Is the answer that, like a tall pine tree, the Japanese pagoda—with its massive trunk-like central pillar known as shinbashira—simply flexes and sways during a typhoon or earthquake?

Lengths of Japanese cypress and Oregon pine provide structural reinforcement for the building's frame, while oak has been used for floors and doors throughout.

The method of dynamic comparable tree classification was introduced to study the population structure of natural Japanese red pine forest in Northeast China.