Forest of the God Killer - Yakushima, Jyotake Period (17th Century)

Forest of the God Killer - Yakushima, Jyotake Period (17th Century)

In the 17th century, Yakushima was placed under the direct control of the Satsuma clan, a period that marked the beginning of systematic management of resources and labor. With the end of the Warring States period, castle construction and the building of shrines and temples came one after another, increasing the demand for robust timber. Yakusugi cedar, in particular, was considered a valuable building material because of its durability and beauty. For the islanders, however, Yakusugi was not just a resource, but a sacred tree inhabited by mountain deities. Cutting down the trees was considered an unholy practice, a taboo that supported both their faith and their way of life.

It was a Confucian scholar from Awa, Jochiku Tomari, who is said to have broken this prohibition and started the felling of Yakusugi. Jochiku served in the Shimazu clan and is remembered as a man who used reason to persuade people of his religious beliefs. According to legend, he stayed in the mountains for seventeen days, and then set his axe against a large cedar. If the tree did not fall over after one night, God allowed it to be felled. If it fell, it was God's wrath. As a result of this "experiment," the tree did not fall. Thus, the islanders accepted the felling of the tree, and the modern era of Yakushima began.

The core of this anecdote is not simply the denial of superstition. It was a "ritualized rationalization," a reordering of beliefs according to reason without destroying them. Jochiku did not deny God, but translated the divine will as a "phenomenon. This translation was also the wisdom that led to the consensus of the community. The economic logic of the clan, which regarded the mountains as an object of domination, and the folk worldview that revered the mountains. Jochiku bridged the conflict between the two through the medium of Confucianism. Here, the conflict between religion and rationality unfolds dramatically.

Yakusugi was eventually incorporated into the clan's finances as a form of tribute, and the timber was shipped to Kyoto and Satsuma. However, in the shadow of this prosperity, the landscape of the island changed drastically. The forests, where moss-covered stumps and fallen trees still remain, silently recount the memories of logging in the past. When the author calls the island "god-killer," he means that Yakushima in this period stepped forward to modernization at the cost of faith. It did not kill God, but used God to introduce rationality. The act was an agreement between faith and reason, a junction point between destruction and creation.

The number "seventeen days of cohabitation" is also symbolic. It is an odd number, and it is more than half a month. There was a "ritual of waiting" that people were willing to accept. Wind, rain, the weight of the axe, the warping of the wood. The time that blended nature and human observation was a science to measure the divine will, the sum total of experience.

Jochiku's anecdotes can be read as an intersection of "reason and faith," which can also be found in the Reformation and the Enlightenment. What he left behind in Yakushima is not only logging technology and industry. It was the prototype of Japanese modernity, the coexistence of reason and faith. The wisdom of seeking a balance between the fear of nature and domination of nature was passed on to the later philosophy of environmental protection. The reason why the Yakusugi forests are still full of mystery is not because we have killed the gods, but because the gods and reason are still talking to each other.