Book review: The Sakura Obsession
The Sakura Obsession: The Incredible Story of the Plant Hunter who Saved Japan’s Cherry Blossoms by Naoko Abe
The Sakura Obsession was written by (now London based) Japanese journalist and author Naoko Abe and was first released in Japan winning the Nihon Essayist Club Award in 2016. This English language edition of Sakura Obsession is not a direct translation as she has added new content and context for English language readers.
While a book about the champion of Cherry blossom trees may sound like a dry topic, Abe’s style and format which follows the travels and plant-collecting adventures of Collingwood Ingram (1880-1981) and his laser focused interest in Cherry trees is generally a light and engaging read.
Ingram, benefiting from his wealthy background developed a passion for birds as a youth and on a trip to Japan in 1902 (before his 22nd birthday) to see the birds there fell for the exotic beauty and culture of Japan. Five years later he returned to Japan for his honeymoon. After his experiences in the First World War, he become disillusioned with the study of birds and instead decided to focus on horticulture, partly due to his purchase of a new family home, “The Grange”, in rural Kent.
On the property, he found two stunning flowering Japanese cherry trees and despite having no real gardening experience he decided to go down a lifelong journey of discovering, preserving, breeding, grafting, and sharing rare Cherry varieties. One of a number of interesting aspects to Ingram’s self-taught study of cherry trees to become an expert was his trial-and-error learning process – including sending tree scions (or cuttings) around the world by ship and rail and he was the first person anywhere to hybridize cherry trees artificially. At the peak of his collecting Ingram (often known as “Cherry”) had 500 cherry trees and 120 varieties on his property, the largest collection of Sakura outside Japan. In 1948 he published “Ornamental Cherries,” which became the definitive English-language guide to Cherry tree growing.
The Sakura Obsession easily weaves together relevant snippets from Japanese history and particularly the negative impacts of the Meiji period to successfully incorporate context and demonstrate the national significance of Cherry trees to Japanese life and culture. For more than a thousand years the Cherry blossom has been a Japanese symbol of spring (and to plant rice) of mortality and renewal. However, its significance was increasingly neglected in the modern era (or “commercialization of Japan” as Ingram put it in the 1920’s) and the cherry blossom even became a military symbol, including for kamikazes in WW2. Following the war, it has again become a symbol of rebirth.
At one time Japan had at least 250 varieties of flowering cherry tree (or Sakura) sourced from its 10 native varieties but by the 1920’s its drive to modernisation and a combination of natural disasters led to the neglect and decline of many cherry tree varieties in favour of mass planting of the cheap fast growing Somei-yoshino variety. However, thanks to Ingrams enthusiasm and passion for Cherry trees he was not only able to reintroduce several cheery tree species back to Japan but has spread the beauty of cherry trees to the UK (introducing approximately 50 varieties) and around the world. Abe goes as far as to describe Ingram “as the man who changed the face of Spring”.
This well researched and structured book is much more than it would seem and is both an enlightening biography of Collingwood Ingram but is full of interesting historical stories about cherry blossom trees and reveals the Sakura’s key social and political significance to Japan.
The Sakura Obsession is surprisingly engaging and accessible book and has a much wider audience than just readers with an interest in cherry trees, Japan or gardening. Look it up.
@Black Teal Bay Rating: 8/10
