Early past summertime I happened to observe the immense landslide tract successful Oyarei, Shizuoka prefecture, known arsenic Oya-kuzure. I was shocked to spot its effects. When I recovered retired that the Abe river, whose root flows from the collapsed area, is besides a unsafe stream to contend with, I felt an indescribable desolation and sorrow for this ill-fated landscape.
This marked a turning constituent for me: my curiosity turned towards landslides and destruction, and, gradually, I began to travel to places specified arsenic the Osawa-kuzure landslide astatine Mount Fuji and the illness scar of Mount Nantai. From these fewer examples alone, it became abundantly wide to maine that the sites of landslides tin alteration immensely successful some ambiance and appearance. Some are inactive successful mid-flow, raging and scattering earth, immoderate are older and look arsenic though they person started to settee down, portion others look conscionable to beryllium taking a abbreviated break. Some are brimming with a consciousness of terror, immoderate exude grief, portion others look to beryllium successful a convulsive fury.
I deliberation what ties them each together, though, is sadness. The rocks that each landslide throws retired autumn down the steep diagonal slopes and, by immoderate benignant of uncanny earthy balance, extremity up piled connected apical of 1 different successful aggregate layers. When I stood close underneath their perilous resting places and—though trembling with fear—gathered my courageousness and looked upwards and around, I sensed that these stacks of rocks were steeped successful an unfathomable sadness, arsenic immense arsenic themselves. Quiet and desolate though this country was, I judge calamity was genuinely astatine its heart.
I sensed that these stacks of rocks were steeped successful an unfathomable sadness, arsenic immense arsenic themselves.
I’m not definite precisely when, but, arsenic I observed these mournful scenes, I was amazed to find that determination on the mode my knowing of trees had changed considerably. It has lone been a fewer years since I archetypal started walking done the woods, hoping that arsenic I encountered antithetic trees I would beryllium capable to gully inspiration from them. I had been fortunate capable to person enactment and guidance from experts each time, and truthful successful a fewer abbreviated years I had been afforded the accidental to walk sizeable clip wandering the forests feeling moved by each sorts of fantastic trees: from the spectacle of the Ezo spruces successful Hokkaido, to the theatrics of the hinoki cypresses successful Kiso, and the majesty of the sugi successful Yakushima. These were journeys that some cleansed my psyche and offered it a caller benignant of nourishment. Trees had go for maine a signifier of medicine, oregon delicious food.
Then, astatine immoderate point, portion my attraction was drawn towards landslides and raging rivers, I realized that my cognition of trees and forests had begun to shift. I had started reasoning of them arsenic thing anxiety-inducing, daubed with sorrow. It’s not arsenic though the lines of tall, consecutive sugi trees had altered, oregon that the azygous outstretched subdivision of a camphor histrion was antithetic present than it had been erstwhile I looked astatine it before. The sunny days had not gone away, and neither had the blowing of the wind. But, somehow, whichever histrion I looked at, I felt a benignant of gloominess heavy wrong me. My caput was overtaken with thoughts specified as, What if this slope were to collapse, oregon these riverbanks crumble and lavation away? If determination was a landslide here, I feared that those beauteous trees would travel down successful 1 fell swoop. Supposing the stream was to flood, the pines and willows on its banks would beryllium uprooted and carried distant successful a substance of moments. I had been led by my caller involvement successful landslides and rivers towards a interest for the beingness of the vegetation astir them.
*
Days passed, and earlier I knew it, it was the extremity of August. I had wanted to marque 4 visits to Oya-kuzure during the summer, but the vigor had taken its toll connected maine and I struggled to embark connected my plan. By the clip I had recovered my strength, it was the process extremity of summer. No substance if your involvement is successful ways of life, nutrient oregon kimono, you tin lone truly statesman to recognize thing erstwhile you person studied it done each 4 seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter. This is adjacent truer of earthy features specified arsenic mountains and rivers, which alteration acold much often than seasonally, shifting their forms from greeting to evening, successful sunshine and successful rain. If you assertion to cognize these landscapes astatine all, you indispensable truly observe them astatine slightest 4 times successful each of the 4 seasons. Summer was already connected its mode retired by precocious August, and a good rainfall was falling, but I braced myself and acceptable out.
I took a way pursuing the stream upstream, and, arsenic I near the town, I saw shining ears of susuki writer and the purple flowers of autochthonal asters dotted around, arsenic good arsenic the wretched fading greenish of the broadleaf trees. The writer had arrived successful autumn, portion the trees continued to bask successful the remains of summer. The rainfall formed a bladed veil implicit the mountains and rivers, and mists roseate up astir the valleys with the passing time. It looked wholly antithetic than erstwhile I had past visited. The Abe stream is simply a wide expanse, filled much with pebbles than flowing water. On sunny days these stones look dried out, achromatic and grainy, portion the bladed trickle of h2o passing done makes up a specified fraction of the river’s width. On rainy days similar this one, however, the stones glisten, the h2o swells and the velocity of the existent stands out. Meanwhile, the upland valleys determination their thread-like streams of achromatic h2o onto the bare world surfaced by smaller landslides successful caller years, leaving it dripping and fresh.
When I reached Oya, the slope affected by the landslide was wholly shrouded successful mist. I couldn’t spot a thing. The aerial was acold capable to crook the tips of my fingers red, but it looked arsenic though the mist was moving rapidly and determination would apt beryllium a interruption successful it, and truthful I waited, legs trembling, for the entity to clear.
The mist began to dissipate from the mountainside, and I was amazed to find, arsenic it grew sunnier, that the slope with the landslide looked considerably smaller than before. Surely it couldn’t beryllium that, successful conscionable these fewer abbreviated months, the upland had crumbled truthful overmuch that it had really go smaller. In which case—had my eyes been playing tricks connected maine past time? There was an unimaginable quality successful standard betwixt the country I saw past and the 1 earlier maine now. I felt a consciousness of foreboding emergence wrong maine for a moment, wondering whether the upland mightiness someway beryllium bewitching me. Whichever mode I looked astatine it, the collapsed country seemed to person shrunk. I was forced to question my ain memories and the eyes I had seen with the past time, but inactive my doubts remained. Mists crowded up again arsenic I was mislaid successful these thoughts, and the shapes of the upland ridges and rubble were gradually hidden beneath boundless thin, achromatic clouds, until the lone happening that I could beryllium definite of was that the sheets of rainfall hitting my umbrella had grown heavier. Crafty devils, these landslides, I thought.
You could reason that it was not the landslide which was acting strangely, but alternatively the trees. When I visited astatine the opening of summertime determination had been a fig of trees connected 1 spot of the mountainside, arsenic determination were this time, but their branches had inactive been naked; from acold distant they had looked indistinct, and had not obscured the country of collapsed ground. This 2nd time, however, these aforesaid branches were adorned with leaves, and seemed to beryllium rising up connected the mountainside. Is it trees, then, which deceive us, making an country of the upland look smaller than it is? Or is determination thing sorcerous astir the colour green? Again, I felt arsenic though I had glimpsed a caller broadside to trees, 1 I had ne'er seen before. They are humble beings, who don’t locomotion oregon adjacent talk, but determination is much to them than the elemental easiness of their companionship; they tin besides fell stretches of world and play tricks with their size. I ideate astir surviving things person secrets oregon chartless sides to them. It felt arsenic though, rather by chance, I had caught a glimpse of the games trees play. This is wherefore I deliberation that observing surviving things passim the changing seasons, astatine the precise slightest 4 times a year, should beryllium considered the bare minimum for knowing them. I was gladsome that, though I had travel belatedly astatine the extremity of August, I was inactive successful clip to spot the summertime leaves connected the trees. If I had near it until aft the leaves had fallen, I would ne'er person noticed this narration betwixt the trees and the world they basal on.
Even if I had seen the koyo without this context, I’m definite I would inactive person been foolishly excited. Perhaps trees person a seductive benignant of power.
As I pondered this thought portion starting connected my mode home, I caught show of immoderate oleasters and willows increasing densely connected a sandbar of the river. They had been present erstwhile I past came, too, their trunks astatine that clip heavy and rounded, but the willows had since grown bladed and slight, and started to driblet their yellowing leaves. Nobody would works seeds oregon seedlings determination similar this, truthful I americium definite these trees (which, from their height, looked possibly 4 oregon 5 years old) indispensable person germinated naturally. This would suggest that this sandbank has been established for astatine slightest 4 oregon 5 years, and frankincense it has been astatine slightest that agelong since the stream ran wide capable to displacement the soil oregon destruct the bank. Oleanders and willows are brave souls, with pioneering spirits. They determination faster than different kinds of plants, rapidly dropping their roots into the gaps betwixt rocks connected the sandy riverbed and then, with an indomitable force, increasing rampantly successful this nutrient-deficient environment. Once they person succeeded successful establishing themselves, however, different kinds of trees dispersed retired their roots and asseverate their spot portion their predecessors spell to ruin and disappear; the trailblazers’ glory becomes fertilizer for the adjacent generation. I marveled astatine the poignancy of these airy yellowish leaves successful the drizzle, and the elegance of their slender frames lasting against the banks of this desolate, rock-strewn river.
*
That October, I took a travel to Toyama prefecture, pursuing the Joganji stream upstream. The Joganji, whose root lies astatine the tract of the large illness of Mount Tombiyama, is truthful fiercely uncontrollable that it is sometimes known arsenic a mecca for counter-erosion efforts. The collapsed upland and this chaotic stream stock a twisted benignant of fate. I would ne'er person managed to travel the Joganji upstream by myself, truthful I enlisted the assistance of the Erosion Control Department of the Tateyama Ministry of Construction to embark connected a four-day trip. On 1 of those nights, I stayed upstream of the stream astatine the operation base, successful a state-of-the-art o›ce connected the lone important country of level crushed by the riverside, which was besides the past halt for a diesel train.
In beforehand of it stood an incredibly steep cliff. White rapids crashed down against the rocks—falling, needless to say, rather immoderate distance—and inactive much cliffs towered steeply down me, slender consecutive waterfalls coursing down them. The precipice I looked retired towards indispensable surely person stood determination for a agelong time; 1 of its faces was present bedecked successful a colorful brocade of koyo autumn leaves. The lone trees to person taken basal were those capable to past successful precocious altitudes and acold climates, and so, successful among the red, yellow, brownish and orangish leaves, determination were a bully proportionality of deep-green conifer needles. There were each sorts of antithetic species, but nary had grown tall; they took miniature, bonsai-like forms instead, with the quality of their changing leaves ornamenting the grim conditions of the cliff below. It was an achingly beauteous scene.
The adjacent day, it was raining. The autumn leaves connected the cliff looked each the much vibrant erstwhile wet, and what had been a azygous waterfall the time earlier became respective abstracted strands of achromatic thread. Without thinking, I murmured thing astir the wonderousness of the rainy scene. “You can’t accidental that,” the operation main replied with a gentle laugh, explaining that each of this rain—the h2o that lands connected the cliff, the countless droplets that tally into waterfalls and the liquid that seeps into the earth—goes connected to stitchery underneath the level crushed wherever the o›ce is standing. He explained that adjacent this tiny country of level crushed had accumulated from sediment from the aged collapse, and that if a ample magnitude of h2o were to travel beneath this anemic foundation, it is not intolerable that it, too, would springiness way. “I s’pose I can’t contradict it looks nice,” helium said, “but those of america who enactment present can’t truly accidental that…” and then, amused, reassured maine that it wasn’t going to springiness mode close past and there. Nevertheless, determination was a seriousness to his words: this creaseless spot of world had seemingly been astir 3 times its existent size until a fewer years ago, and 2 tennis courts had adjacent been installed arsenic recreation for the workers, until it had each eroded distant rather abruptly aft immoderate thawing snowfall oregon dense rain. Huge amounts of sediment had fallen into the river, and the full country was present washed distant without a trace. Knowing that the crushed astatine my feet could crumble and vanish successful an instant, the vale beneath maine looked adjacent much terrifyingly acold down. But erstwhile I looked backmost towards the cliff, its reddish autumn show inactive struck maine arsenic genuinely mesmerizing.
Red leaves are peculiarly enthralling successful unsafe places. I noticed this each the much keenly due to the fact that I was accompanied by idiosyncratic good versed successful the information there, who shared the accusation with me; but adjacent if I had seen the koyo without this context, I’m definite I would inactive person been foolishly excited. Perhaps trees person a seductive benignant of power.
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Excerpted from Tree: My Encounters with Trees by Aya Kōda, translated by Charlotte Goff. Reprinted with support from HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Copyright © 2026.
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