The Mochi Tree of Hogon-ji

Most old trees carry an estimated age. This one carries a date. It was planted in 1602 by Katagiri Katsumoto to mark the end of a building job, and the job was a large one: Katsumoto, the Toyotomi clan's construction supervisor, had moved the Kannon Hall, the covered corridor bridge and the Chinese gate from Hideyoshi's Osaka Castle onto a small island in Lake Biwa. The gate is a National Treasure today. When the work was finished he planted a mochi tree beside the three-storey pagoda, and four centuries later the gate and the tree still stand on the same terrace. Two honest notes, because this tree is short on paperwork. The species rests on its name: mochi-no-ki is the standard Japanese name for Ilex integra and the photographic record files this specimen that way, but no source states the scientific name outright. And the most recent photographs of it we can find were taken in December 2016. Hogon-ji is an actively maintained National Treasure site with no report of any loss, so there is every reason to think the tree is fine, and no recent proof of it. If you have been, tell us what you found. Getting there takes a timetable. Chikubushima is uninhabited, reached only by scheduled ferry from Nagahama, Hikone or Imazu, and the temple charges entry once you have climbed the steps from the jetty.