Prunus Mume has been cultivated in Japan from olden times. In the “Mannyoshu” (the Myriad Leaves), the earliest anthology in Japan, we come across poems composed in laudation of this plant at every turn. In those days the Flowering Cherries were not yet developed beyond the state of wild plants, but P. Mume had already been cultivated in the gardens as genuine horticultural plants, and become the object for admiration among the people, especially the court circles and the noble and intelligent classes. Prunus Mume had thus been the swereign of the Japanese flora until it yielded its place to the cherry later in the Heian epoch(794-1192).
The peaceful administration by the Tokugawa Shogunate for three centuries (1603-1868) brought about an unprecedented development in the literature, the fine arts and music of Japan. The horticultural art, particularly the development of Floriculture, also reached a state hardly inferior to that in the Western States. There were not a few ornamental plants that could hardly be found or might even surpass those in the European and American States. Prunus Mume, too, reached the highest point of refinement, so that in the age of “Bunsei” (1818-1829), its varieties numbered more than 350; with flowers either snow-white with green calyces, of light crimson or of rich crimson: with petals five, six, or even more:in the fold, the single and the double, and in the shape of the tree, the weeping and the creeping, while as a rare variety, there was the “Zaron” or the proliferated flower.
After the Restoration of Meiji, the too enthusiastic absorption of the material civilization of the west, was very detrimentalto the pure Japanese culture for a time, and P. Mume has lost half of its varieties like other flowering plants. At present we have less than 20 Fruiting varieties(“Mi-ume”)and some 160 Flowering varieties(“Hana-ume”).
Prunus Mime begins to blossom in December at the earliest, and reaches its prime in February and March. Enduring the severity of snow and frost, it leads the van of hundreds of flowers, redolent with the sweet perfume, which together with its virile and venerable appearance, has been considered emblematic of lofty grace and high principle, and made the object of veneration by many people and offered themes for their poetry. Besides, its . fruit is precious as food and fit for salt preservation for years, while a weak acid in its juice possessing a virtue against various epidemic bacteria, its cultivation was encouraged in competition by the feudal clans, so that all households high and low, have come to cultivate it in their gardens to admire the flowers and utilize the fruit.

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