Sakaki 924975 204773226 2008-04-10T20:38:03Z Thijs!bot 1392310 robot Adding: [[es:Cleyera japonica]] :''This article is about the sakaki tree. For other uses see [[Sakaki (disambiguation)]].'' {{Taxobox | name = Sakaki | image = W_sakaki4061.jpg | image_width = 240px | image_caption = Sakaki, ''Cleyera japonica'' | regnum = [[Plant]]ae | divisio = [[Flowering plant|Magnoliophyta]] | classis = [[Dicotyledon|Magnoliopsida]] | ordo = [[Ericales]] | familia = [[Theaceae]] | genus = ''[[Cleyera]]'' | species = '''''C. japonica''''' | binomial = ''Cleyera japonica'' | binomial_authority = [[Carl Peter Thunberg|Thunb.]] }} '''Sakaki''' ('''''Cleyera japonica''''') is a [[flowering plant|flowering]] [[evergreen]] [[tree]] or [[shrub]] native to warm areas of [[Japan]], [[Korea]] and mainland [[China]]. It can reach a height of 10 m. The [[leaf|leaves]] are 6-10 cm long, smooth, oval, leathery, shiny and dark green above, yellowish-green below, with deep furrows for the leaf stem. The bark is dark reddish brown and smooth. The small, scented, cream-white [[flower]]s open in early summer, and are followed later by [[berry|berries]] which start red and turn black when ripe. Sakaki is one of the common trees in the second layer of the evergreen [[oak]] forests. [[Image:Sakaki branch.jpg|thumb|left|Wands of Sakaki are used in [[Shinto]] ritual]] ==Uses== Sakaki wood is used for making utensils (especially combs), building materials, and fuel. It is commonly planted in gardens, parks, and shrines. Sakaki is considered a sacred tree in the [[Shinto]] [[religion]] along with other evergreens such as ''[[hinoki]]'' 檜 "Japanese cypress" and ''kansugi'' 神杉 "sacred [[cryptomeria]]". In Shinto ritual offerings to the [[kami]] 神 "gods; spirits", branches of sakaki are decorated with ([[Shide (Shinto)|shide]]) paper streamers to make [[tamagushi]]. ==Linguistic background== The [[Japanese language|Japanese]] word ''sakaki'' is written [[Wikt:榊|榊]] with a ''[[kanji]]'' character that combines ''ki'' [[Wikt:木|木]] "tree; wood" and ''[[kami]]'' [[Wikt:神|神]] "spirit; god", depicting "sacred tree; divine tree". The lexicographer Michael Carr notes, <blockquote>In modern Japanese, ''sakaki'' is written 榊 with a doubly exceptional logograph. It is an ideograph (in the proper sense of 'logograph representing an idea' rather than loosely 'Chinese character; logograph') and is a ''kokuji'' 国字 'Japanese [not Chinese] logograph.' Ideograms and ''kokuji'' are two of the rarest logographic types, each constituting a small percentage of a typical written Japanese sample. First, the idea of ''sakaki'' is expressed with a melding of ''boku'' or ''ki'' 木 'tree' and ''shin'' or ''kami'' 神 'god; divine, sacred' [of ''Shinto'' 神道]; comparable to a graphic fusion of the word ''shinboku'' 神木 'sacred tree.' Second, the ''sakaki'' 榊 ideograph is a ''kokuji'' 'national [i.e., Japanese] logograph' rather than a usual ''kanji'' 漢字 'Chinese logograph' borrowing. ''Kokuji'' often denote Japanese plants and animals not native to China, and thus not normally written with Chinese logographs. (1995:11) </blockquote> ''Sakaki'' 榊 first appears in the (12th century) ''[[Konjaku Monogatarishū]]'', but two 8th-century transcriptions are 賢木 "sage tree" (''[[Kojiki]]'', tr. Chamberlain 1981:64 "pulling up by pulling its roots a true ''cleyera japonica'' with five hundred [branches] from the Heavenly Mount Kagu") and 坂木 "slope tree" (''[[Nihon Shoki]]'', tr. Aston 1896:42-43, "True Sakaki tree of the Heavenly Mt. Kagu"). ''Sakaki'' 賢木 or 榊 is the title of Chapter 10 in ''[[The Tale of Genji]]'' (ca. 1021). It comes from this context. <blockquote>"May I at least come up to the veranda?" he asked, starting up the stairs. The evening moon burst forth and the figure she saw in its light was handsome beyond describing. Not wishing to apologize for all the weeks of neglect, he pushed a branch of the sacred tree in under the blinds. "With heart unchanging as this evergreen, This sacred tree, I enter the sacred gate." She replied: "You err with your sacred tree and sacred gate. No beckoning cedars stand before my house." And he: "Thinking to find you here with the holy maidens, I followed the scent of the leaf of the sacred tree." Though the scene did not encourage familiarity, he made bold to lean inside the blinds. (tr. Seidensticker 1976:187) </blockquote> The [[etymology]] of ''sakaki'' 榊 is uncertain. With linguistic consensus that the ''-ki'' [[suffix]] denotes 木 "tree", the two most probable etymologies are either ''sakae-ki'' "evergreen tree" (from ''sakae'' 栄え "flourishing; luxuriant; prosperous") or ''sakai-ki'' "boundary tree" (from ''sakai'' 境 "boundary; border"). Carr (1995:13) cites Japanese tradition and historical phonology to support the latter etymon. [[Shinto shrine]]s are traditionally encircled with ''shinboku'' 神木 "sacred trees". In reconstructed [[Old Japanese]], ''sakaki'' < ''sakakī'' and ''sakai'' "boundary" were "monograde" (一段) while ''sakae'' "flourishing" was "bigrade" (二段). ==References== *Aston, William George, tr. 1896. [http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/nihon0.htm ''Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697'']. Kegan Paul. 1972 Tuttle reprint. *Carr, Michael. 1995. [http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110000249854/en/ "Sacred Twig and Tree: ''Tamagushi'' and ''Sakaki'' in Japanese-English Dictionaries"], ''The Review of Liberal Arts'' 小樽商科大学人文研究 89:1-36. *Chamberlain, Basil H., tr. 1919. [http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/kj/index.htm ''The Kojiki, Records of Ancient Matters'']. 1981 Tuttle reprint. *Seidensticker, Edward G., tr. 1976. ''The Tale of Genji''. Knopf. ==External links== *[http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=CLJA6 PLANTS Profile for Cleyera japonica (sakaki)], [[USDA]] PLANTS database *[http://www005.upp.so-net.ne.jp/goostake/GOO/XSAKAKI.HTM Sakaki], Goo's Tree Encyclopedia *[http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/65345/index.html// Detailed information on Sakaki Cleyera japonica], PlantFiles *[http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/MEMBGNewsletter/Volume5number2/Sakakisacredtreeofshinto.html Sakaki, Sacred Tree of Shinto], Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden newsletter 1999 *[http://eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/entry.php?entryID=312 Sakaki], Encyclopedia of Shinto *[http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/shrubs/cleyera_japonica.html Shrubs: Cleyera japonica], NC State University Urban Horticulture *[http://www.plantnames.org/cley010.html NOS CLEYERA PAGE], Plantnames.org [[Category:Theaceae]] [[Category:Shinto]] [[Category:Japanese religions terms]] {{tree-stub}} [[de:Sperrstrauch]] [[es:Cleyera japonica]] [[eo:Cleyera japonica]] [[ja:サカキ]]