American woman honored by Japanese fans in service at Yokohama cemetery

April 6, 2010

American woman honored by Japanese fans in service at Yokohama cemetery


The American journalist and travel writer rests in peace at a Yokohama graveyard along with her mother and her elder brother. A small memorial service was held in front of her grave last week by a group of her Japanese fans, who hope to disseminate her achievements for friendship between Japan and the United States.
Eliza R. Scidmore was born in Clinton, Iowa, in 1856 and died in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1928. Her ashes were transferred to Yokohama the following year as her mother and brother had died in Yokohama earlier. Scidmore joined her kin in their grave at the Yokohama General Foreign Cemetery. A small monument set up beside her tombstone reads “A woman who loved Japanese cherry blossoms rests in peace here.”
Notable among Scidmore’s achievements was her key role played for a project to transport about 3,000 young Japanese flowering cherry trees to the United States and plant them in the Potomac River area in Washington D.C. in 1912. The cherry trees became widely known there as a token of friendly relations between the two countries. The trees are in full bloom early April every year. Timed to coincide with their blooming, the “sakura” cherry blossom festival takes place there annually. A few young plants were created by grafting from one of the cherry trees in Washington and donated back to Japan in 1991. One of them is in front of the tomb of Scidmore and her mother and brother.
Her fans annually gather before her grave in the cherry blossom season to remember her achievements. This year’s service, the 24th of its kind, brought together about 40 people, who offered flowers to her grave one by one and sang the sakura (cherry blossoms) song for her.

Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms
Cherry trees are in full bloom
across the hills out there under the March sky.
They look like mists or clouds,
and their fragrances are everywhere.
Now let’s go. Let’s go and see the cherry blossoms.
(A personal translation)

This old Japanese folk song is sung at various occasions in spring. The song, which is linked to an old etude for the “koto” Japanese harp, is so much loved by Japanese as to be called the “second national anthem.”
The young cherry tree which came from Washington “was just about a meter high when it was planted here, but it is now this high, “ extending its branches over the tombstone, Kaoru Onji, a founder of the fans' group, told participants.
Yokohama was the place where Scidmore set foot on her first visit to Japan in 1884. Her brother, George, was an American diplomat in Yokohama at that time. She visited Japan many times after that and stayed mainly in Yokohama. Scidmore published her first book about Japan in 1891, devoting the first four chapters of the 37-chapter book to discussing people’s life and exciting spots of Yokohama. The former small fishing village had been opened as a new port to foreign countries 25 years before her first visit. About 3,700 foreigners were in the port city in 1884, when she saw Japan for the first time. The cemetery where she rests in peace is in a scenic area on the Bluff which commands a nice view of Yokohama Port.
Scidmore joined the National Geographic Society of the United States in 1890 and wrote many books about Japan and other Asian countries. She was the first woman to have a seat on the Board of Managers of the society.
What Scidmore made in contribution to friendship between Japan and the United States had been little known among general people in Japan “when we started holding memorial services for her," Onji said. The Scidmore family had ceased because the brother and sister died unmarried, leaving nobody to take care of their tomb, said Onji, the widow of the first Japanese translator of Scidmore’s 1891 book “Jinrikisha Days in Japan.”
A young cherry tree was further grafted from the tree beside her grave and planted near a shopping street in Yokohama a few years ago through efforts by the group and others to let people know about her episode.
Scidmore showed keen interest, with a favorable feeling, in almost everything she saw in Japan. She was particularly curious about Japanese flowers and plants, including not only cherry blossoms but also "asagao" morning glories, and above all, the Japanese art of gardening. Her passion about Japanese flowers led her to write a long essay, titled “The Surprising Morning Glories of Japan.” The Japanese translation of the essay was contributed to a magazine published by a group of Japanese horticulturists in 1900, a researcher said at a party after the service. The essay contained many professional remarks, indicating Scidmore had tried hard to collect information about what she saw and studied hard about it. "It is just great," the researcher said.
Efforts for better relations between Japan and the United States were made by a variety of Americans, among them Scidmore, who were charmed by Japan and its culture in its early stage to get out of two and a half centuries of isolation under the Tokugawa shogun regime. This suggests relations between the two countries across the Pacific were rather closer than at present, at least in terms of culture and people’s feelings. What should have Scidmore said about the current shaky relations between Tokyo and Washington if she was alive? This is a question one should be tempted to ask.