Dai Sugi

After a slightly aimless start, here's the first in a series on trunks: Cryptomeria japonica grown in the dai sugi or kitayama sugi style, at Ise Jingu. 

The trees are cut at knee height, and the new growth is 'raised' (the lower branches are removed) mimicking the way the trees are grown in an area of forestry north of Kyoto (Kitayama, hence the name). Because the lower branches are removed every year, the wood never develops knots, and the resulting timber is dead straight and clean. It's tradtionally usd in the tokonoma (family altar)

In the garden, the balance between the big old trunks at the bottom, and the ever-changing arrangement of newer poles above, creates an interesting yin yang sort of thing, a bit ike old coppice or pollard trees in Europe.