Part 4: Somokuto: Memorialising the Spirits of Trees and Plants:
I first came across Somokuto (草木塔) - stone monuments dedicated to trees and plants which had been cut down - many years ago at the Yamagata Prefectural Museum, in a report written by its former head, Yoshimi Yuki. As an architect, I have a close relationship to trees and timber, and so when I read the report I felt moved by the sympathy felt by people of old for the spirits of trees.
According to the report, there are 58 Somokuto to be found in the Okitama region in southern Yamagata, centred on Yonezawa and the disctricts of Kawanishi and Iide. They date from the 1770s through to the latest, built in 1981. A later investigation undertaken by Junichi Funabashi found 94 scattered throughout the prefecture, and recent surveys made nation-wide have uncovered a total of 101, including ones at the temple of Sanzen-in in Ohara, near Kyoto, and a number in the city itself. They are inscribed variously "somokuto" (literally, grass-and-tree monument), "somoku kuyoto" (literally, grass-and-tree memorial) and "Somuko kokudo jukkai jobutsu" (the buddhahood of grasses, trees, mountains and rivers).
There are varying explanations about why these monuments were first erected. One is that people whose livelihood was derived from trees and plants expressed their gratitude in this way, memorialising the spirits of vegetation when they cut down the trees. Another says that somokuto are erected when timber is cut to rebuild a house destroyed by fire. The practice may also be a kind of spirit-pacification: those who cut down trees in the forests or who transport the lumber down rivers may easily find themselves in dangerous situations or be involved in natural disasters, which they fear as curses sent by the spirits of the trees they have cut down.
There are also a number of theories why there should be so many somokuto in the Okitama region. Okitama was the heartland of the Yonezawa domain, whose lord Uesugi Yozan (1751-1822), is said to have respected trees and plants, and whose clan, the Uesugi, had close ties with the Shingon Buddhism of Mt. Koya.
In some places, somokuto and the Mt. Yudono stele stand side by side, suggesting the strong influence of the Yudono cult. Mt Yudono is considered the inner precinct of the Three Mountains of Dewa (Dewa Sanzan) and is believed to be sacred not only by those dwelling in Yamagata prefecture but by people through the whole of Eastern Japan. There are in fact of 500 Mt Yudono stele in the Okitama region alone. A the end of the 17th century, Mt. Yudono and Mt Haguro, the centre of Haguro Shugendo, were involved in a dispute concerning rights to perform rituals at Gassan and Mt Yudono. After this Yudono retained its identity as a centre of Shingon esoteric practice. In his Unjigi (on the syllable Hum), the founder of Shingon Buddhism, Kukai (774-835) wrote that since even grasses and trees have the potentiality to gain Buddhahood, how much more so is it for human beings. This is the basis, I believe, for the construction of the somokuto. In Tendai, ideas about innate enlightenment (hongaku), too, express the idea, "buddhahood of grasses and trees, mountains and rivers." This represents a fusion of the esotericization of Tendai thought and Japanese natural conditions, which explains why it was used as an inscription.
On the hillside opposite Yamadera (Risshakuji), the municipality of Yamagata has erected a museum to the poet Matsuo Bassho, alongside which is a public facility called Yamadera Fuga-no-kuno, whose construction I was in charge of. When preparing the ground for the building, inevitably some trees had to be cut down. With the permission of the owner, I erected a somokuto in the grounds to memorialise the spirits of those trees, and beside it there is an information board explaining its significance, written by the philosopher Takeshi Umehara:
"What is Somokuto - By Takeshi Umehara
When I heard that there were many somokuto in Yamagata prefecture, I could not help but be moved. They hardly exist in the area around Kyoto and Osaka, where I live, and they seem to embody the notion intrinsic to Japanese Buddhism that of the "buddhahood of grasses and trees, mountains and rivers." The fact that this idea developed after Buddhism came to Japan I consider to reflect the Japanese view that divinity is innate in natural phenomena. That there are so many somokuto in Yamagata prefecture perhaps tells us that native ideas about divine nature existing in every tree and every blade of grass live on strongly in this region.
Here, a new and modern somokuto has been erected. It is not necessarily conspicuous, but I think it a great achievement befitting the times in which we live. Today people all over the world have to be aware how much their lives are connected to the lives of trees and plants, and that they cannot live without this connection. The erection of a new somokuto at this time sounds a warning bell to the modern age.
Today, as environments destruction continues apace throughout the world, the continued existence of the human race has been called into question. Japan is no exception when to comes to cutting down forests and destroying the natural environment. Why is that the Japanese, with their vaunted veneration of nature, should show such little concern about its destruction? People say that this arises from the rationalism of modern society and the value placed on science and technology, and also from materialism and an overriding concern for economic progress. However, at root, I think that we have lost our sense of awe for the sacredness of nature.
If we consider that the somokuto developed out of a combination of animistic ideas, in terms of a love for trees and plants and a feeling of gratitude to their spirits, and of animistic thought, the awe felt in the face of the spiritual power of nature, we have to realise what an important spiritual and cultural heritage they represent. I fervently hope that such an understanding will be of use in the movement to preserve the world's environment, particularly in terms of forests and vegetation."
— ubasoku.net | the three mountains of dewa and the spirit of yamagata:
A look into the ancient faith of which Shugendo is an expression.
An example of Somokuto
