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Cherry blossom wars: Japan, South Korea or China?
Xinhua ^ | 2015-3-30 | staff reporter

Posted on 03/31/2015 2:42:29 AM PDT by Daffynition

Did Japan's hallowed cherry trees actually originate from South Korea?

"The beloved someiyoshino variety of cherry trees isn't really from Japan, but actually from South Korea's Jeju Island," reported a South Korean newspaper.

"Japanese cherry trees are actually Jeju's royal cherry trees. Japanese just took them and cultivated them," said the Daily Sports.

(Excerpt) Read more at globaltimes.cn ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Humor; Outdoors
KEYWORDS:
Ut oh. Sounds like war.


1 posted on 03/31/2015 2:42:29 AM PDT by Daffynition
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In recent years, some South Korean media have claimed that the country is actually the flower’s origin—sometimes provoking prickly reactions in Japan.

But according to He Zongru, executive chairman of the China Cherry Industry Association, both are wrong, and the Middle Kingdom is the blossom’s true birthplace.

He cited a Japanese monograph on cherry blossoms which stated that the flower originated in the Himalayan mountains of China and did not arrive in Japan until the Tang dynasty more than 1,100 years ago.

“We don’t want to get into a war of words with Japan and South Korea, but we want to assert a fact: Many historical documents confirm that the cherry blossom’s place of origin is in China,” He said, according to the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily on Monday.

“As Chinese people, we have a responsibility to let more people know this history,” he added.

For decades, Tokyo has given the prized plant to countries including the US as a gesture of goodwill, and every spring people across Japan gather under cherry blossom trees to eat, drink and admire.

Thousands of visitors line the banks of Washington’s Tidal Basin every spring to catch a sight of the city’s pink and white flowers, which were a gift from Japan in 1912.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-03-blooming-row-cherry-blossom-china.html#jCp


2 posted on 03/31/2015 2:49:45 AM PDT by Daffynition ("We Are Not Descended From Fearful Men")
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To: Daffynition

I wouldn’t doubt it. A lot of interchange happened in Japan 600-800 AD.


3 posted on 03/31/2015 3:27:43 AM PDT by struggle
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To: Daffynition

Yep, as Obama and Co. withdraw from and undermine the Pax Americana expect these regional tensions to grow. War will follow.


4 posted on 03/31/2015 4:14:22 AM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: Daffynition
A battle for the Seoul of the cherry tree. It's a little like arguing about the origin of ketchup: is it really American because it became the condiment of choice for the American burger, or Chinese because it is based on 鮭汁 ("kei-tsiap"), or South American because it is like cooked tomatoes? But I have a lot of work to do this morning, so I'm off playing ketchup...
5 posted on 03/31/2015 4:28:32 AM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: chajin

And I thought ketchup was a Hindu concoction that British troops in India used to hide the flavor of their rations of bully beef.

As a kid I heard that on December 8, 1941 outraged citizens clamored to march on Washington & chop down all the cherry trees around the Tidal Basin.

Now we find out those trees aren’t even Japanese?


6 posted on 03/31/2015 4:54:37 AM PDT by elcid1970 ("O Muslim! My bullets are dipped in pig grease.")
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To: elcid1970

The English word cherry goes back, via French and Latin, to the Greek name of a city in Asia Minor, Kerasos. The Roman commander Lucius Licinius Lucullus campaigned in that area against Mithridates the Great (74 to 69 B.C.) and reportedly brought back cherry trees to Italy.


7 posted on 03/31/2015 7:21:07 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: elcid1970

The English word cherry goes back, via French and Latin, to the Greek name of a city in Asia Minor, Kerasos. The Roman commander Lucius Licinius Lucullus campaigned in that area against Mithridates the Great (74 to 69 B.C.) and reportedly brought back cherry trees to Italy.


8 posted on 03/31/2015 7:21:07 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Verginius Rufus

Didn’t Lucullus also bring back several amphorae of Scythian ketchup, which resulted in the introduction of the tomato to Roman agriculture?


9 posted on 03/31/2015 7:56:57 AM PDT by elcid1970 ("O Muslim! My bullets are dipped in pig grease.")
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To: elcid1970

The tomato plant is native to the New World. The Romans never ate tomatoes. Whether they made ketchup from something else, I don’t know.


10 posted on 03/31/2015 2:41:44 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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