X-Nico

3 unusual facts about Cleyera japonica


Cleyera japonica

Shinto shrines are traditionally encircled with shinboku 神木 "sacred trees".

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 reconstructed Old Japanese, sakaki < sakakī and sakai "boundary" were "monograde" (一段) while sakae "flourishing" was "bigrade" (二段).



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