Note 12 — Chapter XI · Tree-, Herb-, and Stone-lore

If Shiro’s prototype was the mandrake-dog which sacrificed itself for the sake of lovers, and was itself an “avatar” of the deity, we should expect to find the pine tree connected with the love-goddess.12 Joly, in his Legend in Japanese Art (p. 147), tells that “at Takasago there is a very old pine tree, the trunk of which is bifurcated; in it dwells the spirit of the Maiden of Takasago, who was seen once by the son of Izanagi, who fell in love and wedded her. Both lived to a very great age, dying at the same hour on the same day, and since then their spirits abide in the tree, but on moonlight nights they return to human shape and revisit the scene of their earthly life and pursue their work of gathering pine needles.” The needles were promoters of longevity, as we have seen.