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Overview

In Hearn’s “In a Japanese Garden,” a samurai in Kyoto wants to cut down a willow because of its uncanny reputation. Another samurai persuades him to sell it instead, arguing that destroying a tree with a soul would be cruel. Transplanted to the purchaser’s garden, the willow flourishes. Its grateful spirit becomes a beautiful woman and marries him, and they have a son. Hearn gives neither parent nor child a personal name in this version.

Years later the daimyo who owns the ground orders the willow cut for repairs to San-jiu-san-gen-do, a Buddhist temple. The wife reveals her origin, says that she must die but their child will live, bids farewell and disappears into the tree. Her husband cannot overturn the order. After the tree is felled it becomes too heavy for three hundred men to move. The child takes a branch and calls it to come; the fallen tree then follows him along the ground to the temple. The narrative does not restore the wife to human life afterwards.

The surrounding discussion distinguishes a tree from a Ki-no-o-bake that leaves it temporarily in an apparent human form: the tree itself need not uproot or turn into a person. That general explanation supplies context without making all details universal. Hearn compares the willow story with Greek dryads; the comparison is his, not evidence of a shared original tale. The temple-building ending and surviving child also distinguish this witness from the separately recorded Aoyagi story.

Grateful human appearanceMarriage and sonLife bound to treeChild moves felled trunk
01

Origins & earliest records

Japanese traditions as selected and mediated in Lafcadio Hearn’s1894 garden essay.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete essay and allforty attached notes read; source-specific narrative and qualifications retained.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, Second Series — In a Japanese Garden

    Lafcadio Hearn · 1894

    HostedI/originalXVI: all14sections and40endnotes read; particular section identified in evidence.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

Complete primary literary witness read

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, Second Series — In a Japanese Garden

SecondSeries hostedI/originalXVI. Section6 andnotes20–21; wholechapter

Full62,187-character chapter plus9,081-character notes read. No invented narrator attribution. Cache hearn-glimpses2-garden.txt.

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References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical English essay, reported beliefs and literary narrativesHearn, complete In a Japanese GardenResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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