Writing & Media
Writing on Japanese trees,
from the field.
Articles, expert comment and longer projects on Japanese tree care, sacred trees and tree diagnosis — written in English by a working arborist in Tokyo.
What I write about
Five subjects
- Japanese garden techniques — niwaki, karikomi, candle pruning, daisugi, borrowed scenery
- Sacred and heritage trees — shinboku, giant trees and how they are cared for
- Tree diagnosis and risk — resistograph, sonic tomography, aerial inspection
- Tools and materials — pruning shears, saws, the workshops that make them, Japanese soils
- Trees in Tokyo — street trees, typhoons, and life with trees in a Japanese city
Every piece starts from first-hand work: trees I have pruned, climbed or measured, and workshops and sites I have visited. Photographs are my own unless credited.
Selected articles
- Shinboku: Japan’s Sacred Trees, Explained by an Arborist
- Midori Tsumi: Reading a Pine Tree’s Future in Its Spring Candles
- Is Daisugi Real? — Fact-Checking the Viral Kyoto Cedars
- Tobisho Pruning Shears — Inside the Yamagata Workshop
- How a Resistograph Works: Reading the IML-RESI PowerDrill in Japan’s Tree Diagnosis
- Hiroshima’s Survivor Trees Still Lean Toward Ground Zero
All articles are in the Journal. New pieces also go out in the Japan Blue Arborist Journal newsletter on LinkedIn. Subscribe on LinkedIn
For editors
What I can offer
- Features and explainers on Japanese trees and gardens, for arboriculture, horticulture and garden magazines, and for media read by people living in Japan
- Expert comment and interviews on Japanese tree care, sacred trees, tree risk and Tokyo’s urban trees, in English or Japanese
- Field photographs to go with the text, taken during my own work
A short note on your publication, the readers, the length and the deadline is enough to start. Get in touch
Media kit
Name, bios and portrait
You are welcome to use the text and portrait below when introducing me, without asking first.
Name and title
Isaki Kasahara, arborist (Tokyo, Japan)
Short bio (about 40 words)
Isaki Kasahara is an arborist in Tokyo who prunes and cares for Japanese garden trees, inspects large and old trees by rope access and with diagnostic instruments, and writes in English about Japanese tree care at japanbluearborist.com.
Longer bio (about 120 words)
Isaki Kasahara is a Japanese arborist based in Tokyo. The work ranges from private gardens to temple and shrine grounds and city streets: pruning and caring for garden trees with traditional Japanese techniques, inspecting large and old trees from the crown on ropes, and measuring decay inside trunks with a resistograph and sonic tomography. A background in plant metabolic biochemistry still shapes the approach to each tree: observe first, and measure where it matters. Kasahara writes the Japan Blue Arborist Journal, an English-language record of Japanese tree care from the field, and gives talks on sacred trees and Japanese gardens, including a guest lecture at the University of Toronto in 2026.
Portrait
Download the portrait · Credit: Isaki Kasahara
