Japanese Cedar
A coniferous tree unique to Japan, known for its longevity
The Japanese cedar is a large evergreen tree in the Taxodiaceae family. It is native to Japan and is distributed from Honshu through Kyushu, as well as and on Yakushima as well. The Japanese cedar has a long life span, and some trees reach a height of 50 meters and a diameter of 5 meters. There are Some giant cedar trees that are over 2,000 years old, and most of which them have been designated as Natural Monuments. The Yakushima Jomon Sugi on the southern island Yakushima and the Sugi no Osugi in Otoyo Town, Kochi Prefecture, are representative examples of such Natural Monuments.
The Japanese word for cedar, sugi, is believed to come from the word suguki (literally,. "a tree that grows straight up")., and indeed, the trunk of the tree grows verticallystraight up., The bark is reddish brown, splits lengthwise, is thin, and peels easily. The foliage consists of thin needles that grow densely from the branches. The crown of the tree is somewhat oval and conical in shape. The tree cedar blooms in early spring, producing with numerous male and female flowers, and it discharges large amounts of yellow pollen, which is a causes of allergies for many people.
The timber of the Japanese cedar has a straight grain texture and is easy to split and mill, process, so it has a broad range of applications in construction, civil engineering, shipbuilding, and for making furniture, crafts, sake barrels, disposable chopsticks, and so on. as a material for construction works, civil engineering works, shipbuilding, furniture, craftworks, sake barrels, dispensable chopsticks, and more. Japanese cedar timber was also traditionally used to make single-sheet cedar sliding doors, which were then embellished with bird and flower paintings, etc. Such cedar door paintings have great value both historically and artistically.In the genre of sugido-e (bird and flower paintings on wooden doors made from a single cedar board), there are works of high value from both historical and artistic perspectives.
The Japanese cedar is also deeply connected has deep connections with religion and appears is featured in a number of numerous myths and legends. In the Izumo mythology included in The Kojiki ("Records of Ancient Matters", ca. 711), in recounting the Izumo myth, says that out of the body of Yamata no Orochi, the a legendary mythical eight-headed, and eight-tailed serpent, is thickly covered with there grew verdant moss, hinoki cypresses, and Japanese cedars. In iN the Nihon shoki ("The Chronicles of Japan", 720),, the serpent is described as covered with hinoki cypresses and Japanese cedars grew over the serpent. As for the tree's connections with religion, cedars are often planted on the grounds of and along the approaches to of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Visitors of to the Inari Shrine in Kyoto used to take small branches and seedlings from the sacred cedar trees of the shrine to plant as shirushi-no-sugi ("good luck cedars"), and believed themselves to be under divine protection as long as the cedar did not wither. In various regions throughout Japan, there are stories of cedar trees having been used for target practice by Legends of the Yatate Cedar, a tree which served as a practice target for samurai to shoot arrows atthat still have, and which has arrowheads sticking out from its their trunks., exist in various regions throughout Japan.
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Craft works, clothing, etc. related to sugi (Japanese cedar)
Sugido-e (paintings on sugi sliding doors)
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Institutions Holding Related Materials
The National Diet Library (NDL), founded in 1948, is the library which belongs to the Diet. The NDL assists the activities of the National Diet. The Library collects and conserves materials and information both from Japan and abroad, serving as a foundation of knowledge and culture and providing library services to administrative and judicial entities and Japanese citizens.
As Japan’s representative museum, Tokyo National Museum collects, preserves, displays, and researches the cultural properties of Asia with a focus on Japan, and also provides educational programs.
Kyoto National Museum collects, preserves, displays, researches and provides educational programs focusing on cultural properties from Heian- through to Edo- period Japan, when the capital was located there.
Nara National Museum collects, preserves, displays, researches and provides educational programs about cultural properties with a focus on Buddhist art.
The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum is founded on November 3, 1983, in Hachioji, a thriving university town in the western suburbs of the Japanese capital. Priding itself as “a museum creating bridges around the world” to facilitate the exchange of different cultures, our museum has forged cordial relations with art museums and cultural institutes in 32 countries and territories to date. We do so by bringing the world’s finest works of art to Japan while reciprocating in kind by introducing the finest Japanese treasures to the world through special exhibitions that showcase their beauty and wonder through a unique new set of prisms and perspectives. Our museum possesses some 30,000 pieces of artworks from various periods and cultures including Japanese, Eastern and Western works, ranging from paintings, prints, photography, sculptures, ceramics and lacquer ware to armor, swords and medallions. Especially noteworthy is its outstanding collection of Western oil paintings that spans a five-hundred-year period from the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and Romanticism to Impressionism and contemporary art, as well as its exceptional collection of photographic masterpieces that can give an overview of the history of photography from the birth of the photograph to the present age.
栃木県日光市にある杉並木。総延長は37kmにおよぶ。寛永2（1625）年、松平正綱によって熊野杉が植えられた。
屋久島内に自生している杉。 その中で推定樹齢2000年から7200年の巨木を「縄文杉」と呼んでいる。鹿児島県熊毛郡屋久島町。
高知県長岡郡大豊町の八坂神社境内にある巨木。須佐之男命（すさのおみこと）が植えたと伝えられ、推定樹齢は3000年。
出羽三山神社の随神門から山頂の三神合祭殿まで、1.7kmの表参道に樹齢350〜500年の500本以上の杉並木が続く。
山梨県の笹子峠にある、樹齢1000年を超すとされる矢立ての杉。葛飾北斎や二代目歌川広重の作品にも描かれている。
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References
- 植物文化研究会, 雅麗 編,柏書房
- 柏書房
- 日外アソシエーツ株式会社 編,日外アソシエーツ,紀伊國屋書店
- 平凡社 編,平凡社
- 平田喜信, 身崎寿 著,東京堂出版
- 京都書院