In the course of visiting numerous local chinjusha shrines there is one tree species that is sure to stick deep in your mind. It is never tall or wide, but its claim to fame is nothing less than being the most sacred tree in Shinto cosmology. Often several thin branches with leaves will be bundled together and placed on either side of the shrine. Similar offerings can be seen on kamidana household shrine shelves in private homes and businesses. In Shinto ceremonies, a leafed branch is used to purify participants and as an offering to send their prayers off to the kami. This tree is called sakaki, and is written in kanji with the symbols for tree on the left side and kami on the right.
In one of the best-known episodes in Japan’s classic mythology, the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, terrified by her brother’s violent behavior, hides herself in a cave, plunging the world into permanent darkness. The remaining kami deities all gather at the mouth of the cave to try and entice her out. Their first step is to set a sakaki tree and decorate the branches with strips of cloth.
In the Studio Ghibli anime Princess Mononoke as well, the wolf-girl San drags badly wounded Ashitaka to an island in a pond at the center of the Shishigami Forest. She breaks off a nearby shrub and sticks it in the ground as an offering to the Shishigami, who later comes and heals the boy. With typical Studio Ghibli attention to detail, the shrub is clearly identifiable as a sakaki.
One wonders why the sakaki was chosen as the sacred tree for honoring, thanking and propitiating the kami deities. The key to this riddle may very well be found in the history of Shinto style religious ceremonies. In most of the shrines we typically encounter today, the enshrined kami resides permanently in the Honden, or Main Hall. This arrangement, however, is thought to have been a later development. Originally, kami deities were believed to reside in a separate dimension, and were invited down to earth by making offerings and performing ceremonies at certain sacred spots.
These sacred spots, called yorishiro, himorogi or iwakura, were often centered on peculiar stones or trees located inside a dense dark grove of evergreen broad-leaved trees. The sakaki is highly shade tolerant, and typically flourishes as a shrub or small tree in the poorly lit forest understory, beneath the chinkapins and other huge trees that form the canopy. Furthermore, the sakaki leaves are smooth and shiny, and would certainly have attracted the attention of people gathered for a solemn ceremony.
One local Shinto priest explained to me that the sakaki grows on the boundary between the world of people and the world of the kami deities. This makes the tree ideal for conveying our feelings and wishes to the kami, and also guides the kami as they move back and forth between the two dimensions.
The sakaki (Cleyera japonica) is found in southern and western Japan, Taiwan and southern China. The Kanto region sits at the very northern edge of this distribution, and sakaki are seldom encountered growing wild in local forests here. Many shrines, however, plant a few trees on their grounds, and harvest branches for use in their ceremonies. The planted trees grow well and flower and fruit, but rarely produce seedlings of their own.
Just when you think you understand what’s going on, something comes along to complicate things. In many small local shrines the leaves placed in front are clearly smaller than those of the sakaki. In addition, the sakaki leaves have smooth margins, but these ones have short hacksaw-like teeth all along the edge. A close look around shows that the leaves have been taken from shrubs that are growing wild all over the sacred grove.
These leaves belong to the hisakaki (Eurya japonica), a close relative of the sakaki but with a greater cold tolerance. This shrub thrives in native woodlands as far north as central Tohoku, and in many areas is used as a substitute sacred tree in areas where sakaki is not readily available. Both sakaki and hisakaki were formerly classified in the Tea Family (Theaceae), but have since been reassigned to the Cherry Beech Family (Pentaphylacaceae).
Bundles of both sakaki and hisakaki are sold at flower shops in urban and suburban regions.
