Camellia, or tsubaki in Japanese, has always been integral to this country's culture. Mentioned in ancient chronicles and legends, it is also used as a design motif for noh costumes, is highly regarded in ikebana arrangements and was prized by Tokugawa shoguns. Without the flamboyance of sakura, tsubaki is admired for the quiet, yet distinct beauty of its flowers and leaves.
The camellia indigenous to Japan is a ruby-red, five-petaled single yabutsubaki (Camellia japonica), which thrives in coastal forests along the Pacific. Regions on the snowy Sea of Japan side support another variety, known as yukitsubaki (snow camellia; C. japonica var. decumbens). Meanwhile, similar-looking sazanka (C. sasanqua) is originally from much warmer Kyushu, and is distinguished from tsubaki by the way its flowers fall. While tsubaki drops its blossoms whole with the stamens on, sazanka sheds its petals one by one.
Early Japanese seem to have admired the camellia more for its hard wood and shiny leaves than for its flowers. "Nihon Shoki," the chronicle of Japan compiled in the early 8th century, mentions mallets made of camellia wood, which the legendary Emperor Keiko used to kill his enemies without once missing a blow. An archaeological excavation in 1961 in Fukui Prefecture unearthed ax handles and a comb made of tsubaki wood at a Jomon dwelling site dating back 5,000 years.