- Joined
- Jul 28, 2018
After searching for Digital Jungle on the NHK Japan archives ended up going down a massive rabbit hole after seeing this program note
世界の名峰 グレートサミッツ「巨樹を育む大渓谷 台湾最高峰・玉山」
-Great Summits of World Famous Mountains, Through valleys and great trees, Taiwan's highest peak Yokuzan
They talk about 'Divine Trees' basically huge or very old hinoki cypress trees thousands of years old and their spiritual power and how people come to them and say prayer wishing for good health and such.
The documentary is about mountain climbing but you can see the reference to the 'Shenmue' at the 5min mark, by some miracle someone kindly uploaded this fully to YouTube a few years back.
Taiwan speaks Mandarin Chinese, and the Kanji is 神木 lit (God)(Tree) pronounced as Shenmu (Japanese has a different reading of KamiKi or ShinBoku)
This would explain why there can be multiple Shenmue trees, their power of protection and the importance in the game
The Japanese Game title uses a different Kanji 莎木 (Sedge)(Tree) Sedge, aka cyperus not all that related to cypress trees it seems but the spelling is close but im no plant expert.
However the Japanese pronunciation is the same シェンムー Shenmue for the game and the divine tree in Mandarin.
Also there is a Train Station in Taiwan called Shenmu Station (Divine Tree)
en.wikipedia.org
ALSO it is a city in China, in the city of Yulin
en.wikipedia.org
I did a brief Google search but didn't find many posts, I'm sure someone covered this 20 years ago on the old forums, has anyone looked into 神木 shenmue divine trees?
Could the divine tree in Shenmue be related to how they came to change the title later in the production cycle?
Will Ryo go to Taiwan and receive guidance from a Shemue Tree?!
If you would like to have the part translated, please vote for it by supporting the Phantom River Stone blog (I am not affiliated with the PRSblog)
www.phantomriverstone.com
世界の名峰 グレートサミッツ「巨樹を育む大渓谷 台湾最高峰・玉山」
-Great Summits of World Famous Mountains, Through valleys and great trees, Taiwan's highest peak Yokuzan
They talk about 'Divine Trees' basically huge or very old hinoki cypress trees thousands of years old and their spiritual power and how people come to them and say prayer wishing for good health and such.
The documentary is about mountain climbing but you can see the reference to the 'Shenmue' at the 5min mark, by some miracle someone kindly uploaded this fully to YouTube a few years back.
Taiwan speaks Mandarin Chinese, and the Kanji is 神木 lit (God)(Tree) pronounced as Shenmu (Japanese has a different reading of KamiKi or ShinBoku)
This would explain why there can be multiple Shenmue trees, their power of protection and the importance in the game
The Japanese Game title uses a different Kanji 莎木 (Sedge)(Tree) Sedge, aka cyperus not all that related to cypress trees it seems but the spelling is close but im no plant expert.
However the Japanese pronunciation is the same シェンムー Shenmue for the game and the divine tree in Mandarin.
Also there is a Train Station in Taiwan called Shenmu Station (Divine Tree)
Shenmu railway station - Wikipedia
ALSO it is a city in China, in the city of Yulin
Shenmu - Wikipedia
I did a brief Google search but didn't find many posts, I'm sure someone covered this 20 years ago on the old forums, has anyone looked into 神木 shenmue divine trees?
Could the divine tree in Shenmue be related to how they came to change the title later in the production cycle?
Will Ryo go to Taiwan and receive guidance from a Shemue Tree?!
If you would like to have the part translated, please vote for it by supporting the Phantom River Stone blog (I am not affiliated with the PRSblog)
Shenmue Tree? Cherry Tree? | Shenmue 3 Translations
A blog on the Shenmue series of games from Yu Suzuki with a mission to translate articles, videos and updates for English-speaking fans.
