The World Tree
The artist carrying out the Kaki Tree
Project feels that the Nagasaki kaki tree personifies the World Tree. The World Tree is rooted in the centre of the earth and is surrounded by supernatural protectors. In a vertical way he is the connection between heaven and earth (Tree of knowledge). In the horizontal centre of the earth he is the Source of life (Tree of Life, Arbor Vitae). The last conforms to the ancient Japanese religious relationship between the Kaki and life. A prophecy in the Norse epic cycle, the Edda, describes how one day the Gods will disappear from earth in the Fimbulwinter when ice, cold and darkness will remain for years and spring will not come. Humanity will disappear through earthquakes, floods and fire. Only the World Tree will survive. When the time is right, its trunk will open and parents of a new humanity will appear.
As a symbol for the World Tree, the Kaki is connected with (the) God(s), with people, with all life on earth and with the earth itself. It plays an important, positive role with the survival of the planet and on the planet, with the life on earth and the history of several humanities on earth in the past, present and future.