What is the oldest tree in Biei?
Biei's only mapped tree is the Ken and Mary Tree, a lone poplar over a century old on the Patchwork Road, planted originally as a boundary marker between two farm fields.
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, and the lone poplar standing in that shot has carried their names ever since. It was not planted to be looked at. It went in as a boundary marker between two farm fields, which is why it stands alone 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 roughly 30 metres tall and over a century old; nobody has recorded the exact planting year or confirmed which poplar it is. 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 free to see from the roadside and was still reported healthy in 2024.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.