Tree Climbing with John Gathright in Aichi

“Carry your own tree within your heart.” Ever since reading those words by the great poet Sansei Yamao I have searched for my tree. A tree rooted in the Earth, a tree that has been there for years and years. Trees are gods. If you have a problem or are troubled by something, the best thing to do is to spend time with a tree. John Gathright, an ecologist and tree climber who lives in a tree house he built for himself and his family in the mountains of Seto in Aichi prefecture, was taught this by his grandfather, and now he passes it onto the kids that come to learn tree climbing from him. Become friends with a tree. The tree will teach you and the forest will grow strong and healthy together.

Tree climbing not a sport where you compete to climb the highest or fastest, and it’s not just about getting to the top. As you climb you feel the texture of the trunk and branches, hear the leaves rustling all around you and smell the fragrance of the tree. John speaks about it this way: “When you view the world from the top of a tree, a peaceful feeling grows within you. I tell the kids that when they have a problem in their daily lives, the shouldn’t charge at it from straight on. They should view the problem from different angles, from above and below. I hope they can take the lessons that they learn in the forest and apply them to their lives. We all appear to be individuals, separate from each other, but in reality we’re all joined together. Trees are the same way. A forest looks like one free-standing tree after another, but actually they are all joined together at the roots. That’s why they don’t fall over.”

Humans have had a strong relationship with forests throughout history, but with extensive deforestation across the globe, and mass migrations into densely populated and developed urban centers, it is obvious that things are changing. Tree climbing brings people into the woods again, and helps reestablish a connection between man and nature that is of grave importance to the future of our planet.

The vast ecological cycle of a forest tucked away in the mountains of Japan or the plains of the United States may seem wholly independent from human beings and their concerns. But we must realize that we have a major effect on the health and survivals of forests, and without working to better our understanding of what role we play, the future of our planet’s remaining natural spaces are in great danger. It seems like a massive task but when talking with John it becomes clear that the first step is looking into your own heart. We must carry our trees within us and if we can’t learn to do this, we’ve already failed. Become friends with a tree. That’s the best place to start.

Tree Climbing Japan is located at 
Jyokoji-cho
 Seto Aichi, Japan 480-1201

This story originally appeared in Paper Sky No. 6 (New York, July, 2003)