The thoughts of Japanese people regarding pine trees

There is an old story in Japan as follows;
“A shinto priest in the Kyushu region (which is a big island in the west next to the Honshu Island of Japan) came to the shore at Takasago in Hyogo Prefecture. The time was in spring, the shore had a beautiful group of Japanese pine trees. He heard the sound of a distant temple bell. An aged married couple came there and they began to sweep and clean around the roots of the pine trees. (The priest wondered why they did this.) The aged man said to him quoting from the prologue of the anthology of Japanese poems of the old and current times, “Kokin-wakasyu”; “the pines in Takasago and pines in Sumiyoshi (in Osaka Prefecture) are called the pines going on living with each other, “aioi-no-matsu”. He told the priest about a folklore that those were married couples even far away from each other, and it explained the eternity and the intimacy between the aged couples. All living things, furthermore, all in nature let their hearts get close to the way of the Japanese poet, “waka”. They revealed that they were spirits of the pines in Takasago and in Sumiyoshi, they disappeared to the sea boarding a small boat riding a tailwind.”
This time, I want to write about Japanese pines. The Japanese pines with evergreen and long life is the symbol of the eternity and the intimacy between aged couples.

The wish to the eternity

Especially in the civil war time many samurai lords liked pictures in which pines were drawn. The setting of big aged pine trees and a gold painted background is iconic of pictures in the civil war time as the picture above. In those times the samurai lords always faced their lives to death. It might be that samurai lords entrusted their eternity to the aged pines. Japanese people like the cherry blossoms as the beauty of life with pathos, on the contrary, they like the pine trees as the eternity of life.

In Japan there are many groups of pine trees near shores. The group of pine trees of Miho in Shizuoka prefecture is a composition of the world heritage site of Mt. Fuji. From the offshore of Miho we can see the magnificent panoramic view of Mt. Fuji with the group of pine trees of Miho. Ancient Japanese people believed in the spirits of pines, and of course they believed in the deity of Mt. Fuji as the deity of no death (“fuji” is the same sound of no death in Japanese). Then the viewing from the offshore of Miho is the best position to pray for the eternity of life.

The story of Takasago

The thinking that a spirit dwells in a pine tree is still on the Noh stage. On the back wall of the Noh stage there is a drawing of a big pine tree. At the beginning of Noh performances a spirit comes there and dwells in the tree, and at the end of the performances the spirit leaves. In short, the Noh performances are played with the spirit.

The story above is the story of “Takasago” of Noh. Many, most Japanese people including me have probably never seen the performance of Takasago Noh. But yet many Japanese people, especially elder Japanese people have heard the Noh song of Takasago. Because the Noh song of Takasago was used as a song at a wedding party until the relative end of the 20th century. In fact, at the wedding party with my wife and me 35 years ago the Noh song of Takasago was sung. The song with the meaning of going on living with each other and the intimacy between an aged married couple is adequate for a wedding party.

Takasago Shrine

Takasago Shrine is the near the shore of Takasago. Once upon a time there was a beautiful group of pine trees. The shrine is small but it has a trace of the story of Takasago. It has the fifth “Aioi-no-matsu”, a set of male pine tree and a female pine tree. It is the symbol of the intimacy of aged couples.

Forgetful wish to the pine spirit
However, in current times during our modern era, we have gotten the very comfortable lifestyle, so we have forgotten the ambivalence of live and death through life, especially death. Then Japanese people including me tend to focus our eyes on the beauty of the cherry blossoms, but instead, we seem to neglect the eternity of the pine tree.
Nonetheless, in recent years we have felt something worse during our lives, as environmental pollution, the abnormal weather and so on. And we have gradually felt something dangerous on our lives. If the environment around our lives becomes worse, we will revive the wish to the eternity of the pines subconsciously.
While visiting Japan, if you see a pine tree, remember the Noh story of Takasago.