What is Miki no Kuni?
Miki no Kuni (the land of Miki) is a place name that appears in the Nihon Shoki, the history completed in the Nara period, thought to correspond to the area of Miike around today’s Omuta, Fukuoka Prefecture. The name is said to come from the legend of an enormously huge tree.
The giant tree in the Nihon Shoki
According to the records of Emperor Keiko in the Nihon Shoki, when the emperor, touring Kyushu, arrived at a place called Miki in Tsukushi, a single gigantic fallen tree lay there. It was 970 jo (about 3 km) long, and officials walked back and forth along it, it is said.
When the emperor asked what kind of tree it was, a local old man answered: “This is a kunugi (sawtooth oak). Long ago, before it fell, its shadow in the morning sun hid Mount Kishima (in Saga Prefecture), and in the evening sun it covered Mount Aso (in Kumamoto Prefecture).” The emperor said, “This is a sacred tree. Let this land be called Miki no Kuni (the land of the sacred tree),” the chronicle records.
Giant tree legends and urban legends
Similar giant tree legends appear in the Chikugo no Kuni Fudoki and Hizen no Kuni Fudoki, and stories survive across Kyushu of the shadows of huge camphor or oak trees reaching distant mountains. Such legends are thought to express the awe and worship ancient people felt toward great trees.
Online, an urban legend based on such stories claims that “trees taller than mountains grew on the ancient Earth, and today’s mountains and rocky peaks are the remains of their stumps.” Of course there is no scientific basis for it, but it is popular as a grand, romantic story that echoes the world tree Yggdrasil of Norse mythology.
