Journal
Field documentation, research, and insights on tree culture, diagnosis, gardens, and urban trees.
Cornerstone article
Tree Culture
Garyu-zakura (臥龍桜), the “reclining dragon cherry tree” of Hida Takayama, is an Edohigan cherry estimated at 1,100 years old and designated a National Natural Monument of Japan. Here is the part most visitors never…
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Tree Culture
Garyu-zakura (臥龍桜), the “reclining dragon cherry tree” of Hida Takayama, is an Edohigan cherry estimated at 1,100 years old and designated a…
Heritage Tree
The great ginkgo of Hida Kokubunji is an estimated 1,200-year-old tree standing in the temple grounds in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture…
Tree Culture
How Kyoto foresters grow straight cedar without felling a tree: the origins, mechanics, and modern lessons of daisugi — explained…
Tree Culture
Shakkei turns distant mountains into part of the garden. A Japanese arborist explains the four classical techniques and how to…
Urban Landscape
Why do Japanese trees survive typhoons? Field-tested pruning and staking methods from Japan's typhoon belt, explained step by step by…
Tree Culture
Midori-tsumi, Japan's spring candle-pinching of pines: how one week of fieldwork shapes a pine's silhouette for decades — from a…
Urban Landscape
Japanese street trees are small by design and by constraint. Comparing Tokyo with Barcelona, Athens, and Hanoi reveals what cities…
Tree Culture
The 2,000-year-old camphor of Kinomiya Shrine: what keeps Japan's sacred giant alive, and what its care teaches about veteran tree…
Tree Culture
A submerged forest reshaped how I think about landscape design: ecology outlasts aesthetics. Field notes from an unusual site in…