Introduction / Prologue
Forests and People before Edo
Long before the city of Edo existed, the people of this land lived with trees. This chapter traces the relationship between forests, wood and people before the Edo period, using surviving sites and records. Little is known yet, and this chapter has more "still being researched" sections than most.
Jomon: wood and lacquer preserved in water
Wood normally rots in the soil, but in waterlogged wetlands it can keep its shape for thousands of years. The Shimoyakebe site in Higashimurayama is one such wetland site. Excavations reportedly found lacquer-related materials, wooden objects and other plant-based remains that would not normally survive.[1][2]
The discovery of lacquer-related materials and wooden objects suggests that Jomon people had the skill to shape forest wood into tools and vessels and finish them with lacquer. Felling, carving and coating wood appears to have been practiced on the land of Tokyo thousands of years ago.
Antiquity: Musashi Kokubunji and its seven-story pagoda
In 741, during the Nara period, Emperor Shomu ordered a provincial temple and nunnery to be built in every province. Musashi Province's temple was placed in today's Kokubunji City. Its precinct covered 8 cho east to west and 5 cho north to south, and a seven-story pagoda was rebuilt in the 9th century. It was designated a national Historic Site in 1922.[3]
A large timber building such as a seven-story pagoda requires great quantities of long, thick timber. That such a temple was built in Musashi, far from the capital region, suggests the area had the forests and woodworking skills to support large buildings.
The second paragraph is the author's inference from the temple's scale. Which forests supplied which timber has not been confirmed.
Middle Ages: from the Edo clan's residence to Edo Castle
From the late Heian to the Kamakura period, the Edo clan had its residence around today's Imperial Palace. In 1457 Ota Dokan built Edo Castle here. After Dokan was assassinated, the castle passed to the Ogigayatsu Uesugi clan and from 1524 became a branch castle of the Later Hojo clan. When the Hojo fell in 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu entered the castle.[4]
Ieyasu founded his shogunate in 1603 and mobilized daimyo from across Japan to greatly expand the castle. The work was completed in 1636 under the third shogun, Iemitsu.[4] This enormous project marked the beginning of Edo's huge demand for timber (Chapter 1).
Coppice woods: forests for fuel and fertilizer
The coppice woods of Musashino are forests maintained through use. Local people used to gather fallen branches and leaves as fertilizer and cut the trees for firewood about every 20 years. The woods consist of deciduous trees such as konara and sawtooth oak, which resprout from their stumps and grow back into woodland.[5]
In the Ninomaru area of the Imperial Palace, a coppice wood has been planted since 1983 to pass on the disappearing Musashino landscape.[5] Woods once tended for fuel and fertilizer are now being preserved as scenery.
Sources
- 千葉敏朗「東村山市下宅部遺跡の調査 漆関連資料の新発見を中心に」『多摩のあゆみ』116号(2004年) Link
- 東村山市遺跡調査会『下宅部遺跡』(2006年) Link
- 文化遺産オンライン「武蔵国分寺跡」 Link
- コトバンク「江戸城」 Link
- 観光庁 多言語解説文データベース「二の丸雑木林」 PDF