His narrowed eyes took in the open sweep of the quiet grounds, the pagoda-like monastery itself, and the stone buildings that tumbled down around it like a protective skirt.

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?

The lofty pagoda stands like a giant at the top of the mountain.