Ume (Japanese apricot) Garden at Kameido 亀戸梅屋敷

The white plum blossoms bloom sweetly in the dark. The women, dressed warmly to keep out the cold, have gathered to view the plum (technically, Japanese apricot) trees in bloom. Behind them is the Sleeping Dragon Plum, the most famous tree in Edo. Its amazing limbs, which look just like a dragon lying on the ground, inspired Tokugawa Mitsukuni (lord of the Mito domain) to give it that name. Its location, the Kameido Plum Garden, was known as the finest place for enjoying plum blossoms in Edo. The garden was originally the Seikouan, the villa of Iseya Hikoemon, a merchant dealing in textiles for kimono. Mitsukuni is said to have visited the villa because a plum tree that Hikoemon had just happened to plant had developed such an amazing form. With several tens of thousands of plum trees in the garden, starting in the mid-Edo period, it attracted hordes of visitors in plum blossom season to sit on the benches in the garden and admire the lovely trees in bloom. The garden retained its popularity in the Meiji period but closed after being flooded when the Sumida River overflowed in 1910.