12/07/2026
Scattered through the mountains of Okitama stand mysterious stone monuments. 🪨🌲
Large stones, resting quietly in the hills. What could they be?
They are called "Somokuto," or "Somoku kuyoto" — stone monuments for the grasses and trees. Made of natural stone, they date from the Edo period. Only about 35 have been found across all of Japan. And 32 of those stand in just one place — the Okitama region of Yamagata.
Yonezawa alone has 17, and the Tazawa district holds 10. Tazawa is said to be the birthplace of the Somokuto. The oldest one, dated 1780, is believed to have been raised at Shiojidaira in Tazawa.
But why, when, and by whom were they built? Almost no written records remain. The feelings behind them were surely many, shaped by the times and lives of the people.
Long ago, Tazawa was a land rich in forestry. Timber was cut into firewood, then gathered behind a dam-like structure called a "handou." When the streams swelled with spring snowmelt, it was released all at once, carrying it down to the castle town — a hard and dangerous work called "kinagashi."
Many, it is said, lost their lives to this labor. Were these stones raised in prayer for the departed? Or in memory of the trees that had been felled?
Some Somokuto are carved with the words "Somoku kokudo shikkai jobutsu" — that even grasses, trees, and the land itself, things without a heart, hold the Buddha-nature, and all attain Buddhahood. It is a phrase from Buddhist teaching — yet perhaps, too, a way of giving thanks to the trees and to nature.
In more recent times, the Somokuto came to be seen as a quiet warning about the environment, and spread across Japan as a symbol of living in harmony with nature.
No clear answer remains — and so each visitor brings their own story to the stone. Standing before a Somokuto, what will you feel?
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🚅 Tokyo Station ⇄ Yonezawa Station (Approx. 2 hours by Yamagata Shinkansen Tsubasa)
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