September   26,  2021

 

Thought for the Day

 

“The almost religious reverence for wood is, fortunately for us, among the many traditions that have stood the test of time.  A tree, like other natural phenomena, is believed to possess a spirit, and a carpenter,  when he cuts down a tree, incurs a moral debt.  One of the themes that runs throughout Japanese culture is the belief that nature exacts from man a price for coexistence. A carpenter must put a tree to uses that assure  its continued existence, preferably as a thing of beauty to be treasured for centuries.  There is a prayer that Nishioka recites before laying a saw to a standing tree.  It goes in part,  “I vow to commit no act that will extinguish the life of this tree.”

 

S. Azby Brown,

The Genius of Japanese Carpentry