Japan Today reports an unusual ritual carried out on a lone survivor of last year’s Tohoku tsunami. It must surely be a first: hard to imagine there’s any precedent!
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Tsunami ‘miracle pine’ cut down as part of project to preserve it
SEP. 13, 2012
A lone pine tree that stood as a symbol of hope in Japan, after surviving the huge tsunami that swept away a forest of 70,000, is being cut down in a bid to preserve it.
The tree, which came to be known as the “miracle pine”, will be sliced into pieces and treated before being put back together, in a process expected to cost about 150 million yen.
(photo by AFP)
A Shinto ritual was carried out on the pine before the delicate process began Wednesday on the shore at Rikuzentakata, a city badly hit by the March 2011 disaster.
“The process of cutting down could take two days or more, as we need to start cutting branches that can eventually be put back on the trunk,” city official Shinya Kitajima told AFP on Wednesday.
He said the trunk of the 27-meter tree will be divided into nine sections, which will be hollowed out and given anti-decay treatment before being reassembled using a carbon spine.
The whole preservation process will finish in February, the official said, and the tree will be put back where it was, on a spot that was previously a thick shoreline forest.
A Facebook page launched earlier this year soliciting donations towards the cost of preserving the pine had raised nearly 27 million yen by Monday, a city official said.
© 2012 AFP
(photo by Asia One, Singapore)
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For a related story on the tree’s likely demise through sea water, see here.
