Naoko Abe - Cherry Ingram: The Englishman Who Saved Japan’s Blossoms

Naoko Abe is a Japanese journalist and non-fiction writer. She was the first female political writer to cover the prime ministers office, the foreign ministry and the defence ministry at Mainichi Shimbun, one of Japans largest newspapers. Since moving to London with her British husband and their two boys in 2001, she has worked as a freelance writer and has published five books in Japanese. Her biography of Collingwood Ingram in Japanese won the prestigious Nihon Essayist Club Award in 2016. She has now written an adaptation of the book for English-language readers. She is a trained classical pianist and an advanced yoga practitioner.

To my father
Hiroyoshi Abe
19312019

Unless otherwise mentioned, all images are reproduced by kind permission of Ernest and Veryan Pollard

. Collingwood Ingrams signed initials, from Ornamental Cherries, 1948

. Naoko Abe and her parents, 2016 (Courtesy of the author)

. Illustration from Ingrams notebooks, 1915

. Mary Ingram and some of her Japanese Chin dogs, 19031904

. Ingrams first known sketch, 1892

. Ingram dressed for a hunt, 18961897

. An American Black Ship, Nagasaki Prefecture, woodblock print, c. 1854 (Photo Glenn Asakawa / the Denver Post via Getty Images)

. Self-portrait, Ingram, 1899

. Florence Ingram, c. 19171918

. The Hokusai in bloom at The Grange, c. 1923

. Illustration from Ingrams notebooks, described as Prunus litigiosa, 1940

. Dejima Island, Japan, illustration from the Illustrated London News, vol. XLIII, 1863 (Photo DEA / BIBLIOTECA AMBROSIANA / Contributor via Getty Images)

. Philipp von Siebold, Kanen Iwasaki, 1826 (Courtesy of the National Diet Library, Japan)

. Ingrams plan of the cherry planting at The Grange, c. 1922

. Fuji from Goten-yama, on the Tkaid Highway, Katsushika Hokusai, c. 1830 (Photo Buyenlarge / Getty Images)

. Illustration from Ingrams notebooks, 19411943

. Ingrams correspondence with the Yokohama Nursery, 1926

. Ingram in Japan with man believed to be Takata, tree described as Prunus incisa, 1926

. Seisaku Funatsu photographed by Ingram, 1926

. Hanami celebrations along the Arakawa River, photographed in the 1920s by the Funatsu family (Courtesy of Keiichi Higuchi)

. Koganei Avenue photographed by Ingram, 1926

. The Cherry Associations Cherry Dance Party, 1919 (Courtesy of the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo)

. Illustration from Ingrams notebooks, described as Prunus incisa, 1923

. Temon Sano, 2014 (Courtesy of the author)

. Taihaku: a page from Ingrams notebooks, c. 1927

. Cherry trees in blossom at The Grange, c. 1930s

. Self-portrait, Ingram, c. 1930s

. Illustration from Ingrams notebooks, described as Prunus pilosiuscula media, 1925

. A kamikaze plane with cherry insignia, Yasukuni Shrine, 2017 (Courtesy of the author)

. The Nadeshiko girls wave farewell to kamikaze pilot Captain Toshio Anazawa, 1945 (Courtesy of the Mainichi Newspapers)

. Ryji Uehara at a military base in Saga Prefecture, 1944 (Courtesy of Azumino city library)

. Illustration from Ingrams notebooks, described as Prunus prostrata, 1944

. Alastair and Daphnes wedding day, 1947

. Illustration from Ingrams notebooks, described as Prunus subhirtella, 1923

. Ingrams frontispiece, from In Search of Birds, 1966

. Collingwood Ingram and Roland Jefferson at The Grange, 1978 (Courtesy of the Khoku History Association)

. Masatoshi Asari, 2018 (Courtesy of the author)

. Illustration from Ingrams notebooks, described as Prunus incisa, 1923

. The 1,500 year old Usuzumi-zakura in Neodani, Motosu city, 2018 (Courtesy of Takesh Ohira)

. Cherry trees in bloom in Washington D.C. (Photo Getty Images / Robert Dodge)

. Taihaku, painted by Collingwood Ingram, undated (Courtesy of Tessa Pollard)

. Taihaku at The Grange, 2015 (Courtesy of the author)

. Somei-yoshino in Mie Prefecture, Japan, 2015 (Courtesy of Hiromichi Kurata)

. Somei-yoshino in Sakura Zuhu by Manabu Miyoshi, 1921 (Photo The Trustees of the British Museum)

. Yamazakura in Mie Prefecture, Japan, 2018 (Courtesy of Hiromichi Kurata)

. Yamazakura sketched in Ingrams notebooks, described as Prunus s. mutabilis, 1939

. Kanhi-zakura, described as Prunus campanulata, 1941, and a Sargent cherry leaf, 1939, from Ingrams notebooks

. Sargent cherry (yama-zakura) in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, 2013 (Courtesy of Hiromichi Kurata)

. A temple courtyard in Kyoto, tree described as Prunus subhirtella Autumnalis

. Yoshino cherry in Uji, thought to be Somei-yoshino

. At a temple gate in Ishiyama, Shiga Prefecture. The tree is described as Prunus mum (plum tree)

. Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto

. Fugenz at Nikko

. An encounter in Ishiyama, Shiga Prefecture

. Weeping cherry tree at Daigoji temple in Kyoto

. In the Yoshino mountains

. Yokohama Nursery Catalogue from 192627 (Photo The Yokohama Nursery Co. Ltd. / RHS Lindley Collections)

. Umineko, London, 2015 (Courtesy of the author)

. Kursar in Chris Lanes nursery, 2015 (Courtesy of the author)

. Kanzan in Sakura Zuhu by Manabu Miyoshi, 1921 (Photo The Trustees of the British Museum)

. The Grange, 2015 (Courtesy of the author)

. Ingram aged 99 at The Grange, 1980

. Taihaku at The Alnwick Garden, 2016 (Courtesy of Margaret Whittaker)

. Matsumae varieties in a private nursery at Windsor Great Park, 2015 (Courtesy of the author)

Let me die

Underneath the blossoms

In the spring

Around the day

Of the full moon.

Saigy, 11181190

Collingwood Ingram, known as Cherry for his defining obsession, was born in 1880 and lived until he was a hundred, witnessing a fraught century of conflict and change.

After visiting Japan in 1902 and 1907 and discovering two magnificent cherry trees in the garden of his family home in Kent in 1919, Ingram fell in love with cherry blossoms, or sakura, and dedicated much of his life to their cultivation and preservation.

On a 1926 trip to Japan to search for new specimens, Ingram was shocked to see the loss of local cherry diversity, driven by modernisation, neglect and a dangerous and creeping ideology. A cloned cherry, the