Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Struggles over Woodlands on Mt. Takao in Early Modern Japan

During Japan’s early modern period (1600-1868), communal woodlands were vital to the economic and social stability of many rural communities. Accordingly, struggles over rights to acquire and utilize wood resources were a frequent occurrence, and it was not uncommon for litigants to contest their claims before samurai administrators.  For scholars of this period, documents generated by the legal process provide valuable insights on early modern attitudes towards natural resources. They also highlight social dynamics that influenced rural life. Peasants were the most common participants, but Buddhist temples could also drawn into confrontations over timber stands—a facet of clerical activities that receives little or no attention in scholarly treatments of Japanese Buddhism.  This paper examines the intersection of institutional religious interests, social practices, and economic necessities by studying Yakuō-in, a Buddhist temple on Mt. Takao to the west of modern Tokyo. The temple managed an extensive timber plantation, and its claim to exclusive rights over the mountain’s trees brought the clergy into conflict with surrounding farmers. Ironically, these struggles saved the mountain’s environment from complete exploitation, and thereby created basis for the modern national park that oversees the woodlands today.