‘Daisugi’ — Japanese Art of Forestry

Inthe dense mountain forests surrounding the ancient city of Kyoto, Japan, rows of red Kitayama cedar trees tower silently over the sloping valleys and hillsides below. Their serene presence nods to the fast-fading practice of daisugi (台杉), a remarkable forestry tradition steeped in cultural history and unique to the region. Daisugi, which translates roughly to “platform cedar”, is a method that dates back to the Muromachi empire of fourteenth-century Japan. Kyoto at the time was a flourishing cultural center, home to some of the country’s most esteemed temples, shrines and institutions. As the city rapidly expanded, however, foresters struggled to meet soaring demands for timber with limited access to flat land and seedlings. <a href="https://medium.com/signifier/daisugi-where-japanese-forestry-meets-art-f02f851ff972">Read More</a>