The kanji first appears in the (12th-century) "Konjaku Monogatarishū", but two 8th-century transcriptions of the word "sakaki" are , meaning "sage tree" ("Kojiki", tr. Chamberlain 1981:64 "pulling up by pulling its roots a true "cleyera japonica" with five hundred from the Heavenly Mount Kagu"), and , meaning "slope tree" ("Nihon Shoki", tr. Aston 1896:42–43, "True Sakaki tree of the Heavenly Mt. Kagu"). "Sakaki" ( or ) is the title of Chapter 10 in "The Tale of Genji" (ca. 1021). It comes from this context.