Almost every year Fujimoto would visit Jiading to prune the branches of wisteria, staying for between one and three days. Fujimoto told the reporter that “Wisteria is different from cherry as wisteria requires much more care to blossom nicely.” Early last year, Fujimoto passed on his knowledge of grafting and pruning wisteria to the locals.

A witness to Shanghai’s development

Fujimoto has been to China almost 100 times in the 31 years since 1987. He witnessed the social economic development of Shanghai and its people’s full-heartedness in making friends.

“Thanks to the reform and opening up, Shanghai has developed shockingly fast. When I first arrived at Hongqiao airport, I just went straight out from the gate since it was so small. It took an hour to go from the airport to Jiading and the roads were crowded with pedestrians and bicycles. Five years later, China’s first highway was built between Nanxiang and Jiading, extending 20 kilometers and making it much quicker to go to the city center. At that time there was a lot of construction but it was all hand labor and scaffolding, whereas just 10 years later it was already done by heavy machines just as in Japan.”