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

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

The Yakusugi cedars that rise in the forests of Yakushima have long been regarded as "sacred trees that must not be cut down," and prayers to the mountain gods were essential to their felling. Before felling a tree, people would stay inside for seven days, purify themselves with clean water, and ask the god for his intentions by placing an axe at the base of the tree. This ritual was a "sacred act" that concluded a contract between nature and man, and symbolized the ethics of the islanders who lived with the forest. During the Edo period (1603-1867), logging proceeded as a tribute to the Satsuma clan and turned into an economic act, but the loggers feared the wrath of the gods and offered prayers and thanksgiving in a "wood-cutting ceremony". After the Meiji era (1868-1912), modern forest management made Yakusugi a national resource, but the islanders still kept the custom of cutting down trees in reverence for the trees. During the postwar period when logging expanded, the t
radition that "the old man was allowed to cut down the trees by God" was retold, and the connection between prayer and labor was restored. Today, Yakusugi cedars are protected, but the memory of the "prayer of felling" still quietly lives in the forest.