The Meoto-sugi of Fukujo-ji

Locals do not count this cedar on its own. It is half of a meoto-sugi, a husband-and-wife pair, and the pairing is how the trees on this summit have been named for generations. Fukujo-ji sits at 509 metres on the mountain that carries its name, above the Saijo basin and its sake breweries, and temple tradition dates the founding to 726. The cedar came through Japan's national giant-tree survey in 1988 with a trunk 4.6 metres round and a health grade of good. Hiroshima Prefecture lists the temple's great cedars among its natural monuments, and both the city's tourism office and the Japanese record of the temple describe them as roughly 40 metres tall and several centuries old, which is why the age here is written as a band of three to five hundred years rather than a figure. Most people who drive up the mountain road come for the azaleas, around sixty varieties of them, and meet the cedars on the way to the hall. Two other registered giants stand on the same ground, a Japanese horse chestnut and a kurogane holly, so the walk from the car park is short and the reward is three trees rather than one. The pin marks the precinct, not the trunk.