Japanese author and journalist to give public lecture on cherry blossom in Durham
by Daniel Hall · ChronicleLiveA Japanese author and journalist is set to give a public lecture in Durham this month exploring the link between the UK and Japan's national flower, the cherry blossom.
Known as sakura in Japan, tourists make pilgrimages in the blossom season to view the spectacle of cherry blossoms in Japan's parks and gardens. That has been replicated in various areas of the UK in recent years, including the Alnwick Garden in Northumberland, which has a huge cherry blossom orchard home to more than 300 trees.
However, the diversity of the blossom was almost lost forever, were it not for eccentric Englishman Collingwood "Cherry" Ingram, without whom some of the best cherry varieties would have gone extinct entirely. This is the subject of the book by Japanese journalist and author Naoke Abe, who will deliver a public lecture entitled Saving the blossom: Cherry Ingram and his rich legacy at Teikyo University in Durham on Thursday, November 28.
Cherry Ingram, who lived to 101 years old, fell in love with Japanese cherry blossoms at the beginning of the 20th century, travelling to Kapan three times to bring back cuttings of different species and varieties of ornamental cherry trees. By the 1940s, he had created the world's largest cherry tree collection in his garden in Benenden, Kent, including new varieties by artificial hybridisation.
He was determined to preserve the diversity of cherries at a time when many varieties were disappearing from Japan because of industrialisation and militarisation. Ingram saved several varieties in his garden that had gone extinct in Japan, with the most notable Tai Haku - the same kind you can see today in the Alnwick Garden - which Ingram returned to Japan in 1932 with help from Longwood Botanical Gardens in the USA.
In her lecture, Naoke Abe will explore Ingram's legacy, which continues to the present day and why cherry blossoms are becoming increasingly popular in the UK, where many new planting projects are planned. She will also explore the role sakura plays in Japanese culture, including the Japanese military's ideological distortion of cherries during the Second World War, when cherry blossom was used to encourage Kamikaze pilots to die for their country.
The lecture, which is being hosted by the Northern Branch of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture as part of their 40th anniversary celebrations, will be held at the Teikyo University of Japan in Durham at 7pm on Thursday, November 28. Tickets start at £10.
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