Leaf and wood litter dynamics are important components of ecosystem processes such as nutrient and carbon cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. To understand litter dynamics and carbon sequestration at the ecosystem level, it is important to clarify whether the decomposition rates of leaf and wood litter, and the traits that drive them, are coordinated across species. We explored the decomposition of ten temperate deciduous hardwood species for different organs (leaves and wood) in a temperate forest plot in Japan. Field data, field experiments, and laboratory experiments revealed that decomposition rates are not coordinated between plant organs (leaves and wood). Our results suggest that this is due to weak correlation between leaf and wood traits and that the traits associated with decomposition are different between leaves and wood. Because the "afterlife effects" of plant traits vary among organs, we need to integrate the effects of multiple organs in order to understand their impact on ecosystems.