User:Fred Cherrygarden
Fred Cherrygarden (born 28 November 1996), also known by his other noms de plume A. L. Coventry and Koharu Watanabe, is a Japanese fantasy author known for his profound love and interest for Alice and "all manner of curious things" around the world. He is also an amateur numismatist, YouTube content creator, translator and freelance writer. Since the age of 10, he has actively studied comparative mythology, history, philology and literature.
A spontaneous traveller with an insatiable wanderlust, Cherrygarden has travelled to 23 countries so far, including Belgium, Iceland, Hungary, Tunisia and Kugelmugel. Currently, he is planning a long backpacking trip to Europe, Africa and beyond, on a pilgrimage to Wonderland-related sites and in quest of creative inspiration.
Early life
Born in 1996 at San-Ikukai Hospital in Taihei, Sumida City, Cherrygarden grew up in Tokyo’s quiet shitamachi area along the Arakawa River as the eldest of three children. His father is from Aomori Prefecture, whose ancestry can be traced back to the medieval Uda Genji clan, descending from the 59th emperor of Japan, Uda, while his maternal lineage has its roots in the Watanabe clan, descendants of Emperor Saga (which is not a rare case in Japan, where the surname is estimated to be shared by upwards of 1.3 million people).
After graduation from Shinobugaoka High School in 2015, Cherrygarden briefly worked at the Ueno Zoo, then as a cast member at Tokyo DisneySea and Tokyo Disneyland. In 2017, he gained the title of Lord of Sealand and in 2019 named co-castellan of Château de Vibrac.
Atlas Obscura
In 2019, Cherrygarden joined Atlas Obscura and has since written more than 400 articles for its “Places” section, arguably contributing to the international popularization of several under-recognized travel destinations such as St Briavels Castle, the Borj Adoumoue fortress in Salé, and Ichimonjiya Wasuke.
Cuffnells Gallery
In 2016, Cherrygarden established an online antique shop named Phlizz Numismatics on Yahoo! Auctions and Mercari, mainly dealing in antique and ancient coins, some of them never-before-introduced in the country. Shortly following the soft rebranding during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was renamed Cuffnells Gallery after the now-defunct estate of Reginald Hargreaves in Lyndhurst, Hampshire.
Today, the shop deals in a wide variety of collectibles including ancient coins, banknotes, antiquities, antiquarian books, engravings, film props, and Disneyana. These items come from the so-called Cherrygarden collection, acquired from such established international auction houses and dealers as Heritage Auctions, CNG Coins, Stephen Album, Bob Reis, Scott Semans, and Prop Store.
From 2021 onwards, Cuffnells Gallery has been involved in the joint production of the upcoming YouTube docuseries All Manner of Curious Things, along with Goodbye Snowdrop Productions. Created by Cherrygarden and directed by Allen Smithey, the series is set to cover a variety of relatively lesser-known topics such as the story of the El Cazador shipwreck, the history of the Jimbōchō Book Town, and the origins of tempura.