On an early July day in 1911, a young woman named Lucy Maud Montgomery got married in the parlour of a green-trimmed farmhouse on Prince Edward Island. Fast forward over 100 years later, and Montgomery’s status as a lioness of Canadian literature and globally-beloved author has inspired hordes of couples—sometimes as many as three in a single a day—to tie the knot in front of the same fireplace where Montgomery exchanged her own vows.

There are two characteristics that the majority of these contemporary lovers share: Their enchantment with Montgomery’s work has fueled the desire to get married in the house that inspired the setting of her most famous book, Anne of Green Gables, and many of them are Japanese, a small subset of the thousands of tourists from Japan who make the pilgrimage to PEI every year.

“Back in about 1983, the Japanese started to come to visit and we had no idea why,” says George Campbell, the owner, current director and operator of the Anne of Green Gables Museum. His mother Ruth Campbell opened their home to the public in 1972, and his grandmother played the organ during Montgomery’s wedding march. “We had no idea it was part of their culture at that time.”

Montgomery, and more specifically, the red-headed orphan girl she wrote into existence named Anne Shirley, has a stronghold on Japanese fans. A cursory Google search for “Anne of Green Gables Japan” turns up a wide range of results, including everything from an “Anne Academy,” which instructs students on how to modulate their English to speak with a PEI accent, to countless fan clubs; to an esteemed a nursing school nicknamed in her honour, and even the now-defunct “Canadian World,” a theme park that featured an almost exact replica of Green Gables and was populated with actors dressed up as Anne, not dissimilar to Mickey Mouse doing the rounds at Disney.

Closer to home, these fans have a profound emotional attachment to Montgomery’s famously scrape-prone heroine.

“When we did Japanese weddings, I [had] to stop asking the bride what they thought of Prince Edward Island, because they would break down crying,” says Campbell. “What I came to find out was that over in Japan, they didn’t realize Prince Edward Island was a real place. When they came to visit, they were overwhelmed by the beauty.”

In 2003, the New York Times sent a reporter to speak with some of those Japanese visitors to PEI. Their responses shed light on Anne’s impact.”[She] shows women can dream and be what they want,’ said one woman in her fifties. “Anne was so independent and I like that. Japanese women can learn about freedom from Anne,” said another younger woman who chose to honeymoon in the province.

So, how exactly did a story about a precarious nineteenth century Canadian child become such a beloved part of a culture thousands of kilometres away?

Campbell pinpoints the moment it was first translated into Japanese in 1952 and became an instant bestseller. The prevailing theory about why Anne initially had such an impact tends to be that her story struck a chord in a country that had many orphans as a result of the Second World War. It then became part of the school curriculum in the 1970s, notes Ingrid Lobo, a Canadian expat who runs the fan site World of Anne Shirley. Later, yet, it became a popular anime series that’s still widely watched 50 years after its release.

“Anne Shirley has a universal appeal because of her optimism, imagination, and charm. Anne is an orphan who has faced losses and hardships, but she dreams of finding her place in the world. She wants to fit in even though she is an outsider,” says Lobo, noting that the book has been translated into over 35 languages. “I think that people of all backgrounds can relate to this desire to belong.”

That said, Lobo does think there might be a specifically Japanese connection: “Anne’s profound appreciation for the beauty of cherry trees might resonate in a unique way with readers in Japan. Early on in the novel, Anne mentions planning to climb a wild cherry tree to sleep amidst the blooms if Matthew, the book’s beloved father figure, failed to retrieve her at the train station. Later, Anne wakes up after her first night at Green Gables to the beauty of a cherry tree in full bloom outside her window. She sits at the window admiring it and names the tree “Snow Queen,” she says. “Cherry blossoms are so widely celebrated in Japanese culture. I think Japanese readers would be pleased that little Anne Shirley, on the other side of the world, appreciates cherry trees as much as they do.”

That said, the initial affection for Anne was subject to a minor culture clash, Campbell notes. “We used to offer raspberry cordial at the wedding receptions,” he says, nodding to a drink that plays a pivotal role in a famous scene in Anne of Green Gables. “The bride and groom wouldn’t drink it! Finally I asked one of the tour guides why, and they said they didn’t know what it was.”

According to Campbell, in the 1950s, raspberries weren’t available in Japan, so the original translator, Hanako Muraoka, wrote it as “strawberry water” instead.

As the world gets set to mark Montgomery’s 150th birthday on November 30, it is also true that Anne mania might not be what it once was in Japan. Campbell, for example, says the real Japanese tourist heyday was in the 1980s and 1990s. Now, it’s a fraction of what it once was, as he speculates that economic hardship in Japan meant that tourists no longer travelled abroad in the way they used to.

Lobo, for her part, was actually in Japan earlier this year, and says it was “difficult” to see any signs of her continuing cultural popularity. “At one point during my trip, I spoke with a Japanese language professor who was surprised about my love of Anne and knowledge of the anime. She remembered Anne fondly from growing up in Japan,” says Lobo, who remains optimistic. After all, she adds, “Anne is a classic story that is passed down through generations, so I hope she would be appreciated by younger generations.”

Interestingly, the popular 2017 CBC miniseries Anne With An E, a deeper, fleshed out adaptation than the previous soft-focus miniseries that was released in the 1980s, might be contributing to a fresh wave of international fascination in the world created by Montgomery in this story.

“We are seeing renewed interest or a new interest in countries that haven’t engaged as much in the past. Brazil for example,” says Laura Robinson, chair of the management commitment at the University of Prince Edward Island’s Montgomery Institute. “I think there is a notion that Anne of Green Gables is a sweet, happy, happy girls’ story. It’s why viewers were shocked when the series “Anne with an E” came out, but it is a story that touches on some deep trauma. Anne comes from a dark place.”

It’s that “darkness lurking behind Montgomery’s sunny novel,” and its ability to address universal experiences, that Robinson believes is just one of the reasons that this 116-year-old novel has sustained its intrigue for fans all around the world.

“It is a story about an outsider achieving community acceptance and approbation. It is also a story about a girl who is undervalued because of her gender. Remember, Matthew and Marilla wanted a boy, but a girl was sent by mistake—ultimately, becoming not just valued, but cherished and essential to her home. There’s a great story for girls and women who often feel overlooked or undervalued,” says Robinson, who explains that every reader’s experience is unique to them. “In addition to the uplifting messages of the story, Montgomery has a way of capturing the foibles and quirks of humans, even some of their less attractive sides, with affectionate humour and some scathing satire, that readers in any era can understand and relate to.”