Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford collected it in Tales of Old Japan (1871), as "The Story of the Old Man Who Made Withered Trees to Blossom".
David Thomson translated it as "The Old Man Who Made the Dead Trees Blossom" for Hasegawa Takejirō's Japanese Fairy Tale Series (1885).
This story is featured in the NCERT 7th Standard English Text “Honeycomb” as “The Ashes That Made Trees Bloom by William Elliot Griffis.”Andrew Lang included it as "The Envious Neighbor" in The Violet Fairy Book (1901), adapting it from a German text in Japanische Märchen[2] compiled by David August Brauns [de] (the original German title being Der neidische Nachbar).
When he did, the cherry trees came into bloom, and the daimyō (feudal landlord), passing by, marveled and gave him many gifts.
The neighbor tried to do the same, but the ashes blew into the daimyō's eyes, so he threw him into prison; when he was let out, his village would not let him live there anymore, and he could not, with his wicked ways, find a new home.