What is the oldest tree in Fukuoka?

Fukuoka's claim to its oldest tree rests on tradition rather than measurement. The Ayasugi's roughly 1,800-year figure comes from Kashii Shrine's own founding legend, that Empress Jingu planted a cedar branch from her armor here on returning from a third-century campaign, a story with no ring count or scientific dating behind it. A more conservative rival stands across town: the ginkgo at Kushida Shrine, which a 1913 monument already called over a thousand years old, though a later trunk measurement suggested a real age closer to 600. Neither figure is settled science, which is honest for a city where almost every old tree grows on shrine ground with a founding myth attached rather than a documented planting record. What is not in dispute is which tree carries more ceremonial weight: the Ayasugi's cuttings have traditionally been sent to the Imperial court, and its shrine is one of the few in Japan that still receives a personal envoy from the Emperor. Getting there: JR Kashii-jingu-mae Station, about a five-minute walk to the shrine's inner grounds.