Camellia japonica "Gakko" (Moonlight). Photographed at The Kyoto Prefectural Botanical Gardens, Japan.

Photograph by Takashi Araki

　Gakko is one of the most popular cammellias especially favored in Kyoto.　Although its horticultural name is "Bokuhan," it is commonly known as Gakko after white coloration of whorls of petaloid stamens reminescent of the moon. A race called "Jikko" (Sunlight) has a similar flower with red petaloid stamens. There was a great enthusiasm for camllia collection in early 17th century (Edo era) in Japan. It was about the same period as that of western "Tulipomania" (1634-1637). "Hyakuchin-shu" (One Hundred Camellias, 1630) by Sakuden Anraku-an, the first book on horticulture in Japan, recorded one hundred varieties, and 65 years later, Ihei Ito enumerated 206 varieties in his "Kadan-chikin-sho" (Book of Glorious Colors in Gardens, 1695). A variety similar to Gakko was already described in "Kadan-chikin-sho."