Springtime in Washington, D.C., is synonymous with cherry blossom season, when the thousands of cherry blossom trees gifted to the city by Japan in the early 20th century show off their pink petals. At the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival this year, which wrapped up this past weekend, Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo went back to visit the roots it planted in the nation’s capital more than a century ago.
Daiichi and D.C.’s cherry blossoms can both trace their origin stories back in part to Jokichi Takamine, Ph.D., a Japanese chemist whose research led to widespread use of adrenaline in medicine. Takamine was the first president of Sankyo, a century-old pharmaceutical company that later merged with Daiichi Pharmaceutical to become Daiichi Sankyo.
Not only was he instrumental to the work the cancer-focused drugmaker does today, but Takamine’s role in the historic gifting of more than 3,000 cherry blossom saplings to the city of D.C. also resulted in the picturesque blossoms D.C. residents and visitors enjoy each spring.
According to Daiichi, Takamine helped facilitate the 1912 gift of the trees from the city of Tokyo and its Mayor Yukio Ozaki after hearing of then-first lady Helen Herron Taft’s plan to plant cherry trees along the Potomac River during a chance visit in 1909. Today, the trees remain a symbol of goodwill between Japan and the U.S.
Over the weekend, Daiichi Sankyo joined D.C. and the thousands of visitors who flock to the city during peak bloom season in honoring the gift at the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival, which features four weeks of programming celebrating Japanese culture and the enduring amity between the two countries. As a perennial host sponsor of the event, Daiichi Sankyo employees traveled from near (New Jersey) and far (Japan) to show out for the festival, proudly marching in the April 12 parade in green and pink festival colors with giant Daiichi Sankyo and Hello Kitty balloons in tow.
To Daiichi Sankyo, the cherry blossoms also harken back to the legacy Takamine built at the company, with his “vision to improve health all over the world”—still a mission the company pursues “every day,” Dan Switzer, head of Daiichi Sankyo’s U.S. oncology business division, said in an emailed statement.
“It is also a reminder that in the fight against cancer, it’s a global battle, so the connection between the East and the West is one example of how we are not in this fight alone,” Switzer added.
Daiichi Sankyo is a consistent sponsor of the event and even served as co-chair of the festival’s Centennial Celebration Host Committee for the 2012 100-year anniversary version. Meanwhile, the company is also busy racking up FDA approvals for its antibody-drug conjugate cancer treatments, including collecting the seventh nod for its AstraZeneca-partnered Enhertu earlier this year.
“Just as cherry blossoms symbolize renewal, at Daiichi Sankyo, we are working to create a healthier future for generations to come,” the company wrote in a LinkedIn post.