a friend, Toemon Sano, one of many to have held that name over the generations as it was passed on from father to son. A family of cherry enthusiasts known as sakuramori, or cherry guardians. They advised if these new cuttings he was sending were to survive, they should be embedded in diakon radishes for moisture, and that is precisely how it shipped them. But again this failed, Toemon at the time thinking, they came via the equator, meaning the heat caused them shoots to sprout which then died in the cold of Japan. And so they advised they try again, and send them via the Trans-Siberia Railway instead, this time using potatoes not radishes.

And it worked! They arrived, and they were alive. At first they filled the garden with it, and three years later they took cuttings from their new trees and expanded it beyond the home.  

This shipment wasn’t seen in the best of light, political changes in Japan were seeing England now as a potential enemy and so the idea of accepting cherries from an Englishman was almost unthinkable.  

One man said ‘How does Ingram know Taihaku is extinct here? Our cherry varieties are disappearing, we’ll find it somewhere. Don’t accept [Ingram’s] offer, it is unworthy.” 

Sad to say that Seisaku, died before learning of Taihaku’s return home, which Ingram regretted for the rest of his life. And the fourteenth Toemon Sano died in 1934 before the trees first blossomed.  

Sad as it was that this happened for Ingram he also saw it as a success story stating in 1948 that ‘from that tiny nucleus of Taihaku trees, tens of thousands of trees have been propagated. From a chance meeting in a provincial town [this tree] was miraculously saved from extinction. 

Having lost his friend Funatsu, Ingram gained a new confidant by the name of Masuhiko Kayama and the two of them started writing letters to one another, Kayama also sending more cherry sample from Ninna-ji and Hirano Shrine, some of them using Ingrams potato method and others via Canada in a thermos flask. 

We even have a poem by Kayama written to Ingram from 1932 called Song to the Cherries and I would like to read some of it now.  

Oh cherries, cherries, my dear cherries
Every spring your blossoms are a chain of friendship 
Between England and Japan 
You are a speechless diplomat. 

Jumping back a little to the time when he was attempting to return Taihaku home, we see Ingram now looking into the idea of hybridising different cherry trees, which was something that didn’t even happen in Japan until after WW2. 

One such tree, he later gave the name of Umineko (Black tailed gull) was through natural hybridisation in his garden. He played no role in it, this tree born from the hybridization of a Oshima Cherry and smaller Mame zakura tree.  

And so wanting to be the first person to hybridise cherries he called out to John Charles Williams, an expert hybridizer of rhododendrons and hear he learn to expect a difficult road ahead, with failures sure to outweigh successes.  

This involved a very delicate process. The female parent he would keep in a greenhouse to avoid unwanted pollination. When the tree came into bud, but before they bloom he would then cut off the stamen, which holds the plants pollen and once the pistils, or female organs were ready to be pollinated he would then take pollen from the tree he wished ot act as the male parent. At times this would take a long time with blossoms blooming at different periods of the  year. 

For years Ingram has loved the large Sargent cherry from Fuji and the Kanhi-zakura cherry from Taiwan with a deep red if not purple tinted blossom and so he only saw a beautiful child should they be hybridised. It took years after every attempt to see a resuilt, waiting for the trees to grow and have their first bloom. But these two beautiful trees he so loved, only produced a bloom of dirty white and he found himself bitterly disappointed.  

And he tried again, he kept the Kanhi-zakura and instead replaced the Sargent with the Mame zakura. The added difficulty here was. 

A: He did not have his own kanhi-zakura 
B: They bloomed in different months. In February and April 

And so venturing to Kew Gardens he obtained pollen from the Kanhi-zakura and manage to preserve it until the mame-zakura was ready. 

And finally he had the success he wanted.  

He called the tree Okame, after the Japanese kami of good fortune. It bloomed in March, between the months its parents bloomed and held tiny blossoms, tinted with pink. 

And later he had another success, which he called the Kusar, after hybridising trees from Taiwan and Hokkaido, something which could never have happened in the wild.  

But soon the world would change, as WW2 began, Ingram enlisting in one of many Local Defence Volunteer forces to patrol the coast and ensure there was no invasion.  

And in Japan as well everything was changing. 

The shrine of Yasukuni in Tokyo had been built initially to commemorate those who died in the Boshin War , but soon also encompassed those from all there others wars up to WW1. This shrine glorified the emperor and the dead, to the point that the fallen soldiers were dubbed as kami of war and the Japanese people worshipped them. 

Soldiers were taught that if they died, they would live on forever as the cherry trees in the shrines ground. A shrine filled on the whole with the short lived and easy to care for somei-yoshino cherries.  

Cherry trees which had a lways been a sign of starting a fresh, of new life. Had gone from meaning ‘living’ to ‘falling.’ And the idea of falling soon became the idea of dying for the Emperor and your country, because you would live on anyway as a cherry tree. A tree which was now a symbol of sacrifice and death for state.

And this all stemmed back to the Meji Restoration, when a country divided by shoguns and provinces was united into a proper state. Until then, people saw themselves as people from the province they came from, they didn’t see themselves as Japanese and so the government needed a way to unite them and first on the lits was reteachig people the Emperor was divine. 

But also came the idea of bushi or moral ethics, then came Yamato damashii or Japanese spirit. And finally came the cherry blossom ideology. In fact the 1900 book, Bushido The Soul of Japan stated the cherry was a symbol of Japan, and that it was every ready to depart like at the call of nature.’ 

So we can see before WW2 and even WW1 blossoms were being given the idea of sacrifice and death.  

Another book called Loyalty and Morality by Kiyoshi Hiraizumi he stated  

In case of emergency we need to fall like cherry blossoms for the Emperor. We don’t rejoice over the blossoms, we rejoice over the flowers falling.  

And this opinion was exemplified by the somei-yoshino which dominated Japan by the 1930’s as they al bloomed and fell at the same time.  

So where did this tree come from? As far as we can tell it didn’t exist before 1860, but originated from a nursery in Somei, north of Tokyo. They took only five years to mature, unlike other which took a decade. And it prove to be economical due to the ease of growing it.  And so as the Meiji Restoration occurred and the new government wanted cherries to unite the people, this tree had mostly replaced all others in key Tokyo locations, they also planted them in castle ground to link them with the idea of fighting of of great warriors which only darkened their imagery. By the beginning of the 20^th century, almost a third of Tokyo’s key area were now purely somei-yoshino.  

All celebrations over the coming years ensure the government planted more trees as part of the celebration, new parks would be christened with these trees, the enthronement of new Emperors meant more of them were planted in celebration. And not just in Tokyo, but throughout japan to expand the reach of the somei-yoshino. Even most of the trees sent overseas were of this type.  

This new tree unconsciously promoted the idea of the collective. There are complaints even to this day that individuality in japan is not looked upon favourably, and one could even link it to the somei-yoshino cherries. They stopped the sheer variety of blossoms being seen, the flower of the people was being shaped into one uniform image. A uniformity that would do as the country and Emperor wished of them. 

There were some who questioned this ideology, but the government had by now outlawed this. Stating that questioning the establishment was a treasonable offence after passing the Maintenance of the Public Order Act in 1925.                

WW2 breaks out, and as Japan sees themselves losing the government desperately clings to using cherry blossoms to keep the people wanting to fight. And as the thought of losing was out of the question they began to try and persuade the public and its pilots the kamikaze was their next option. And so they once more pushed the image of the falling blossoms.  

In fact Admiral Takijiro Onishi, the so called inventor of kamikaze even wrote his own poem to give to his pilots which said, 

Today, in blossom 
Tomorrow, scattered by the wind 
Life is so like a delicate flower 
How can one expect its fragrance to last for ever? 

There are other versions of this poem such as:

Today in flower, Tomorrow scattered by the wind—Such is our blossom life. How can we think its fragrance lasts forever? 

The kamikaze squads were grouped with the name of Shikishima, Yamato, Asahi and Yama-zakura. Each name linking to poems by Norinaga Motoori’s poems on cherry blossoms. A man who lived in the 1700’s 

Most kamikaze pilots were between 17 and 25. Young people once exempt from war, now conscripted as they needed more people to fight. Young men, symbolising the young blossoms. 

Kazuki Kamitsu was one of them. Only 20 years old he writes a poem 

For the glory of the Emperor
Whats is there to regret? 
As a young cherry 
Life is most worthy when falling.  

Other wrote to their parents saying:

Dear Parents please congratulate me. I have been given a splendid opportunity to die. This is my last day. The destiny of our homeland hinges on the decisive battle in the sea to the south where I shall fall like a blossom from a radiant cherry tree.                     

Another wrote:

The cherry blossoms are falling 
One after another 
I also want to fall now 
Leaving the scent 
In Yamato Country     

And later still he writes:

You and I are cherry blossom brothers 
Blooming together in the military academy garden 
Having blossomed, we must scatter 
Let us fall magnificently for our country.          

A song sung by the pilots went as follows:

Whats important is the flowers falling 
If you are a man 
Just act and fall. 

But in the end Japan surrendered, the blossom ideology of the government hadn’t worked.         

The somei-yoshino did come back though, Japans cities were now bereft of colour from the bombings of the war. And though they distanced the ideology of the trees of death, they still planted these trees in the thousands likely to their quick growth rate and delicate beauty. In fact this began as early as 1948 and now this variety consist of 9 out of 10 trees in urban areas. 

In 1951 we see the first publications of the cherry blossom forecasts appearing by the Meteorological Agency which soon led to the hanami viewing parties which are a big part of Japan to this day. 

And so we return to Ingram. 

Blossoms had been bombed and lost in japan, his home was unscathed, the blooms he had rescued growing safely in his garden.  

He  had spent the War in the Volunteer service but he had also watched the blooms thrive, and so in 1948 he had published Ornamental Cherries which detailed all 129 cherry varieties that he had, dedicating it to ‘all who have planted cherry trees, whatever there creed, caste or colour.  

By now such was his fame, even the Queen of England had become interested and had cherry trees planted in various owned properties of the Royal Family. 

In the 50’s and 60’s Collingwood seems to have lost some of his passion, he was now well into his 70’s, most of his cherry enthusiast friends had now died and he had come to the realisation, that the trees made by man did not live as long as the natural cherry trees. Only living for around 40 or 50 years. 

He started to bring together everything he had written over his lifetime to write some autobiographical books. And he even turned his attention back to ornithology.  

On November 29^th 1979, his wife Florence died aged 97, leaving Ingram alone in a big house. Ingram continued on, reaching his 100^th birthday, and to recognise his achievements a botanist called Michael Zander came to his home to map the trees Ingram had started collecting all those years ago. But by now several of the trees were gone due to their short lifespan. Some like the Hokusai, Imose and Taihaku still remained, but others had gone. By now there were 40 or 50 trees, much less than the 120 varieties he had once had.  

Spring 1981 would be his last, the Kursar bloomed, then the Yama-zakura, soon followed the Hokusai and Taihaku until finally Ingram died peacefully as the Imose shed its blooms from his garden, May 19^th 1981. 

And so to end on a poem by Saigyo Hoshi. 

Let me die in spring 
under the blossoming trees, 
let it be around 
that full moon of 
Kisaragi month.  

References: 

• Abe, N. (2020) “Cherry Ingram: The Englishman who saved Japan’s Blossoms.” London: Penguin Random House. 
• Japan Times: Blooms of Death
• Nitobe, I. (1900) Bushido: The Soul of Japan. Republished 2013 by London: Amber Books Ltd.
• Poetry Foundation: Takijiro Onishi

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The post EP42B Falling Blossoms appeared first on . A History . . of Japan . 日本歴史.

Story Notes

In ancient Japan, blossoms were a symbol of new life, new beginnings. But this began to change through in second half of 19^th century, accelerating dramatically in the 1930’s. They changed them to be a symbol of death. Propaganda to the Japanese people who never questioned. Classical poems were deliberately misinterpreted, it became normal that the Japanese spirit involved the willingness to die for the emperor, much like the cherry blossoms who quickly died.  

And so trees everywhere were replaced to a new breed known as somei-yoshino. Wild trees and varied varieties were being taken down for this tree to fuel this new propaganda of death for the state. 

And one man saw the blossoms of Japan being lost, and so he set out to ensure their survived for future generations. He would discover new species, some in his own back yard and already extinct in Japan. He would choose names such as Hokusai, and Asano for new breeds he discovered. He would be one of the first to artificially hybridise the cherry blossoms. 

But that is a part of this tale for later, and so we shall start at the very beginning. 

Today we talk about Collingwood Ingram, a man who would later become known as Cherry Ingram. He was the wealthy grandson of the founder of the Illustrated London News. 

Born on October 30^th 1880 he was unfortunately a sickly child with respiratory problems, and so when his family was in London he didn’t go outside much, a city which at the time was filled with disease and smoke. As he grew up his family cared for several albino birds when he was young, birds which they often took with them as they moved from their London home to the countryside, as well as on their holidays.  

Being brought up around birds, and being able to wander the countryside as he had no school ensured that by the age of 11 Collingwood could already distinguish the sound of most birds, and by aged 15 he had written his first unpublished book on birds with illustrations in his own hand. And this would start his fascination with birds for many years to come and lead him to becoming an ornithologist.  

Now Collingwoods fascination with Japan began in the 1890’s but we don’t really know why. There was access at the times to books on Japan and that likely played some role, or perhaps even it was there family dogs which were a breed known as Chin’s and were a Japanese breed. Additionally he could have been exposed to the culture, though in perhaps a comically if not derogatory fashion through plays which started to appear in England from Japan as Japan began to open up its borders to the world after decades of being a closed nation. Such shows included the Mikado and the Geisha. Whatever cultivated Collingwood into being fascinated with this country only made him want to visit there himself. And so, when he reached adulthood he decided it was time to go. And he arrived in Japan on the 5^th September 1902 in the port of Nagasaki, after taking a long journey there by boat. 

After he arrived, he wrote many things about the country, saying he found Japan ‘becoming, [with] tidy cheques of paddy fields, bamboo groves, little villages and usually a clear, swift running stream.’ 

Now I would have thought after wanting to come here so strongly he would have stayed and explored for a long time, after all he was a wealthy man for the time. However, he only stayed this first time for 15 days. And during his time here he visited places such as Kyoto, Tokyo, Hakone and the island of Enoshima, where a local priests gave him a tour. Collingwood at the time did not know Japanese and so politely nodded along to everything the priest said to him that day.  

And as he finally left Japan for the first time he said, “my visit to Japan has been so enchanting that I have no time to do else than stand agape and watch the different vistas pass away without record in my journal. But a brief fortnight has left me with more memory pictures than months of travel elsewhere.  

It wouldn’t be for another 5 years until he returned once more to Japan.  

The next time he stepped foot in the country would be 20^th April, 1907, and this time he brought along with him his wife Florence. Though he had still yet to gain an interest in Cherry Trees, he actually came this time in the hopes of being the first British person to find the eggs of a bird called White’s Thrush and bring them home. In Tokyo he applied for paperwork, but Japan being Japan it took 3 weeks for it to finished. And then he went on a walking tour of Fuji immediately. Eventually, almost luckily as it appears the birds were hard to find, and with local help a nest was found bearing eggs of the White Thrush. When he returned home again to England, his expedition had found him leaving with 74 kinds of birds, numerous bird eggs as well as many writings and illustrations he had done during this expedition.  

When WW1 came around he found himself in France, where he continued his study into birds. But after the War he needed to find somehow to go back to a normal life, and realising there was nothing new in the world of ornithology for him he desperately sought a new hobby. And this is when he turned his attention to the plant world.  

In 1919 they moved to Kent for a fresh starts. The home had a dilapidated garden he wanted to spruce up, the perfect project for someone who needed a new hobby. But the garden held a secret he hadn’t at first noticed, and these were 2 ornamental cherry trees.  

When he saw these trees bloom, he knew what he now wanted, to be the foremost expert on cherry blossoms as well as being the man to collect as many cherry tree varieties as possible and have it become the largest collection of such trees.  

But to be an expert, he needed somewhere to start and there were not that many books on Japan at the times. Works he could have had access to were ones such as ‘Things Japanese’ a dictionary about the culture from 1890. Flora Japonica from 1835 by Phillip von Siebold and Bushido: The Soul of Japan from 1900.  

So we jump forward a few years to 1925, a mere six years after moving to Kent and he had already become an expert on cherries and boasted a collection of seventy cherry varieties.  

‘Notes on Japanese cherries’ was written by him and published in 1925 in the Royal Horticultural Journal, which was a great achievement for him at the time. 

But the more trees he sought and bought, the more he found himself buying the same trees time and again. He found out now that cherry trees at the time had not really been properly classified yet, and additionally English sellers would give these cherry trees English names to increase their appeal. Each seller giving their own unique names to them, making it even harder for Ingram to know if he had already bought a particular tree or not. And so he would buy them, hoping he was gaining a new breed, only to find himself disappointed.  

And so he then asked for the help of two Japanese cherry experts. Manabu Miyoshi, from Tokyo Imperial University and Gen-ichi Koizumi from Kyoto Imperial University. They would be better suited in helping him figure out if trees he had were the same, as well as identifying trees he had but didn’t know the true names of. 

And one such type was of the two cherry trees that lived in his garden from the day he moved in. Even after all these years of research and collection, he still did not known what kind of cherry tree had been here when he arrived. 

He knew the two trees were the same, but the same what? And so he sent leaf samples to Miyoshi, only to find out they not have a name. Apparently it was a species never recorded before, at least in Japan. And so Collingwood decided to name the species himself, and this is the species he dubbed Hokusai.  (I promise this is an unintentional call back to last episode). 

After more research he finally settled on something about the cherries of Japan. From what he could tell as of right now, there were 10 wild species in Japan, and through years of human interaction there were now more than 400 flowering varieties. 

As he continued his research, and continued to expend his collection he went far and wide for his cherry trees.  

He contacted friends to send or swap saplings with him. Additionally at the time the Yokohama Nursery opened in 1907, and so he could easily import cherry trees from Japan. And not to forget the Botanical Gardens of Kew, which he relied on as well and he was lucky in that regard as he had a friend who worked there who could help him out. Other trees still came from others with links to the New York Botanical Gardens. Collingwood had connections around the world he could draw on to bring together all the cherry varieties in existence.  

But, in the early 1920’s he could not get a hold of more cherries in England, and so he knew he had to return to Japan. To find varieties not importable, perhaps not yet known or discovered, And he did so.  

In a lucky turn of events, around the time he wanted to return, his garden was visited in 1924 by Duke Takatsumasa, a man with connections to the Imperial Family, and who also knew Ingram through Isai Iijima, a man who all those years ago had helped him get permits so he collect the bird eggs in Japan.  

And so with the Dukes help he drew up a list of 4 places he needed to go to look for cherry trees. First, Temples and Shrines in Kyoto, second Tokyo. Third would be the foothills of Mount Fuji and lastly the small city of Nikko north of Tokyo.  

And so he headed to Japan again in 1926. This would be his final visit to Japan. He would collect many specimins, even meet with cherry blossom experts, but the country would not take his breath away as it had once done. The industrilaizition of Japan had change it all in his mind.  

Ingram wrote while he was there ‘it appears, that the commercialization of Japan has caused the cult of these beautiful trees to wane.’ Cherry gardens which had been cultivated for years by shoguns had now been left abandoned, forgotten, or torn down, cherry trees were disappearing. At least the old breeds it appeared.  

Collingwood knew some would still be hanging on in the mountains, but the want to care for them had now gone. And the government was now looking for a symbol of unity, and the easy to grow and maintain somei-yoshino variety was looking more and more appealing over everything else.  

Ingram even realised quickly after arriving in Japan that 4 trees in his garden were not available in japan. Cherry blossom varieties had already started to become extinct in the very country that venerates them so highly.  

And it was now that Ingram not only wanted more species, but he also wanted to save all of those that were now in decline.  

And he wrote at the time ‘it may not be too late to save some from oblivion.” 

Collingwood would find himself to be in luck. In Kyoto he found himself renewed, with temples full of blossoms. In Kiyomizu-dera, by the waterfall there, he found a tree he did not yet have (based off the edo-higan type), and so asked for cutting from it to be sent to his home. At the Kyoto Imperial Palace he found one more (an unusual looking Yama-zakura), and at the Hirano Shrine he found yet another 3 (a type of Kiku-zakura, Imose and Taoyame). 

Collingwood though did find himself confused by the cherry names here with people saying ‘Kyoto is the ancient capital. There is no need to follow Tokyo customs.’ And so just like in England, he found name choices for blossoms of the same kind varying wildly between Tokyo and Kyoto. 

It became apparent as he travelled more that most people didn’t see the threat of losing these blossoms, everyone in japan, especially the government thought, the ones disappearing from the cities would live on in the mountains, and so they need not take any action. They would still be around, even if no longer seen. But Collingwood did not believe that was safe for these trees, that they likely would not survive.  

He went to visit Yohsino, once the mecca of Japanese cherry blossoms, only to find  a thinly planted group of trees and scraggly specimens. This was due in part to the government, here Shugendo was prevalent, but was now banned by the government and so the area had fallen into decline. And so Collingwood sadly on to meet the head of all cherry lore, Seisaku Funatsu and they took a cherry viewing along the Arakawa River which runs through Tokyo. 

Here it was known as the Five Colored Cherry Trees of the Arawaka River.’ And at one time it had been beautiful. Some of the beauty did remain, some trees still bloomed beautifully every year but… 

New drainage works, had led to many being cut down, and those that remained were now greatly affected by pollution of the rapidly changing and modernizing city. Sesaku related how he had replaced lost trees with saplings over time, but sadly they kept being stolen and so he had had to stop.  

I will say here that you can still see blossoms here to this day, but the book I read says it is a shadow of its former self. And it would be interesting to see how beautiful this area once was.  

But going back to the tale, luckily many of these blooms from here and the local area survive now around the world due to Collingwoods help but also two other men known as Takagi Magoemon and Kengo Shimizu. Magoemon once collected specimens from the gardens of the daimyos and other areas, and when the daimyos left and the new government came he prayed for forgiveness and climbed the fences into these now abandoned properties to take cutting of these trees so they would continue to live. And later when the Arakawa area flooded, the local people demanded cherry trees to hold the soil together better for future flooding. Kengo Shimizu was the governor of the area and knew of Magoemons collection, and so many species were replanted into the area.  

From the Arakawa River Collingwood now travelled onwards now to Nikko, where he found and collected seeds from the Sargent cherry, and in the small village of Kami Yoshida, he uncovered a previously unknown cherry variety and eventually had cuttings of it delivered to his home. This was the tree he dubbed Asano, after the Samurai from the 47 Ronin.  

Overall everything was looking good. Like Collingwood would not only expand his collection greatly but could actually ensure the protection of varieties from going extinct.  

And so it was time to tell the people in power in Japan that there blossoms were dying.  Though Collingwood may have been averse to giving a speech on it himself, he was asked by Aisaku Hayashi to do so. And this all finally happened in April of 1926. 

Reporters’ and photographers came, and 150 of japans most powerful came to listen.  

Collingwood then said the following, “Why is it, that your flowering cherries often seem to do better in England than their native country? I would like to confess to a feeling of disappointment with regard to the size and condition of some of the trees growing in your parks and public places. Long before aesthetic Japan became contaminated by the hustle and bustle of the Western races, your people produced, an amazing number of varieties. In recent years not only has there been no attempt whatever made to improve these varieties, but many of them are in serious danger of extinction. Were it not for enthusiasts… you would have permanently lost most varieties. I feel confident that in years to come, the Japanese will have to seek some of their best sorts in Europe and America.’ 

He then rounded off his speech by telling them of the trees in his garden, now no longer growing in Japan. And that he would reintroduce them to Japan no matter the cost. He just didn’t know how he was going to do it yet.  

Sadly, after presenting them with his thought as well as the facts, there was little if no impact, the government had other priorates getting the economy on track. After all, this was  after the 1923 Kanto Earth Quake and saving a few trees, when they still had so many other types of cherry blossoms just did not seem important to them in the slightest. 

And so he returned home, I suppose hoping that perhaps the government would do something, not matter how small it may have been. But failing that, he at least could still continue to protect the blossoms himself, even if the government of Japan wouldn’t. 

Finally, after many months, the cuttings he had asked for, from the species he had seen in Japan finally arrived and he immediately got to work in having them grow in his garden. Some had sadly died on the long journey, but fortunately a great many others had survived. The collection grew and he soon found himself as the trading centre for cherry blossoms, and his collection spread around the world, ensuring cherry blossom thrived even more, though still not in Japan.  

And finally, after all of this, after all of the effort to protect these trees, in the early 1930’s it was time to finally start sending these trees back to Japan. 

And that is where I want to leave it for today.

Poem Notes

Thomas didn’t realize that Hokusai  would send me into a glorious meandering of wonder that would take me places like… wikipedia and google.  
 
Also company sponsored  senryu contests that give such gems as “Comparing ages at the class reunion.” And toilet paper. Yes, toilet paper in which you can get the top 20 senryu written on the sheets for the low low price of 350yen. I feel like there’s a joke to be had here, but I can’t find one.  

Oh, yeah, and also there’s a manga called senryu girl – about a girl who can only communicate in 5-7-5 syllables. Yup. There’s an anime too. There’s so much on senryu my head is still spinning.  

The term senryu came from the name Karai Senryu, who lived from 1718-1790. He was a tenja, or judge of poetry competitions. He published the poem collection Yanagaridu in 1765.  
 
Senryu are haiku, but not all haiku are senryu. Both share the same 5-7-5  pattern, but haiku are generally serious poems written about nature with season words or “kigo” .  Senryu on the other hand, are comic/humorous poems that rely on wordplay, and GLORIOUS GLORIOUS PUNS. And sometimes rather adult humor.  For this podcast though, we’ll keep things on the more everyone approachable side.  
 
Also, senryu were often composed by amateur’s and there are several senryu contests, such as the Dai-Ichi insurance company Sarariman senryū konkūru. Or office worker’s  senryu competition. I’ve included a couple of links where you can read the translated winners since I believe copyright restrictions prevent me from reading them here unless I get permission. To be on the safe side, I’ll just give you the links in case you want to explore more! Oh, and there are even senryu contests in English, too.  

I am going to do something a little different – instead of starting from the beginning, let’s work our way back in history for senryu – starting with a very amateur English senryu.  

Look for a poem 
Open “One Hundred Poems” 
But I choose Basho 
 
I’m poking a bit of fun at myself – quite often I seem to choose from the One Hundred Poems, but lately I seem to gravitate towards Basho or perhaps poets connected by Basho. 
 
I’ve composed one in Japanese too – and that’s even more amateur and I just don’t think I am ready to share that one yet.  
 
That’s the beauty of senryu – anyone can do them, and well, lots of people do! It’s a very approachable form of poetry, and one we need to delve into further. 
 
We’ll continue looking at senryu next week, with a little more history and a senryu in Japanese. 

References

• Abe, N. (2020) “Cherry Ingram: The Englishman who saved Japan’s Blossoms.” London: Penguin Random House.
• Carter, S. (2019) ”How to Read a Japanese Poem”. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Japan Times: Subtle Humor Haikus Cousin Senryu Roll
• Japan Times: Salaryman Senryu
• Wakapoetry.net
• Wikipedia Senryu
• Wikipedia Senryu Girl

You can listen to the full podcast episodes here: Japan Archives, or wherever you listen to Podcasts.

Follow us on Social Media: Instagram: @japan_archives

We also started a Youtube channel for Japan Archives.

And another for other creative endeavours!

The post EP42A A Passion for Cherry Blossoms appeared first on . A History . . of Japan . 日本歴史.

Story Notes:

Sometimes there is a call to action. That even if you know what you are doing may not have a huge effect, but sometimes you need to do anything you can.

For this week’s episode, we are going to be telling two stories from the era of World War 2. One in America, and one in Japan.

Our first story is not from Japan. And our subject isn’t Japanese. However, what he did for Japanese people in America needs to be told.

Ralph Lazo was born November 3 1924, in Los Angeles. His mother died when he was quite young, so he grew up with his father and his sister Virginia. Ralph was very popular, and made many friends. His neighborhood was filled with many different families of various descents: Jewish, Mexican, Chinese, Caucasian, Korean, Filipino, and Japanese.

Ralph was a teenager at Belmont high school when, on February 19, 1942,  President FD Roosevelt signed Order 9066. This order commanded anyone of Japanese decent, up to 1/16 Japanese in fact , to be relocated and incarcerated in internment camps along the Western, Midwest, and parts of the southern United States. There were around 127,000 Japanese Americans in the continental US and about 112,000 lived on the west Coast. Of those, around 80,000 were second generation, or “Nisei,” children born in the US and third generation, “Sansei” Now, Hawaii also had a large Japanese population, but only about 1200 – 1800 of the over 150,000 actually went to the camps.

Japanese Americans closed homes, shops, restaurants, and went to join the camps. Tensions and blame were high during this time, as the huge majority of people looked on the Japanese Americans who had previously been their friends and neighbors with suspicion and distrust.

Now, Ralph had made a lot of Japanese friends, and had even taken some Japanese classes himself so he could speak a little Japanese. However, Ralph was of Mexican-Irish decent.

That didn’t stop Ralph from going along with his friends. In May of 1942, Ralph told his dad he was off to camp – he didn’t say What Camp – and took the train to Manzanar. No one bothered to ask his nationality. He was able to join no problem.

So, Ralph went to school, joked, and laughed and told stories and tried to keep up everyone’s spirits in the camp. Conditions were military style, and many of the camps were extremely hot in winter and cold in summer.

Ralph stayed with his friends in the camps until he was drafted into the Army in August 1944. He didn’t get into any trouble, and his story was even reported in the Las Angeles times.

Not only did Ralph support and love his friends when most people were turning their back on the Japanese community, he also fought with his friends to request the government to give reparations to the thousands of Japanese Americans who spent years in the internment camps. And in 1988, the US Government issued a formal apology for this incarceration. The camps were active from 1942-1946.

Our second story happens after World War 2.

Sadako Sasaki was 2 years old when the bomb fell on Hiroshima. She lived around 1.6 kilometers, or a mile away from ground zero, but had received no injuries after the blast.

She grew up a regular girl and was a very accomplished runner in school.

It wasn’t until 10 years after the bomb that she began to get sick. It began with swelling behind her neck and ears. Doctors discovered that she had acute malignant lymph gland leukemia. She was admitted to the hospital in February 1955.

It was during her hospitalization that she received paper cranes from a local high school club. Sadako’s father shared with her the story of the cranes – if you make 1000 paper cranes, you can get a wish granted. So, Sadako set out to make those 1,000 cranes in hopes to make her wish of recovery come true.One version of Sadako’s story says that she fell short of her 1000 crane goal, but Masahiro Sasaki says that she not only reached but went well over the 1000 cranes needed to make her wish come true.

Unfortunately, Sadako was unable to recover and died October 25, 1955. She  was 12 years old.

Now, Sadako was a very kind child and much loved by her friends. They decided to make a memorial for her and all the children affected by the atomic bomb and for the hopes that this tragedy would never occur again. They published a letter collection to raise money to build this memorial. And in 1958,  Sadako’s statue was built  in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. She’s holding a crane and the plaque on the statue reads “This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the World.”

If you visit the Peace Memorial Park, you can make your own paper crane for Sadako and the children affected by the atomic bomb.  I also saw on Hiroshima’s website that you can make and mail in your own paper crane, but I am not sure if they are still receiving the cranes or not. My husband and I are planning to go to the memorial park soon and will find out more there.

In the meanwhile, you can celebrate August 6th as a day of peace. Please make your own paper cranes, but before you fold, write a wish for peace.

Poem Notes

Daini no Sanmi was born in 999AD, the daughter of Muraski Shibuki her poetry was included in numerous works such as the Goshūishū and the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. In addition to being a poet she was also known to have been the wet nurse to the Emperor Go-Reizei.

Her poem today comes from the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu and goes as follows:

References

• Japan Times https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2018/08/01/issues/60-years-sadakos-death-story-behind-hiroshimas-paper-cranes-still-unfolding/#.XULoky2B3OQ 
• MacMillan, P. (2018) ”One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: A Treasury of Classical Japanese Verse”. St. Ives: Penguin Classics. 
• Meet the Hero: Ralph Lazo https://www.lowellmilkencenter.org/programs/projects/view/the-voluntary-prisoner/hero 
• Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress: NCRR https://www.ncrr-la.org/news/7_6_03/2.html 
• Sadako Sasaki https://sadakosasaki.com 
• Suzuki, H. et al. (1997) ”Genshoku: Ogura Hyakunin Isshu”. Tokyo: Bun’eidō. 
• Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Lazo
• Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans 
• Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako_Sasaki 

You can listen to the full podcast episodes here: Japan Archives, or wherever you listen to Podcasts.

Follow us on Social Media: Instagram: @japan_archives

We also started a Youtube channel for Japan Archives.

And another for other creative endeavours!

The post EP8B Order 9066 and 1000 Cranes appeared first on . A History . . of Japan . 日本歴史.

Story Notes:

Chiune Sugihara was born 1 January, 1900  in Gifu prefecture. The second son of Yoshima and Yatsu, he had 5 brothers and one sister.  His family lived in a borrowed temple, close to Kyosen-ji. 

He moved to many elementary schools but in December 1907 transferred to Nagoya Municipal Furuwatari Elementary where he graduated with honors. After he moved to Aichi prefectural secondary school, a combined school for both Junior High and High School Students. 

As he grew up his father wanted him to become a physician, but Chiune did not share his father’s future idea. He failed the entrance exam for the course by only writing his name.

In 1918 (Taisho Era 7) he entered into Waseda University where he studied to major in the English language. To help improve his English he also entered into a Christian fraternity founded by a Baptist pastor. And in 1919 he finished the Foreign Ministry Scholarship exam.

Chiune served for a time in the Japanese Imperial Army as a second lieutenant from 1920 to 1922. During this time he was stationed in Korea, which at the time was still a Japanese colony. However, by November 1922 he resigned from the post and moved on to return to education, passing the Foreign Ministry Language Exam the next year, which he passes with distinction. 

Because of this distinction, he was recruited by the Japan Foreign Ministry and eventually assigned to China in the city of Harbin. While he was there, he also studied Russian and German. We could say he was a man very skilled at learning languages. 

Now some time passes, and he is now serving the Manchurian Foreign Office (What is Manchuria? It was a term coined by the Japanese to cover a large area of northeast Asia, which could encompass large sections of China and Russia.)

During his time here he took part in negotiations with the Soviet Union about the Northern Manchurian Railroad. And it was during this time he married for the first time. Converting to Christianity, he married a woman called Klaudia Apollonova. His baptized name during for this marriage was Sergei Pavelovich.

However, by 1935 he quit his post as he disagreed with the mistreatment of the local Chinese living in this area. This mistreatment being caused by the Japanese who oversaw them.

And so he divorced Klaudia and returned to Japan.

Here he married his second wife Yukiko Kikushi and together they had four sons.

World War Two begins on September 1 1939. This same year Chiune moves to Lithuania, and the city of Kaunas. His role whilst here was to keep tabs on the Soviet and German troop movements and to relay any plans the Germans may have had to attack to Soviets. He was to relay these findings to his superiors in both Berlin and Tokyo.

1940 rolls around and the Soviet Union occupies the country of Lithuania. As we know, the Second World War was a very dangerous time for many groups, including Jews, minorities, homosexuals, and many others. What made it even more dangerous, was the in Luthuania, Jewish people made up a third of the urban population. There were thousand upon thousands of people in urban Lithuania who were now no longer safe. 

And they all wanted to leave and were desperate for exit visas. Unfortunately it was virtually impossible to find someone or some country willing to issue them so they could escape. In the end, hundreds and hundred of them came to Kaunas where Chiune was, trying desperately to seek visas that would take them to Japan.

And Chiune wants to help, you know, he can’t see these people die. Or suffer. He can’t leave them stranded. And so he contacts the Foreign Ministry in Japan asking how he can help these people. How he can give them visas.

And every time Japan says no. That these people who aren’t safe, these people who could die, did not fit the criteria to be worthy of a visa. They needed money the Ministry told him, that they had already undergone appropriate immigration procedures, and that they also held another visa which let them go to another destination, as they couldn’t remain in Japan. And the Ministry said that they would not make an exception.

And Chiune did the only thing he could do. He disobeyed, he went against his orders, which for Japanese people is almost unheard of. And at times is very difficult to do. 

And so on July 18^th 1940 he started writing his visas, ten day visas which would give all these people a safe passage to Japan via the Trans-Siberian Railway. Though it did have a cost, and the Soviets demanded that these people pay 5 times the normal ticket price if they truly wanted to escape and leave.

He hand wrote these visas, from 18 to 20 hours a day. Each day he wrote a months’ worth of visas, and he didn’t stop until the 4^th of September. He had written thousand of visas to allow people to reach safety, at times ensuring he gave them to the head of a household as it allowed and permitted them to take their families with them.

Chiune was reassigned to Konisberg in East Prussia.

Some reports state he left his consulate seal, so other people could make more visas after he left, though his son in a interview has stated this to be false. Others report, he continued to write visas while still leaving and making his way to his hotel, handing them out as he left. And then boarding the train at Kaunas Station he continued to write on the train as many as he could. Throwing them out the window to those who were still desperate to leave. And as the train left, in desperation he merely made sheets with his seal and signature to throw from the train which hopefully could have the rest of the ‘visas’ written upon it later. 

The last thing he did as he left was apologize he couldn’t do more. Saying, “Please forgive me. I cannot write anymore. I wish you the best.”

It is said, someone could be heard saying. “We’ll never forget you. I’ll surely see you again.”

Chiune had done everything he could have for these people.

During the Second World War between 91 and 95% of the Jewish population of Lithuania were Jews. Which was pretty much, every single Jew who didn’t manage to leave the country. It is the highest casualty rate of any nation for the Holocaust. 

It turned out* that Chiune was responsible for saving the Mir Yeshiva. A Yeshiva is a Jewish Educational Institute with a focus on studying traditional religious texts such as the Talmud and Torah. This was the only European Yeshiva that survived the Holocaust. Because of Chiune this Yeshiva survived and made it way to Kobe where is stayed for a while.

In total it is debated how many Jews Chiune saved, some say 6,000, others say, 10,000.. It is difficult when you consider, one visa could save and ensure the safe travel for an entire family.

However, recently I discovered that there is a museum around the corner form Tokyo Station about Chiune where it lists what they say is ‘all 2,139 name of the refugees who received life saving visas.’

Chiune and his family were now stationed in East Prussia, But by 1944, Soviet Troops invaded. He and his family were interred in a POW camp where they stayed for 18 months. Eventually released in 1946 they returned to Japan and the following year he was asked to resign. 

Now some sources would say it was because the Japan Foreign Office was downsizing, but there are also other sources, and even his wife says this, that he was asked to resign due to, I’m using quote marks here, “that incident in Lithuania.” Which if true, is quite horrible. They new what he did to save all these lives, and instead of thanking and celebrating him. It seems like they made him resign, as it went against their orders. 

It wasn’t until 1969 that people began lobbying for his recognition for what he did to save all those lives and the following year in 1970 he was given this recognition and called Righteous Amongst the Nations. Sadly he was too ill at the time to travel, and so his wife and son Nobuki went on his behalf.

In 1985, he was asked for the reasons he did what he did. And this was his response.

You want to know about my motivation, don’t you? Well. It is the kind of sentiments anyone would have when he actually sees refugees face to face, begging with tears in their eyes. He just cannot help but sympathize with them. Among the refugees were the elderly and women. They were so desperate that they went so far as to kiss my shoes, Yes, I actually witnessed such scenes with my own eyes. Also, I felt at that time, that the Japanese government did not have any uniform opinion in Tokyo. Some Japanese military leaders were just scared because of the pressure from the Nazis; while other officials in the Home Ministry were simply ambivalent.

People in Tokyo were not united. I felt it silly to deal with them. So, I made up my mind not to wait for their reply. I knew that somebody would surely complain about me in the future. But, I myself thought this would be the right thing to do. There is nothing wrong in saving many people’s lives…The spirit of humanity, philanthropy…neighborly friendship…with this spirit, I ventured to do what I did, confronting this most difficult situation—and because of this reason, I went ahead with redoubled courage. 

Sugihara died the following year on 31 July 1986. And in spite of the publicity given him in Israel and other nations, he remained virtually unknown in his home country for a long time. It was only when a large Jewish delegation from around the world, including the Israeli ambassador to Japan, attended his funeral, did his neighbors find out what he had done.

Poem Notes:

Yamanoue no Okura (山上憶良) was a waka poet and lived during the Nara period. He is said to have died at the age of 74 in 733AD.

It is known that in 701AD he was sent to China, as part of an embassy which was led by a man known as Awata Mahito. His poem today comes from the manyōshū and goes as follows:

Feature Image: Chiune and his wife Yukiko.

You can listen to the full podcast episodes here: Japan Archives, or wherever you listen to Podcasts.

Follow us on Social Media: Instagram: @japan_archives

We also started a Youtube channel for Japan Archives.

And another for other creative endeavours!

The post EP8A Righteous Among Nations appeared first on . A History . . of Japan . 日本歴史.