LONDON

Saplings from a ginkgo tree linked to the late Japanese Admiral Heihachiro Togo are set to "return" to the Asian country from Britain this month.

The tree was donated from Japan in the late 19th century to Pembroke Dock, Wales, to thank locals for efforts to build the original Hiei battleship of the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Navy in a shipyard there.

The ginkgo tree is known locally as a tree linked to Togo, who was studying in Britain at that time and left for Japan aboard the battleship, whose launching ceremony was held in 1877. Togo stunned the world by defeating Russia's Baltic Fleet in 1905 during Russo-Japanese War.

On Friday, a related ceremony was held at the official residence in London of the Japanese ambassador to Britain.

The project to send saplings from the ginkgo tree to Japan has been led by David James, an 81-year-old Welsh historian.

Some 30 saplings, grown in the National Botanic Garden of Wales for two years, are scheduled to arrive in Japan by air around Dec. 23.

After the trees are adapted to the Japanese environment at the Hiroshima Botanical Garden, they will be transferred around next spring to the former naval base host cities of Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture, Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, and Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Their destinations also include the city of Kagoshima, Togo's birthplace, and the shrine named after him in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward.

Jiji Press