Art and Documentation: Watercolors of the Original Sakura As
Washington’s sakura trees were en route from Japan, Tokyo
Mayoress Yei Theodora Ozaki wrote to U.S. First Lady Helen
“Nellie” Taft: “…my husband shipped off 3,000 cherry trees which
he hopes will form an avenue in Washington as a memorial of
national friendship between the U.S. and Japan.” On March 27,
1912, Mrs. Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of Japanese
Ambassador Sutemi Chinda, planted the first two trees along the
north bank of the Potomac. The Library preserves eleven
exquisitely-rendered watercolor drawings that represent a link
between those cherry trees sent to Washington and their Japanese
antecedents. Each drawing documents a different variety of
cherry blossom from the famous trees growing along Tokyo’s
Arakawa River. The drawings were acquired from Walter Tennyson
Swingle, a Department of Agriculture botanist who collected
thousands of Chinese and Japanese books for the Library between
1913 and 1937. His initials appear on this typesc