The Sakura Obsession

The story of the connection that linked one man, one flower, and two countries.Lovers of the outdoors, especially gardeners, will find much to enjoy in Japanese journalist Abe's first English-language book, which won the Nihon Essayist Club Award in 2016. The author engagingly chronicles the travels and plant-collecting adventures of Collingwood Ingram (1880-1981). The Englishman, born to wealth in Victorian times, spent his sickly youth wandering the countryside, where he developed a passion for birds. In 1902, he traveled to Japan to see the birds there, which were similar to England's, and was swept up by the beauty of the country; the young man vowed to return. After World War I, he gradually lost interest in ornithology but began an obsession with horticulture, spurred by his family's move to Kent in 1919. On the property, he found two magnificent flowering Japanese cherry trees, leading him to a long life of discovering, preserving, breeding, grafting, and sharing rare varieties. Interspersed throughout the book are pieces of Japan's history over the last 2,000 years, and Abe provides sufficient detail to edify but never to bore. The author clearly shows the national importance of the cherry tree and how its perception changed with Westernization. Abe's statement that Japan is and was the world's most artistic nation is exemplified by the 250 varieties of cherry tree developed during that era. In the 1920s, as Japan nationalized and modernized, the importance of reviving failing cherry trees was forgotten; there was no money, urgency, or political will to save them. Thanks to the enterprising work of Ingram, however, "they bloomed around the world, in arboretums and parks, along city streets and riverbanks and in millions of suburban gardens." Indeed, writes the author, "Ingram had helped to change the face of spring."This charming book shows how indebted the world is to Ingram for his work in creating "a shared treasure--the cherry blossom--for all to enjoy."

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April 8, 2019
Japanese journalist Abe (Dance Notations and Robot Motion) delivers a charming and informative biography of the eccentric English aristocrat Collingwood Ingram (1880–1981), who saved Japan’s cherry blossoms from extinction in the mid-20th century. After visiting Japan in 1902 and 1907, Ingram, a former ornithologist, fell in love with the country’s cherry blossom trees. When he returned to the country in 1926, he was heartbroken to learn that the diverse varieties were disappearing due to a national preference for one particular strain, leading to near-extinction of other types of cherry blossoms (“two decades of yearning for a country that... had taken his breath away had evaporated”). He became determined to document the species and take cuttings with the hope that they would flourish throughout the world. In 1945, Ingram wrote what “remains a horticultural classic and bible” on the subject, which encouraged growers worldwide to keep multiple species alive. Abe offers intriguing facts throughout, such as how cherry blossoms ended up in Washington, D.C. (botanist David Fairchild and his wife, Marian, the daughter of telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell, imported 150 trees; and in 1906, Tokyo’s mayor sent 2,000 trees as thanks for the U.S.’s involvement in the Russo-Japanese War). Ingram devoted himself to the cherry blossom until 1981, “when sensed that his life was drawing to a close.” Impeccably researched and lovingly crafted, Abe’s enlightening history will be a boon to horticultural enthusiasts.

March 1, 2019
It's rare for a tree to be so closely associated with a nation's identity, but such is the case of the flowering, or ornamental, sakura, or cherry, in Japan. Emblematic of new life, inextricably linked to imperial governments, and conscripted into a jingoistic symbol of patriotism during times of war, the alluring pink-white cherry blossom may have a short life, but the species itself has a long and rich history. Intrigued by the role cherry trees play in her country's national persona, journalist Abe tells the remarkable tale of how this once-ubiquitous tree was on the verge of extinction in the 1920s. Its salvation came in the form of a member of the British gentry, one Collingwood Ingram, whose cherry-tree devotion led to the creation of a massive arboretum in Britain and an advocacy of cherry-tree culture that spread throughout the world. Combining vast historical research, perceptive cultural interpretation, and a gift for keen, biographical storytelling, Abe's study of one man's passion for a singular plant species celebrates the beneficial impact such enthusiasts can have on the world at large.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)