The Sacred Tree Tradition of Yakusugi: Between Felling and Prayer (Medieval Period - Postwar Showa Period)

The Sacred Tree Tradition of Yakusugi: Between Felling and Prayer (Medieval Period - Postwar Showa Period)

In the forests of Yakushima, there are countless towering Yakusugi cedars that have lived for more than 1,000 years. Some of them have been called "sacred trees" since ancient times and have been worshipped by islanders as trees that must not be cut down. Since the Middle Ages, Yakusugi has been closely linked to mountain worship, and it is said that prayers to the "Takegami" (mountain gods), mainly Mitake, influenced permission to cut down the trees. Before felling a tree, the men would stay on the mountain for seven days, purify themselves with clean water, and pray before the deity, "Please let me cut down the tree. During this time, a ritual was held to divine the will of the gods. An axe was placed at the base of the tree overnight, and if the tree did not fall, it was considered ready to be felled. This act was not mere superstition, but a "sacred contract" as a negotiation with nature.

In the Edo period, the Satsuma clan began to collect Yakusugi as tribute wood. As logging became an economic act, the islanders had no choice but to go into the mountains to make a living, despite their religious fear of "cutting down" the trees. Obeying the orders of the clan, they held a group ritual called a "wood-cutting ceremony" to appease the anger of the gods, purified their axes, and offered rice and salt to the mountain gods after felling to express their gratitude. Therein lay the ethics of the islanders, who reconciled the awe of nature with the legitimization of their labor.

After the Meiji era (1868-1912), modern forest management was introduced and Yakusugi cedars were placed under state control as a "resource. However, the belief in the sacred tree remained strong in the hearts of the islanders, and the custom of "bowing and touching the tree" continued at logging sites. In the post-WWII period, many Yakusugi cedars were cut down due to power supply development and increased demand for timber, and in the process, the ancient legend that "the old man was permitted to cut down the trees by the gods" came to be told again. It was also a memory to regain the "connection between prayer and labor" that was being lost in the rapid modernization of Japan.

Today, Yakusugi cedars are protected as a World Heritage site and have become a symbol of "the forest that is not cut down. However, at the bottom of the islanders' stories, the old "prayer to cut down the trees" still quietly lives on. The two conflicting ethics of forbidding logging and regarding logging as sacred give the forests of Yakushima a unique spiritual depth. The legend of the sacred tree of Yakusugi is not merely a taboo, but the very philosophy of the islanders regarding the relationship between nature and people.