The following images and words were prepared for us by Mr Gregg Heathcote, a Shin Buddhist priest, after a recent trip to Japan. As you will see there are alternatives to the chainsaw in how we deal with our ancient trees.

Some words of explanation.... The suffixes 'ji' and 'in' are among those denoting a Buddhist temple, and as such are often transliterated into English with a preceding hyphen (eg Horyu-ji, the 'Horyu Temple'). The suffix 'en' means 'garden'. Horyuji is the oldest extant Buddhist temple in Japan. I visited it as a day trip from Kyoto but it is actually just south of Nara, therefore the location specified should more correctly be Nara (NB Nara was the 1st capital of unified Japan, Kyoto the 2nd).

The other trees I cannot speak for, but the treasured Camphor Laurels before the gates of Shorenin are in excess of 800 years old. Shinran Shonin (ie the honorific 'shonin' customarily being translated into English as 'saint'), the revered founder of our Jodo Shinshu school of Pure Land Buddhism, was ordained a Buddhist monk at Shorenin in the year 1181 (young Shinran was aged just 9 at the time). Since the legend is that Shinran planted these trees himself while there, if correct this makes the trees 822 years old. However my stated suspicion is that they are older still.

Namo Amida Butsu.
Gassho,
Jo'on (Gregg Heathcote)
November 2003

Kyoto, Japan. Tuesday 30th September 2003.
Shinto shrine (i.e. a quite simple one) to the tree kami, within the grounds of Yogenin.

Kyoto, Japan. Tuesday 30th September 2003.
Note the elaborate bamboo framework with this tree is being supported at Kinkakuji. The Japanese spare no effort in order to keep features they find worth keeping.

Nara, Japan. Sunday 5th October 2003.
Skeletal tree stump conserved at Horyuji.

Nara, Japan. Sunday 5th October 2003.
Second view of ancient arboreal cripple at Horuji. It is lovely and leafy still despite its inner trunk having been brutally scarred and charred by lighning.