While I was staying in Japan, I went on a day trip — my last one — to Matsushima (i.e. ‘Pine tree islands’), North of Sendai (Miyagi prefecture), reputedly one of the three most beautiful spots in this country. Fortunately, this amazing site has been protected from the 2011 tsunami.
The name Matsushima is well chosen, as there are many islands covered by different kinds of pine trees.
This tree is symbolic in Japan as well as it was in Ancient Greece and Rome.
First, a pine’s shape looks nice, and its beauty matters for Japanese people.
Then, as Shintō shrines are built with their wood, pine trees are useful. Hence, for centuries, Japanese people have taken care of these trees.
In the XVIth century, as Portuguese Jesuits settled in Kyushu (South of Japan), the Rev. Father Luis Fróis (or Fróes) wrote (in 1585) a small treatise about local customs and habits, comparing Europeans to Japanese.
Fróis was surprised to discover how in Japan trees were forced to grow twisted rather than straight. Also, he was wondering how Japanese countless pines produce uneatable cones or nuts!
From this eyewitness account we could conclude that pines are just worthless. Wrong!
According to a French dictionary of symbols, the pine is a symbol of Immortality, as its leaves are evergreen and its resin non-decaying. In Asia, all conifers symbolize Immortality; in Japan, particularly, a pine is supposed to live thousands of years, like the turtle and the grey crane, to which it is symbolically linked.
Moreover, as in Japanese language matsu (pine) is homophonous with matsu (to wait), this tree is also symbolizing Fidelity, Faithfulness.
In Shuzenji shrine (Izu Peninsula), one can see two pines joined by a rope (shimenawa) , which is used to make think of a married couple of deities (kami) and act as a talisman against evil. In the Shintoist religion, it is believed in sacred power in both animate and inanimate things. Also, the deities are supposed to live in the branches.
In Tokyo, In Meiji Jingu, it is the same with two camphor trees, which are considered to be married.
This Japanese tradition is similar to the ancient belief about trees in Greece and Rome, where the notion that plants have a soul (anima, in Latin) or a spirit (animus) is derived from Greek philosophers (and spread by Latin poets and scientists).
Among them, Pliny the Elder, in the first century (c.e.), pays tribute to trees, when he writes: ‘The trees formed the first temples of the gods, and even at the present day, the country people … consecrate the finest among their trees to some divinity … Each kind of tree remains immutably consecrated to its own peculiar divinity, the beech to Jupiter, the laurel to Apollo, the olive to Minerva, the myrtle to Venus, and the poplar to Hercules.’ (The Natural History, XII, 2, translated by John Bostock)
Pliny the Elder does not mention the pine in making his list, but the poet Ovid, a few years before him, tells the story of Attis and Cybele, the goddess of Fertility. In Fasti, Attis, a young man beloved by Cybele, failed keeping his chastity with a nymph. The angered goddess avenged herself. ‘She destroyed the nymph and Attis was maddened, tore at his body too with a sharp stone … and suddenly bereft of every mark of manhood.’ (Fasti, IV, translated by A.S. Kline, 2004)
Since the pine was consecrated to Cybele, and Attis was considered as her spouse, a cult to both of them was worshipped every Spring in Rome. A fallen pine was brought to the Cybele’s shrine on the Palatine Hill, as if it were Attis himself. Roman people used to cry and moan about the pine’s death. Then, after one day of mourning, they were delighted with joy because of its revival. As the pine symbolized the body of the young god, dead and risen again, it also symbolized the alternation of the seasons. Life triumphant of Death.
Therefore, pine and its nuts symbolize Fidelity, Fertility and Immortality in Ancient Greece and Rome, as well as in modern Japan.
Like the Japanese poet Bashō, who was filled with admiration for the beautiful scenery, I would like to come back to Matsushima!