Kodama, as it is said in Japanese begins to shed light on the way wood is respected in
Japan. It is
never wasted, and only used in the appropriate places. One would not use a
timber with four beautiful faces in a place where only three would be visible; this
would be a waste of the almost revered building material. If a tree is cut in
half or quarters, the pieces would be on opposite sides or in all four corners
of a room or structure. These posts would also be erected in the same cardinal
directions as they had once stood in the forest, and it would be inappropriate
to place them upside down.
There are many other guiding principals that come in
to play when building using Japanese ideals. At first it may even seem ridiculous
to comply with them, but if you look deeper you can see the wisdom in such
guidelines. For example as a tree stands in the woods there is a windward side
in witch the fibers are actually stronger, the growth rings more dense, because
as the tree grows accustom to the prevailing winds it strengthens itself in
that direction. Because the tree is stronger with the prevailing winds so also
the structure built from it is stronger when standing up its members in the
same orientation. The bottom of a tree is much stronger and denser than the top
therefore it is stronger when upright. The principals are endless but when
incorporated into a building produce a superior structure.
The word Kodama
also is meant to remind us that wood is alive. Even after the tree has been
felled it never stops moving and changing, it checks as it dries, and it
continues to change with the weather, and age with time. So we can never to
forget that we are working with a living thing; with a mind of its own, and we
should work with it not fight against this as we incorporate it into our life,
and our work.
