Dogura Shōzaburō: Father of Forestry and Social Change

Kawakami has a long history of producing high-quality timber, but its revolutionary forestry methods were spearheaded by one man: Dogura Shōzaburō (1840–1917), heir to one of Kawakami’s oldest forestry families. Dogura dedicated his life to advancing forestry, improving the town of Kawakami, and bolstering education around the country. Today, he is remembered as a forward thinker, a remarkable philanthropist, and a beloved local hero.

Dogura joined the Yoshino lumber association when he was only 15. He later spent years refining a three-part method of close planting, repeated thinning, and delayed harvesting that produced the tall, straight, and rigid lumber for which Yoshino is known. For years, he worked in other prefectures to help them improve their own forestry programs. Finally, in 1898, he published a definitive volume on his methods and focused his attention on implementing them in Kawakami. His life’s work earned him the title of “Japan’s Father of Forestry.”

Dogura’s passions extended beyond sylviculture, and he devoted his time and considerable wealth to much more than trees. Famously, he divided the use of his fortune into three sectors: public works, education, and national advancement, such as supporting the civil rights movement. He financed the founding of both Doshisha University and Japan Women’s University, the latter at a time when women’s education was given little consideration. He also started the first elementary school in Kawakami, and when local cherry trees were going to be sold for firewood, he bought every cherry tree on Mt. Yoshino to preserve them.

 

In 1921, a 23.6-meter-high commemorative inscription to Dogura was carved on a cliffside facing Kawakami’s Ōtaki area, where he was born. A bronze statue of him stands on the former site of his residence, and his grave is at Ryūsenji Temple, not far from Seirei Falls.