Flowering Cherries have been appreciated in Japan from the very ancient times, and their records might;be traced back as early as to 402 A.D. Since the Capital was fixed in “Kyoto” in later years, the interest of the Japanese in the flowering cherries has deepened and grown stronger. They have been adopted as the favorite theme of the “Waka”, the only poetic form purely Japanese in those days, and at last the term “Hana” or flowers has come to imply the “cherry flowers”.
The horticultural varieties of the flowering cherries, especially the so-called “Sato-zakura” (Horticultural Varieties), with its great many varieties, were mestly produced chiefly in “Yedo”, now Tokyo, in the glory of the Yedo culture, together with other horticultural flowering plants. It was in this age, too, that there were produced many masterpieces of literature which compared the thick and simultaneous fall of cherry flowers to the pure spirit of feudal knights who were ready to lay down their lives for the cause of loyalty on the battlefield.
Since the introduction of the modern Western botanical science together with other branches of the Western culture, into this country after the Restoration of “Meiji”, several species of wild Japanese flowering cherries have been recorded and announced as new species according to its standards.
The flowering cherries have been originally produced and developed in the islands of Japan. Fond of the warm and damp climate, they have most prospered in the main island(“Honshu”). As they are suited to the soil where drainage is good and subterranean water lies deep, their superior species are produced near Tokyo, which consists of volcanic ash soil. The above-mentioned character is especially marked in the horticultural varieties and the species valuable in appreciation. The flowering cherries have what are called the Winter Flowering. Varieties, which bear their flowers on their branches for Over two months in autumn and winter, besides blooming in spring like the common varieties. Morphologically, they may be roughly classed into two types, but neither of them bears flowers worthy of much admiration. There is a tendency of using them as material for improving the prospect, for the winter season is very scarce in flowers, and they have been attracting much attention of the experts of late.
The “Shiro Yama-zakura” is a flowering tree most renowned in Japan since the old days. The young leaves of each of these trees have the colours of either green, yellow, brown, or russet. Its flowers and leaves unfold themselves at the same time, brilliantly reflecting the spring sun, and presenting a specially beautiful sight.

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This article will introduce three newly discovered student registers from Yamamoto Dokushoshitsu School. Although in total these registers cover 70 years, from 1807 to 1876, this analysis is based on the Monjin meibo of 926 students over three generations of principals, Fūzan, Bōyō and Yōshitsu, covering the years 1807-1864. The number of new entrants peaks in the years 1839-1855, with an average of 26 students per year. The distribution of students' birthplaces covers all 51 provinces, but generally the Kinki region from the west of the Hokuriku and Tōkai districts is the most prevalent. In terms of social class, Buddhist priests, bōkan, and shodaibu make up the largest single group (19%). Subsequently, in decreasing order of frequency, doctors range from machi'i, son'i, han'i, to ten'i. This composition reflects the character of a Confucian physician's private school in the ancient city of Kyoto. In addition to reproductions of these three lists of 1557 student names (1600 if Endo's supplement is included), biographical notes have been added where known.

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The Yamamoto Dokushoshitsu, a private school of natural history and Chinese classics in Kyoto, continued its activities over a 120-year period 1784 to 1903. Yamamoto Bōyō (1778– 1859), a disciple of the naturalist Ono Ranzan, inherited the school from his father Yamamoto Hōzan (1742–1813). The school reached its peak during the Ansei period (1854–1859).Yamamoto Ayao (1827–1903), the third son of Bōyō, reopened the school in 1875 as a means to maintain the Confucian and educational traditions of the Yamamoto family until his death in 1903. In 1893 he wrote the Senjin Genkōroku as a life of his late father following Confucian ideas of filial duty, but ten years later, in 1903, he rewrote it as a memoir containing, not only anecdotes about his grandfather Hōzan and his father Bōyō, but also histories of students, brothers and relatives and his own autobiography. Here we present for the first time the 1903 manuscript of Senjin Genkōroku with an introduction and notes. The introduction analyzes the process of its transformation using the family’s biographical documents.

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