There once lived a poor but kind-hearted woodcutter named Isamu. Isamu searched through the forest every day, picking up dead branches of trees to sell in the market.
One day, Isamu met Hiroshi, a young man who was very interested in the trees. Hiroshi pointed at a tall and majestic pine. “You should chop this one!” he said excitedly.
Isamu refused. “That tree is alive. It is alive like you and me!”
Hiroshi ignored him and reached forward, trying to tear off a branch.
Isamu wouldn’t let him. “When you tear off a branch, you are hurting the tree. How would you like it if someone tore off one of your limbs?”
“Oh Isamu, no wonder you are poor. You are far too tenderhearted!” Hiroshi remarked.
Isamu was sad that Hiroshi hadn’t accepted that trees were living things. He feared the damage Hiroshi might do one day.
Just a week later, Isamu was making his way through the forest when he heard a voice singing through the trees. “Here I stand, crying and alone // Someone tore off my branches and left me to die on my own // Is there anyone who can help me? // I’m just a wounded pine tree.”
Isamu followed the voice until he arrived at a tall pine tree. Inspecting it, he saw someone had broken off its branches and sap was spilling out. “You poor pine. Your life’s blood!” Isamu cried, vowing to save the tree. He spent the next few hours carefully tending to the pine tree’s wounds until the sap stopped leaking out.
As he finished, Isamu spotted a large and intimidating man behind him. It was Mikio, Hiroshi’s father, and he carried a bundle of sticks which included the pine tree’s limbs.
“Was it you? Did you almost kill this majestic tree?” Isamu cried.
“It was, indeed!” Mikio laughed proudly. “Now I shall sell this wood in the market and make a fortune. If you were clever, Isamu, you would not waste time mending trees. You would do as I do and earn much more money!”
Isamu didn’t respond, and Mikio soon left. When Isamu leaned in to check his work on the tree one more time, he noticed something fall from the tree. Oh, what a wonderful sight it was. The tree was raining gold! Isamu filled his bag with the gold and humbly bowed to the pine tree, “Thank you.”
Filled with gratitude, Isamu rushed home to show his wife, Keiko. “Isamu, we are rich now!” Keiko exclaimed excitedly.
The next day, Keiko went to the market, with her purse overflowing with gold coins. This did not go unnoticed by Mikio, who asked her how she had so much money. When he heard the incredible tale, Mikio said goodbye and hurried back to the pine tree in the forest.
He bowed to it and heard the following words. “Oh woodcutter who made me bleed // all for your own greed // sticky is my life’s blood // touch me only if you wish for a flood”. Picturing a flood of gold coins, Mikio excitedly tore off a branch of the pine tree.
As the pine tree had promised, there was indeed a flood – but it wasn’t gold coins, it was sticky tree sap! There was so much sap that it poured over Mikio and wrapped around him. Soon, he was trapped in a cocoon of sap and no one could hear his muffled cries for help.
It was only at night that Hiroshi went searching for his father. He finally found Mikio stuck under all the sap, tired and remorseful. Never again would Mikio or Hiroshi or any of their lineage dare to cut off a branch from a living tree. The story of Isamu, the tenderhearted woodcutter, is remembered to this day!!!