20th Century Pear

The 20th Century pear, also known by its original Japanese name Nijisseiki, has a real, specifically documented discovery story: in 1888, a 13-year-old farm boy named Kakunosuke Matsudo, in the village of Yatsuhashira (now part of Matsudo City), spotted an unusual small seedling growing in a neighboring relative's garbage dump. He transplanted it to his family's orchard in a pear-growing district with roots back to the Edo era (1603-1868), and his careful nurturing of the tree — along with his decision to introduce the resulting fruit to the wider public — turned what started as a discarded seedling into one of the most important Asian pear cultivars of the 20th century, the source of its English name. It is a genuine pome fruit success story built entirely on one child's curiosity about a strange plant in the trash.