What is the oldest tree in Higashiomi?
Higashiomi's oldest mapped tree is the Sennen Bodaiju at Hyakusai-ji temple, a Miquel's linden traditionally reckoned at about a thousand years old, a figure that comes from temple tradition rather than a documented planting date. Its trunk was scorched when Oda Nobunaga's forces burned the temple to the ground in 1573, and it resprouted from its own base. About a kilometre away stand Higashiomi's two hananoki maples, the westernmost known wild specimens of the species, both designated National Natural Monuments on the same day, 3 March 1921: Minamihanazawa's tree is estimated at over 250 years and possibly over 450, Kitahanazawa's at over 300.
The thousand-year figure for the Hyakusai-ji linden is a round number Japanese temples have long given their oldest trees, not a ring count, and the temple's own material simply repeats it. What is documented is the fire: Oda Nobunaga burned Hyakusai-ji to the ground in 1573, scorching the linden without reaching its roots, so it grew back around its own dead wood. It stands in place of a true bodhi tree, Ficus religiosa, which cannot survive a Japanese winter, and carries no monument designation of its own. The hananoki pair, a kilometre away, do carry an individual designation, since 3 March 1921. Hananoki grows wild in only a handful of wet valleys in central Japan, and these two are its westernmost known specimens. Minamihanazawa's tree, 5.2 metres round, lost its main trunk to lightning-related rot in 2010. Kitahanazawa's, smaller at 2.8 metres round, has lost two trunks to storms and now grows as six limbs from one base. Both flower in late March and early April, and a ten-minute bus from Yokaichi Station reaches both. The temple linden is a separate trip, with its own admission and hours.
One of Higashiomi's trees also appears in The Thickest Trunks We Have Measured, a themed collection spanning several cities.