Science A Japanese Forestry Technique Prunes Upper Branches to Create a Tree Platform for More Sustainable Harvests

A Japanese Forestry Technique Prunes Upper Branches to Create a Tree Platform for More Sustainable Harvests​

October 27, 2020​

Grace Ebert​

Image via Wrath of Gnon

Literally translating to platform cedar, daisugi is a 14th- or 15th-century technique that offers an efficient, sustainable, and visually stunning approach to forestry. The method originated in Kyoto and involves pruning the branches of Kitayama cedar so that the remaining shoots grow straight upward from a platform. Rather than harvesting the entire tree for lumber, loggers can fell just the upper portions, leaving the base and root structure intact.


Although daisugi mostly is used in gardens or bonsai today, it originally was developed to combat a seedling shortage when the demand for taruki, a type of impeccably straight and knot-free lumber, was high. Because the upper shoots of Kitayama cedar can be felled every 20 years, which is far sooner than with other methods, the technique grew in popularity.


To see daisugi up close, watch this video chronicling pruning, felling, and transplanting processes. (via Kottke)

Courtesy of H.Tanaka/Shutterstock

Image via Komori Zouen

A scroll depicting daisugi by Housen Higashihara, courtesy of the auction house

https://archive.is/Adhfm

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/10/daisugi-trees-japan/

 

[Meat Target]

"Japanese" and "Forest" in the same sentence has some macabre connotations.

 

[Looney Troons]

What a neat little read this was. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Trump's Chosen]

What a neat little read this was. Thanks for sharing!

This is the third time someone types appreciation for my new "happiness" feed of sources. I'd better prune them and focus on the demoralizing news instead.

 

[Rebel Wilson]

The Doomer becomes the Bloomer one internet sticker at a time.

 

[Stoneheart]

mutant trees only grow on radiated terrain--

 

[The best and greatest]

There's a word for this where you grow timber/kindling out of certain species of tree stumps that escapes me, this just looks like a giant version of that, still neat though. I've never seen it done at this size.

 

[Meat Target]

mutant trees only grow on radiated terrain--

 

[Stoneheart]

There's a word for this where you grow timber/kindling out of certain species of tree stumps that escapes me, this just looks like a giant version of that, still neat though.

it was common with Willows in europe

 

[ColtWalker1847]

Oh wow guys the Japanese invented something that has been around since at least 1st century BCE elsewhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollarding

I have no idea how any of this shit is more "sustainable" either.

 

[Trump's Chosen]

Oh wow guys the Japanese invented something that has been around since at least 1st century BCE elsewhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollarding

I have no idea how any of this shit is more "sustainable" either.

Yeah, but are they folded 2000 times?

 

[KiwiFuzz]

There's a word for this where you grow timber/kindling out of certain species of tree stumps that escapes me, this just looks like a giant version of that, still neat though. I've never seen it done at this size.

Coppicing.

 

[WinchesterPremium]

Oh wow guys the Japanese invented something that has been around since at least 1st century BCE elsewhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollarding

I have no idea how any of this shit is more "sustainable" either.

Literally the first sentences says its a really old technique. Good job calling out the article you totally read.

The idea is that they can cut just the straight growing parts for lumber, which will grow back quicker than if they cut the entire tree down. That is the "more sustainable" part.

 

[ColtWalker1847]

Literally the first sentences says its a really old technique. Good job calling out the article you totally read.

The idea is that they can cut just the straight growing parts for lumber, which will grow back quicker than if they cut the entire tree down. That is the "more sustainable" part.

I did read it. I went "that's just pollarding". It's been happening for near all recorded western history. 1st century BCE is the earliest written account. Western Europe has known about this technique of timber management over a millenia before the Japanese. Republican Romans did it.

"Sustainable" doesn't mean "quicker" either. How does this practice "sustain" resources longer and allow prolonged use of the practice? If anything you are just cloning your timber and that has a negative impact on "sustainability" because of susceptibility to disease. One root bug and your whole crop is wiped out and you won't get it back to where it was for at least a couple centuries.

There is a reason only the Japanese manage their timber this way in the modern day. And mostly just for that type of cedar (which grow straight anyways). It's not very good for anything except this niche application and even then it sucks compared to modern forestry practices.

That's why I came out so hard against this hippy "listen to the wisdom of the simple eastern cultures" "think of the trees" bullshittery. It's all crap.