The Sennen Bodaiju of Hyakusai-ji

Oda Nobunaga burned Hyakusai-ji to the ground on 7 April 1573, and the tree in the front garden grew back out of its own scorched trunk. The fire charred the bark and never reached the roots, so fresh growth rose around the burn. What stands in the old main hall's garden today is regrowth from the base of the tree Nobunaga's men torched. The temple still tells that story, and still offers the tree as a charm against misfortune. Its name is Sennen Bodaiju, the thousand-year bodhi tree, and it is a substitute. The bodhi tree of Buddhism is Ficus religiosa, a fig that will not survive a Japanese winter, so temples here plant Tilia miqueliana instead and give it the same name and the same spot in the garden. This one measures about five metres round, with a trunk roughly 1.6 metres across. The thousand years in the name is a traditional round figure rather than a date anyone recorded, so read it as many centuries and not as a measurement. If somebody has properly aged it, tell us. Hyakusai-ji is one of the Koto Sanzan, the three old temples on the eastern flank of Lake Biwa. Entry costs 600 yen and the gates are open from 8:30 to 17:00, which buys the halls and the garden as well as the tree.