Cherry blossoms at Lake Kawaguchi, with a distant view of Mt. Fuji 
all quarters of the town to enjoy the beautiful sight of 
the flowers. Konen Sakamoto (1800-1853), a well- 
known botanist and skilful painter, also sketched all 
the cherry flowers in the garden. His sketches remain 
to this day. 
Many of those noted cherry trees that flourished 
under the care and protection of the flower-loving public 
in the Tokugawa period were lost with the gradual 
devastation of cherry gardens, consequent upon the down- 
fall of the feudal régime, and through the great changes 
of the later period. Fortunately for the cherries there 
were not a few lovers of cherry flowers among the 
gardeners and professional horticulturists of the time. 
They collected soon after the Restoration (1868) those 
rare varieties of cherry trees from all quarters of Tokyo 
and transplanted them in their own gardens, taking pains 
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