Peony Breeder  

Listing last updated on Fri Jun 2025

Niigata
Japan

Sinzaemon Tanaka (ca. 1848 - 1926) 田中新左衛門

[From The Gardeners' Chronicle, August 17, 1929, p. 131 (photo, p.122):] Mr. Sinzaemon Tanaka's work on the hybridization of Tree-Paeonies is much admired, and his name will be long remembered as that of a great raiser of Tree-Paeonies. Mr. Tanaka commenced raising varieties in 1894, after he learned the method from the Rono Zasshi (then a leading agricultural journal in Japan). Since then, after many difficulties and failures, he has raised nearly two-hundred-and-fifty varieties. The following are a few of the best he has raised: Hakuo, Haku-Unryo, Nagoya-Jo, Hoo-Jo, Kanyo-Kiu, Kinpai and Godaishu. He is now 81 years old, but his enthusiasm is unabated; indeed he works with undiminished energy and interest, raising and cultivating with his own hands. He is very tranquil regarding rewards—the work is his great interest.

[From https://botanical.greenery-niigata.or.jp/hanamonogatari/history5_3.html, by the Niigata Prefectural Botanical garden for the Next Generation, 1998:] [translated from Japanese] Another reason why Niigata became known for Peonies is the Breeding which started in the Meiji era. The Tanaka family from the district Akiha in Niigata settled in the early Edo period in Kawaguchi Shinden and was instrumental in the development of new fields. The name Shinzaemon was passed on from generation to generation. The ninth Shinzaemon, born 1848, at the end of the Edo era, invested massively into Omoto and the colourful Ardisia crenata, which were very popular in the Meiji period and the object of speculation. However, he suffered great losses when the prefecture Niigata decreed in 1897 the "Regulation of the Trade with the Purplegoldcow (Ardisia crenata)". After that he started breeding peonies. According to Tanaka it takes five to up to 15 years from sowing to blooming, and the hard work duting this time exceeds all imagination. Following this he started to issue new varieties towards the end of the Meiji era, and until his death in 1936 he had bred hundreds of peonies, which brought him the nickname "Old Man of Peonies". Representative sorts are 'Godaizu', 'Tamadare', 'Hira no Yuki', 'Hõgoshi' and 'Tsukumushishi', which are still cultivated nowadays.