One of the themes that runs thorough Japanese culture is the belief that nature exacts from man a price for coexistence. A carpenter must put a tree to use that assured it’s continued existence, preferably a thing of beauty to be treasured for centuries. There is a prayer that master temple carpenter Nishioka recites before laying a saw to a standing tree. It goes in part, “I vow to commit no act that will extinguish the life of this tree.” Only by maintaining this pledge does the carpenter repay his debt to nature.
