TREE WORSHIP IN JAPAN

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 1, 1 July 1922, Page 19

TREE WORSHIP IN JAPAN

DEATH OF A SACRED PINE The Tokio correspondent of The Times, London, writes:— > " In Japan, a tree may have a personality; it may be an object of respect; it may even become an object of worship, or a shrine to which pilgrimages are made. Of such was the Karasaki pine, one of Japan's most famous trees on the shores of Lake Biwa, not far from the city of Kyoto, and associated with the life of the people for more than a thousand years. It had come to be regarded in the light of a y national treasure, since it was a link between Japan's early civilisation and the proud Japan of world-power fame. It has recently been pronounced officially dead, The Karasalci pine was so remarkable for the contortion of its brandies that some fantastic spirit seemed to dwell within it. It can certainly be counted among the remarkable trees of the world. It had made a stout growth of trunk to a height of 30 feet. Thence it sent out a great circular sweep of branches that stretched outwards and swayed downward, covering in its prime an area of three acres. There were 380 of these, in girth as thick as an ordinary pirie, the heaviest propped up with poles or supported by piles of stones, leaving just room enough for onfe to. stand beneath. According to tradition, it ones flourished in the palace garden of an Emperor. Other accounts say that it was on the estate of one of the priestly families that had a close connection with the Buddhist monastery on Hieizan, the mountain height that towers above Lake Biwa. ' Just beside the Karasaki1 pine there is a little shrine, sacred to the memory of a lady of this ancient priestly • family, but she had become so misty that most visitors to the Karasaki pine worshipped the venerable tree, taking it as a symbol of longevity and prosperity. So for 500 years this pine has been known throughout Japan ; travellers have gone out of their way for one sight of it. In the No dramas of 500 years ago, in fiction and travel sketches, there is frequent mention of it, and many a poet has taken it as his inspiration. Each summer a festival was held ill honour of the tree, and thousands of lanterns were hung from its branches, the people of the towns and villages round the lake coming to enjoy a day and night of pleasure. For hundreds of years it has afforded the youths and maidens of this lake country a meeting place on festival nights, and many a romance has begun under its wide-spreading branches. Lake Biwa's eight famous sights have been -the theme .of poets and artists, and among them "Rain >on the Karasaki Pine at Night" was one , of, the most celebrated. The sound of fain pattering on the innumerable branches of this ancient pine was considered by the poets as worth a '.long journey to,hear. Now the wind rattles the dead branches like the bones of a giant skeleton. > For several years it was known that the pine was dying. .Scientists did their best to discover the cause of its enfeebled condition. The limbs that decayed were promptly filled with cement, and every remedy was tried to prolong its life. ' The'villagers, who took so much pride in the tree, thinking it needed nourishment in its old age, spent considerable sums in feeding' it with nee paste!, ,':..' ;. V./ „■■ When every trace of green life had disappeared a quaint ceremony was held. The Governor of the Prefecture was present, also high officials of the Central Government, numbering 100, together with Shinto ■■ritualists. It was formally announced .that, the existence of the Karasaki-pine had come to an end. but at the same time one of those Shinto services so peculiar to Japan was carried out. The spirit of the pine was transferred to a successor, a lusty child of 350 years growing two miles distant on the shores of the lake.

■ Some one fortunately planted a seedling long ago, before the Tokugawa Shogunate, and to-day this successor shows unmistakable signs that it intends to follow its parent in the same remarkable development and fantastic fling of branches. .. X is so astonishingly like the mother tree that it seems to have truly received the life of the Karasaki pine, and will undoubtedly carry on the family traditions for the next 1000 years.