THE STORY OF THE GINKGO 



general use in those parts of the Flowery Land I 

 travelled through are " Yin-kuo-tsu " (Silver nut- 

 tree) and " Pai-kuo-tzu " (White nut-tree). In 

 Korea it is known as the "Eun Haing-namou" which 

 is simply the Korean rendering of the Chinese name. 

 In Japan the tree is known as the I-cho, and the fruit 

 as Gin-nan, which again is a translation of its Chinese 

 name. The tree reached Japan with Buddhism in 

 the 6th century of the Christian Era, and "Ginkgo" 

 is simply the Japanese rendering of the Chinese name 

 "Yin-kou." In this connection it must be remem- 

 bered that the Chinese ideograph and Chinese lit- 

 erature were adopted by the Japanese long, long 

 ago. The best authorities claim that the first 

 Chinese books were brought to Japan in 285 a.d.; 

 that Buddhism was introduced from China via 

 Korea in 552, and that the Chinese calendar was 

 introduced in 602. It is, of course, possible that the 

 Ginkgo in those early days existed as a wild tree in 

 the forests of Japan, but it may be assumed with al- 

 most absolute certainty that in any case it was 

 brought to Japan by Korean and Chinese Buddhist 

 monks and planted by them in the earliest days of 

 their proselytizing. Many of the magnificent old 

 Ginkgo-trees in Japan are claimed to be more than a 

 thousand years old and there is no valid reason for 

 disputing the statement. 



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