Have a seat. Watch the rice. Feel your loss fade.
Monthly archives for January, 2012
The Giant Trees of Tochigi: #63 The Sacred Cryptomeria of Kumano
Late afternoon, with rain moving in from the east, I did not have too much time here.
Number: 63
Name: The Sacred Cryptomeria of Kumano (熊野の社杉)
Type: Cryptomeria (Cryptomeria japonica)
Height: 27m
Trunk Circumference: 6.0m
Age: 350 years
Location: 栃木県那須烏山市向田 (36° 37′ 37″N 140° 08′ 46″E)
Date of Visit: 2011-8-13
Can you imagine living as long as this tree, having the view it must have from the top?
In the days before amalgamation, Karasuyama Town had a sort of Karasuyama-themed iroha karuta game. In that game, mu was represented by this, the Sacred Cryptomeria of Kumano That Overlooks the Mukada Countryside.
If you take a stroll around the fence that encloses the tree, soon the shimenawa becomes visible. This is, indeed, a sacred tree. In front, a small shrine has been built, one assumes specifically for the kodama of this tree.
Now, home. There'll be more trees another day.
I think this place has been cared for for a very long time.
I try to show you my Japan. Won’t you show me your Japan?
Search For Your Dream.
This little fella posed for me one August afternoon. He looks like he's been through the wars, but he was still flying here and there.
Hurrrrrrrrrr~
I'm sure this fellow was meant to be forbidding, but the grin makes me laugh.
The Giant Trees of Tochigi: #83 The Giant Zelkova of Kitamukada
'twas getting on late afternoon by the time I made it here.
Number: 83
Name: The Giant Zelkova of Kitamukada (北向田のケヤキ)
Type: Japanese Zelkova (Zelkowa serrata)
Height: 32m
Trunk Circumference: 5.7m
Age: 600 years
Location: 栃木県那須郡那珂川町北向田 (36° 44′ 48″N 140° 08′ 59″E)
Date of Visit: 2011-8-13
Along National Road 293, directly west of Michi no Eki Batou, one can find Mukada Shrine. This neighbourhood is very cramped, and it’s difficult to get a car into the area where the shrine is. Luckily, the Michi no Eki has lots of parking spots, and a convenient stairway down to the level of the shrine. From the Michi no Eki, you can just make out the shape of this zelkova.
Leafy~
Heading down the steps at the southern end of the parking lot, the shrine is immediately adjacent.
Mukada Shrine was established in Tembun 11 (天文１１年, 1542). According to the information boards, this zelkova must have already been here at that time, though in a much, much younger form. It seems safe to say that the tree was not planted at the time of the shrine establishment.
Times like this I wish I had a wide-angle lens.
I try to show you my Japan. Won’t you show me your Japan?
Wake up!
It's the breakdown.
Time never stops.
We'll always keep going.
The Giant Trees of Tochigi: #81 The Giant Cryptomeria of Kentoku Temple
I always feel a little uncomfortable shooting in graveyards. I don't know how any family members I may stumble across will react. Indifference is what I always get, but I always think someone will be angry that I'm somehow disrespecting their loved ones.
Number: 81
Name: The Giant Cryptomeria of Kentoku Temple (乾徳寺のスギ)
Type: Cryptomeria (Cryptomeria japonica)
Height: 48m
Trunk Circumference: 5.1m
Age: unknown
Location: 栃木県那須郡那珂川町馬頭 (36° 44′ 31″N 140° 10′ 19″E)
Date of Visit: 2011-8-13
Now, this is Nakagawa Town, but before amalgamation in 2005, this was the central part of Batou Town. In the northern part of this central core, surrounded on three sides by mountains lies Kentoku Temple.
This place is famous for its autumn colours, and the temple marks the entrance to a path through the woods that has in the past been recommended in guidebooks.
I wasn't entirely sure where in the compound the cryptomeria of note was when I arrived, so when I saw this, I thought perhaps it had been felled for one reason or another. But no this is another tree whose trunk is now being carved into a little statue of Jizo.
Following along the path, just behind the main temple, there is a sizable graveyard. The Giant Cryptomeria stands in that graveyard. It stands in the center, slightly separated from the other cryptomeria. The tree stands very tall, and cuts an imposing figure in this peaceful grove. The lord of the Mumo Clan‘s (武茂氏) gravestones are near here.
The Mumo Clan was a branch of the Utsunomiya Clan founded by Utsunomiya Yasumune (宇都宮泰宗), the third son of the 7th Utsunomiya Lord, Utsunomiya Kagetsuna (宇都宮景綱). The Mumo branch was active from 1288 to 1298 CE, but the title was became extinct at the end of the Einin (永仁) period.
However, in Kanshou 4 (寛正４年, 1463 CE), the third son of Utsunomiya Masatsuna (宇都宮正綱), who was called Utsunomiya Kanetsuna (宇都宮兼綱) revived the Mumo branch, and he became the lord of a domain worth 10,000 koku. Kanetsuna established Kentoku Temple as his family temple.
The cicadas use this place to move to the next life, too.
In Kyouhou 16 (享保１６年, 1731 CE), the Mumo Clan gravestones were collected from here and there and moved here. This included a Kamakura Period stone monument. In Showa 43 (昭和４３年, 1968), these were designated a cultural treasure of Batou Town.
The graveyard is located on gentle sloping terrain surrounded by great old cryptomeria, including this one. It really matches its surroundings, and it’s kind of a beautiful graveyard. As this is a graveyard, and as it is at the mouth of a hiking path and as I went on a nice day in summer, and as it happened to be during obon, there were plenty of people around. But none of them gave any mind to the Mumo Clan or to this tree.
This really is a spectacular spot for a graveyard.
I try to show you my Japan. Won’t you show me your Japan?
This sky, it was made for us.
It is as unchanging as we are.
Become entangled in my dream.
The day we parted still remains, a stain on my soul. But we'll be reunited soon.
