Ken and Mary Tree

A car advertisement gave this poplar its name and made it one of the most photographed single trees in Hokkaido. In 1972 Nissan filmed a Skyline commercial in the Biei hills starring two young characters nicknamed Ken and Mary. The lone poplar standing in the shot took their names, and half a century later people still drive the Patchwork Road to see it. It was not planted to be looked at. It went in as a boundary marker between two farm fields, which is why it stands by itself on an open slope instead of in a shelterbelt, and the strips of crop laid out around it are still working farmland rather than scenery. The tree is about 30 metres tall and over a century old. Nobody has recorded the exact planting year, and the sources checked do not establish which poplar it is, which is why it is listed here as Populus and nothing more. If you know either answer, tell us. Two other famous trees on the same route have not fared as well. The Tree of Philosophy was felled, and the poplar avenue on the Mild Seven Hills was thinned. This one is still standing and still reported healthy in local sources from 2024. It is free to see and there is nothing to enter: the field is somebody's living, so the view is from the roadside.