I. ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF 
SAKURA CULTURE 
Japan is fondly called “ Cherry Land” or the “ Land 
of Cherries.” We need scarcely dwell on the abundance 
of cherry trees in this country. To understand why 
Japan abounds in cherries, and why the country is rich 
in the trees with such singularly beautiful flowers, one 
must know the very remote origin of the nation’s love 
of the flower and the long history—more than one 
thousand years—of her culture of the cherry tree. 
No other country has so many species and varieties 
of cherry trees, particularly the flower-bearing cherries, 
as Japan. In fact Japan is the centre for the distribu- 
tion of cherries. Besides having a large number of 
cherries growing wild in the mountains and forests, the 
Japanese people have from ancient times made efforts to 
cultivate their favourite trees—cherries—and to produce 
and multiply excellent garden varieties. These garden 
varieties have been planted either in gardens, on the 
roadside, or in the compounds of Shinto or Buddhist 
teniples found in every nook and corner of the land, 
and their beautiful blossoms are admired by the public. 
The nation’s love of the flower has also largely con- 
tributed to the development of a cherry culture and to 
the propagation of superior garden varieties. 
Of the numerous kinds of cherries found in the 
land the most common are Yama-zakura, or mountain 
cherries that grow in the woodlands everywhere 
throughout the country. Since the cherry trees blossom 
~It 
