tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159465.post110637084349773656..comments2023-05-24T22:53:48.790+09:00Comments on WKD (01) ... World Kigo Database . . . (WKD): Daigo Cherry TreeGabi Grevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362456518166174106noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159465.post-15006566734696516072007-05-24T09:56:00.000+09:002007-05-24T09:56:00.000+09:00The Sakura trees called Shookawa Sakurahttp://www....The Sakura trees called Shookawa Sakura<BR/>http://www.zephyr.dti.ne.jp/~sasa/shokawasakura.htm<BR/><B><BR/>> falling cherry blossomes<BR/>> tell us the story<BR/>> 450 years of your life</B><BR/>><BR/>> etsuko yanagibori<BR/><BR/>..................................<BR/><BR/>There are two large Sakura, or cherry trees, at the Nakano observation platform near Miboro lakeside, and these trees are said<BR/>to be over 450 years old. They are both Azuma Higan Sakura cherry trees. Originally, these cherry trees were in the precincts of<BR/>Shorenji and Korinji Buddhist temples, which are now submerged under the dam lake. The local village people loved these trees dearly. <BR/><BR/>So, in 1959, the first President of J-POWER, Tatsunosuke Takasaki, visited this site during the dam construction. He felt it would be a<BR/>pity for these two magnificent cherry trees to be submerged under the dam lake. J-POWER requested the leading researcher in the field of cherry trees, Shintaro Sasabe, the Sakura doctor, to undertake the transplanting of these two trees, and this was successfully accomplished. This was a major transplanting project without precedent worldwide that many experts in the field said would be impossible, and it was completed in December 1960. <BR/><BR/>These trees are now known as the <B>Shokawa Sakura,</B> and since that time, we have cared for these trees.<BR/><BR/>http://www.jpower.co.jp/english/company_info/environment/index.html<BR/>(at the bottom of the page)<BR/><BR/>A giant cherry tree transplanted in Mihoro Dam lakeside (national road No.156) in Shokawa village of Ono District, Gifu Prefecture.<BR/><BR/>This cherry tree was transplanted from the temple precinct which was to be submerged with construction of Mihor Dam, and was designated to Gifu Prefecture natural monument in 1966. <BR/><BR/>One person appeared who was impressed by this cherry, and planned to connect Nagoya City and Kanazawa City with a row of cherry trees. This report described realization of this plan in part of the section and the start of<BR/>replanting of the second generation Shokawa cherry.<BR/><BR/>http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/199923/000019992399A0867620.php<BR/><BR/>from the book "Looking for the Lost: Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan," by Alan Booth, Kodansha Globe, 1996, p.349:<BR/><BR/>"The cherry trees, according to their sign, were 450 years old and had been registered as prefectural assets five years after the dam<BR/>was constructed. <BR/><BR/>Their huge, twisted, moss-covered trunks and their branches, which spread from the lake to the highway, propped up on posts the size of telephone poles, presented a stark contrast to the unluckier trees, drowned and black, whose branches stuck up, unsignposted, out of the fammed green water."<BR/><B><BR/><BR/>Mihoro Lake--<BR/>Shoukawa cherry petals<BR/>drift over drowned trees...</B><BR/><BR/>Larry<BR/><BR/>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cherrypoetryclub/message/30938Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com