Japanese people living with trees: Memories of forest culture etched in food, clothing, and shelter
Updated by Tomoko Ogura on September 29, 2025, 4:57 PM JST
Tomoko OGURA
Total Food Corporation / Japan Chopstick Culture Association
(Representative Director of Total Food, Inc., comprehensive food consultant / Outside director of two companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange / Concurrent lecturer at Asia University, Toyo University, and Tokyo Seitoku University / President of Shoku Kijuku / President of Japan Chopstick Culture Association, etc. / After working for Toyota Motor Corporation's Public Relations Department, he became director of international conferences and studied abroad before assuming his current position. After working for Toyota Motor Corporation's Public Relations Department, he worked as a director of an international conference and studied abroad before assuming his current position. With "food and mind" as his main focus, he is well versed in all areas of food, from trends (analysis and development) to food culture, manners, nutrition, health management, food environment and mental health, and has a wide range of specialties. He has written academic papers on "chopstick culture and rituals," "Japanese chopsticks and peculiarities," and "waribashi and the food service industry," and has authored and supervised numerous books on chopsticks. He is said to be the only researcher of Japanese chopstick culture in the world.Total Food official website Japan Chopstick Culture Association website
I believe that Japan is a country of "wood" and "water. However, looking at the lifestyle of Japanese people today, it may have become the past tense of "it was a country". I will write about water when I have a chance and would like to write a little about the relationship with trees in our daily life. Of the food, clothing, and shelter necessary for life, Japan has had "trees" and "plants" in all of them. It can be said that no other country in the world is so surrounded by plants and trees in its daily life.
In the old days, people of a certain rank wore silk kimonos, while commoners made kimonos by weaving cotton or hemp over and over. Cotton seems to refer to a natural fiber made from the fiber that grows around the seeds of the "cotton" plant, which belongs to the cotton family. Hemp is a general term for the soft fibers inside the outer skin of plants or fibers from leaf stalks, etc., so both are made from plants. Westerners and others use animal hair and skins such as wool and fur for clothing, but in Japan, animal products are rarely used, even if they are used for winter clothing in some snowy regions.
For protection from the sun and rain, "kasa" were used. The kasa has the role of a combination of today's umbrella and hat. It is convenient because it does not have a handle, leaving both hands free. The material is still wood, as it seems to be made of folded bamboo or thinly shaved and bent wood such as cypress or cedar. Kanjiki, footwear used in snow and agriculture to avoid being buried in mud, are also made from bamboo or kuromoji. There are also items similar to kanjiki in other countries, but most countries use animal skins, and salmon skin is used in Ainu culture.
Next comes "food" of clothing, food, and shelter. Chopsticks are made of wood.Previous ColumnAs I wrote in the previous section, wooden materials were also the main material for tableware other than chopsticks before the spread of ceramics. Modern table substitutes such as ozen and orikiki are also made of wood.
The last one is "housing. Wooden construction is a typical Japanese house material. Wood was used not only for exteriors, but also for interiors and interiors. Tansu (chests), storerooms, boxes, kamidana (Shinto shelves), pillars, corridors, and doors (wooden doors), to name a few.
Looking back, we can see that everything in life was surrounded by wood. However, in modern times, heavy and unwieldy wooden chests have been replaced by plastic, foreign styles have been introduced, and the interior design has changed with an emphasis on convenience. Architecture has also changed.
There are a number of "Ki-hen" kanji that are also used in kanji. First, there are kanji for the names of flowering plants such as cherry blossoms, camellias, and maples, and then there are kanji that are not names of plants, but are used for wood or materials. For example, book, board, frame, pillar, beam, stopper, and wing. Then there are kanji that indicate furniture and tools. The fourth is the kanji for architecture and structure, such as bridge, yagura (tower), and gutter. The fourth is kanji for architecture and structure, such as bridge, yagura, and gutter, as well as kanji for tools and weapons used in battle, such as spear, shield, stick, hammer, and sled.
The symbolic and figurative Kanji characters in which "tree" is used in a broad sense are: school for school, draft for guide, digit for keta, fictitious character for fictitious person, nuclear family for nuclear, and many others. There are so many that when I look them up, I feel "buried" in the trees (laugh).
Studies have shown that touching trees has a stress-reducing and relaxing effect. One can imagine that being surrounded by trees has a lot to do with the fact that Japanese people in the past were known to be patient and calm, seldom expressing eccentricity. It is thought that the Japanese temperament was cultivated through their relationship with trees.
Even in other countries, trees are used in daily life, but what about involvement? For example, the French Christmas cake is a chocolate cake called Buche de Noel, which is made in the image of a log. In Europe, it takes a large amount of wood to burn in fireplaces. There seems to be a sensitivity to value wood as something useful and indispensable for daily life. Therefore, it is an important item for surviving the cold winter. This is also why the bûche de Noël is the symbol of Christmas cake. However, the feeling may be slightly different from that of Japan, where people believe that "God dwells in trees.
Japanese people, who have lived their lives buried in trees, end up in "coffins. When they go to the afterlife, they will also be surrounded by "trees. And although it is said that they return to the earth, it may be better to say that they "return to the trees" or "assimilate with the trees".
It has been a long time since we were told that we live in a stressful society, but simply increasing the amount of "trees" around us may have a relaxing effect and help to reduce stress. Perhaps this is what "wisdom in life" means. (Tomoko Ogura, Representative Director of Total Food Co.)
