Sakaki

Cleyera japonica, called sakaki, is a flowering evergreen tree native to warm areas of Japan, Taiwan, China, Myanmar, Nepal and northern India. It reaches 10 metres, with smooth, leathery, shiny dark green leaves, smooth dark reddish-brown bark, small scented cream-white flowers in early summer, and berries that start red and turn black. The wood is used for utensils, especially combs, for building and for fuel, and the tree is planted in gardens, parks and shrines. Sakaki is a sacred tree of Shinto, along with hinoki and kansugi. Shrines are traditionally ringed with sacred trees, and branches of sakaki hung with paper streamers make the tamagushi offered to the kami. The page recounts that in the myth of Amaterasu and the cave, the mirror Yata no Kagami was hung on a sacred sakaki facing the cave. The character 榊 joins the signs for tree and god.