Cleyera japonica

Sakaki wood is used for making utensils (especially combs), building materials, and fuel. It is commonly planted in gardens, parks, and shrines. Sakaki is considered a sacred tree in the Shinto religion, along with other evergreens such as hinoki (檜, Japanese cypress) and kansugi (神杉, "sacred cryptomeria"). Shinto shrines are traditionally encircled with shinboku (神木, "sacred trees") constituting a himorogi (神籬, "divine fence"). In Shinto ritual offerings to the "gods; spirits" (神, kami), branches of sakaki are decorated with paper streamers (shide) to make tamagushi. Originally, the term sakaki referred broadly to all evergreen trees before narrowing to designate this species specifically. When sakaki was unavailable, other evergreens such as oak, cryptomeria, boxwood, or fir could be used as substitutes. Beyond decoration and purification, sakaki branches also served as torimono, hand-held ritual objects carried by miko during sacred dances. A passage in the Nihon Shoki similarly recounts Emperor Keikō addressing the sakaki of Mount Shitsu, decorated in a manner comparable to the sakaki of the Amaterasu myth. In the myth about Amaterasu and the cave she hid in, after Susanoo's tantrum, when the Yata no Kagami was forged and propped-up in front of Amaterasu's cave, it was said to have been perched-upon the branches of a sacred, 500-branched Sakaki tree facing the cave.