Tree grows through wall of building in Japan
December 29th, 2008 by James
The bizarre sight of a tree growing out of the side of a building in Kyoto:
The tree in question happens to be a specially-designated holy tree that is said to have protected buildings around it from damage during the 1788 Great Fire of Tenmei that destroyed a large sections of Kyoto. When the building shown in the video was constructed 50 years ago, its builders made a hole in the wall of the structure to preserve the sacred tree. The owner of the restaurant that houses the base of the tree claims that its power protected his store from damage during a fire that damaged much of the building 30 years ago.
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Superstition is always funny.
The tree that, by chance, doesn’t burn in a great fire is then called the holy/lucky/super tree. As it’s more fun to believe in luck than just random chance and bell curves.
There’ll never be a news story about the lucky tree, plant, rock, whatever whose power “stopped working” when, again by random chance, something bad happened to it, near it.
Actually, it probably just gets worse, lucky tree becomes “cursed tree” and sacrifices must be made to appease it or whatever.
Luckily for rational people, in Japan, you can save quite a bit of money by not believing this crap.
Have a wedding or party on an “unlucky” day when it’s cheaper. Get an apartment with an unlucky number cheaper [in theory, does it actually happen?] Save money by not buying useless amulets at shrines each New Year.
If Japanese ever start buying stocks a lot on an individual basis, you could probably use thier superstitions to make a killing.
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It’s always a slow news day in Japan, it seems.
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So – How many ‘eeeeeeehs!’ were there in this clip?
As if it’s the first time this has happened. Calm down. It’s a tree! Trees do this kind of stuff!
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I actually think this is the perfect example of how Japanese people live in harmony with nature. If this were the West, the tree would be cut down in an instant. You can definitely see Buddhist influences here.
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So we should ignore all the other trees that are mercilessly chopped down in Japan?
I would imagine the influences are Shinto, rather than Buddhist, myself.
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