David M Cobb
Wherever you travel in Japan during O-Shogatsu, the traditional celebration of New Year’s, you will find Sho-Chiku-Bai or pine, bamboo, and plum displayed at residential doorways and the entrance of temples, shrines, and public and commercial facilities alike. These displays are known as kadomatsu, or “the guardians of the gate,” with the boughs of the three plants tied together arranged in various forms. A common interpretation is that the evergreen pine tree is the symbol of constancy and longevity; bamboo represents uprightness and resilience and the plum—the first blossom of spring—symbolizes purity and provides a sense of renewal. Accordingly, these three plants also occupy prominent positions in traditional Japanese gardens.
Pine (Sho 松)
Pine trees are perhaps the first plants that come to mind when one thinks of a Japanese garden. Pine trees typically reside in the garden as a focal point or the core element around which other garden elements are arranged. A pine tree is often located at the entrance to a home to “welcome” and/or say “farewell” to its guests. The practice originated from a similar Chinese tradition. Pines common in Japanese gardens of the Pacific Northwest are Japanese black pine, Japanese red pine, and the native shore pine. All three are two-needle pines, as opposed to three-needle pines such as the Ponderosa pine or five-needled white pines for example.
Although the three varieties black, red, and shore pines differ in their growth habits, they all require the two basic maintenance techniques called “candling” and “needling,” each applied once a year in spring and fall respectively. Every spring (typically in May), a pine tree sprouts multiple new growths that looks like a “candle” and these candles are shortened and some removed to control their growth for the remaining year. Needling is literally the removal of old and unwanted needles from each and every branch, allowing sunlight to reach every layer of branches. Needling is performed in the winter, often with snow, and has an absolute deadline—New Year’s Day. The removal of stiff and pointed old needles is the most undesirable but rewarding task the pine tree is most beautiful after this work. I remember as far back as my middle school years needling for long hours on a ladder. For the gardener’s family, this activity marked the completion of one year and carried in the New Year with a complete sense of renewal. (Needling takes place at the Portland Japanese Garden during the month of January if you would like to see the process in action.)
Bamboo (Chiku 竹)
Bamboo is a common planting, but it is used more often as a material in constructing design elements such as fencing in Japanese gardens. Quite a few Japanese bamboo species grow in the Pacific Northwest, i.e. Japanese timber, arrow, and black bamboos. Timber bamboo is perhaps the most commonly used in Japanese gardens for both planting and crafts.
Nothing more than a bamboo fence gives the sense of the Japanese garden. For a Japanese gardener, replacing old bamboo fences in a garden, like pine needling, is a must-complete task before the beginning of the New Year. In the cold winter, the gardener cleans fresh-cut bamboo canes with water. Surface dirt of the bamboo canes must be removed and wiped off without scratching their surface. Scrubbing the surface with a handful of husks of rice grains accomplishes this crude yet delicate task.
In addition to the bamboo fence, part of the gardener’s year-end is to prepare a new bamboo cover for a cistern or well, a new ladle for a water basin, and new tree supports and trellises, once again, by New Year’s Day. I remember specifically that my older brother, who is also a gardener and my mentor, used to make a bamboo flower vase out of one segment of bamboo cane at the end of each year. The simple but beautifully carved flower vase with a single branch of pine, bamboo, and plum decorated the tokonoma alcove of our humble home.
Plum (Bai 梅)
Plum flowers bring the spring in Japan. The blossoming of the plum tree travels from southern to northern Japan, the journey that takes almost four months from January in Kyushu to April in Hokkaido. Japanese plum is often called the Japanese “apricot.” Both correct and incorrect: it is somewhere in between the two species. More than three hundred types of Japanese plum/apricot have been identified and catalogued today. The trees start blooming in early January in my hometown of Kyushu, and produce fruit in May–June.
Plum trees should be planted in areas where you view or walk nearby so that in spring you can enjoy the precise yet delicate details of their individual flowers and their overall fragrance.
The plum tree and its fruits in particular are said to have the ability to disinfect/purify water, and it is customary to plant the tree nearby (and its branches over) a water basin, thus symbolic of cleansing. As a young apprentice, I was told that Japanese garden wisdom says that a plum tree must be pruned to the extent that you can climb it naked without scratches. That is to keep the tree, which shoots many branches fast and in irregular directions, under control. Most garden books recommend the pruning of a plum tree right after its flowers have bloomed like any other flowering tree. Professional Japanese gardeners, however, tend to do the pruning in late fall when they can distinguish flower buds from leaf buds and selectively leave branches with flower buds for the coming year.
After all these tasks are complete and business accounts are settled, a Japanese gardener and other craftsmen alike prepare for their own New Year. The house and work space must be dusted and swept, the ground watered, equipment and tools cleaned, and pruners sharpened and oiled. All of “them” will take a break for a few days in observance of the New Year, as does the gardener himself.
Sadafumi “Sada” Uchiyama is the Garden Curator at the Portland Japanese Garden. Sada welcomes your comments and questions and may be reached at suchiyama@japanesegarden.com.
