{"product_id":"book-ct1n","title":"The Sakura Obsession","description":"The incredible—and improbable—story of how an English eccentric saved Japan’s beloved cherry blossoms from extinction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Collingwood Ingram—known as “Cherry” for his defining passion—was born in 1880 and lived until he was a hundred, witnessing a fraught century of conflict and change. Visiting Japan in 1902 and again in 1907, he fell in love with the country’s distinctive cherry blossoms, or \u003ci\u003esakura,\u003c\/i\u003e and brought back hundreds of cuttings with him to England, where he created a garden of cherry varieties.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e On a 1926 trip to Japan to search for new specimens, Ingram was shocked to find a dramatic decline in local cherry diversity. A cloned variety was taking over the landscape and becoming the symbol of Japan’s expansionist ambitions, while the rare and spectacular \u003ci\u003eTaihaku,\u003c\/i\u003e or “Great White Cherry,” had disappeared entirely. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But thousands of miles away, at Ingram’s country estate, the \u003ci\u003eTaihaku\u003c\/i\u003e still prospered. After returning to Britain, the amateur botanist buried a living cutting from his own collection into a potato and repatriated it to Japan via the Trans-Siberian Express. Over the decades that followed, Ingram became one of the world’s leading cherry experts and shared the joy of \u003ci\u003esakura \u003c\/i\u003eboth nationally and internationally, sending more than a hundred varieties of cherry tree to new homes around the globe, from Auckland, New Zealand to Washington, D.C.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e As much a history of the cherry blossom in Japan as it is the story of one remarkable man, \u003ci\u003eThe Sakura Obsession \u003c\/i\u003efollows the flower from its significance as a symbol of the imperial court, through the dark days of the Second World War, and up to the present-day worldwide fascination with this iconic blossom.","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49329204429104,"sku":"BDct1n","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/205207-ct1n-Square.jpg?v=1733738085","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-ct1n","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}