For decades this was the tallest cedar in Japan, somewhere between 59.6 and 60.8 metres depending on which survey you read. Aichi's tourism pages and Shinshiro's own still say so. A cedar at Hanase, north of Kyoto, was measured at 62.3 metres in 2017 and now holds the record, which takes nothing off the sixty metres standing here. Kasa means umbrella, and the name is literal. The upper trunk fans into limbs in every direction, so from the steps below the crown reads as an open parasol. The base measures about 7.5 metres round. Its age is given everywhere as about 800 years, with no measurement or growth rate behind the number, so read that as tradition rather than a date. The tree stands beside the 1,425 stone steps that climb Mount Horaiji to the temple at the top, above the Nio-mon gate rebuilt in 1651. The whole mountain has been a National Scenic Beauty and Natural Monument since 1931, and the cedar was picked for the New Japan Famous Trees, 100 Selection. Nobody has published a coordinate for the tree itself, only for the temple complex, so expect to find it by climbing rather than by map. Hikers photographed it in place in April 2024.
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Getting there
Along the stone-step pilgrim path (sando) to Horaiji Temple, beyond the Nio-mon gate, Mount Horaiji, Horai, Shinshiro City, Aichi Prefecture
You can recognise it by the crown, which fans out overhead like an open umbrella, and by the base, about 7.5 metres round. It stands right beside the stone stairway up Mount Horaiji, above the Nio-mon gate.
Free, standing directly beside the public 1,425-step stone stairway (sando) that climbs Mount Horaiji to Horaiji Temple, inside the nationally designated Scenic Beauty and Natural Monument area (whole-mountain designation, 31 July 1931). No entry fee for the path itself; a toll mountain parkway with paid parking (JPY 550 as of the source check) serves drivers who prefer not to walk the full stairway. Some hiking records in 2025 mention trail closures elsewhere on the mountain due to fallen trees, so check current trail status before visiting, though the main temple stairway carrying this tree was not itself reported closed.
By train and bus: JR Iida Line to Honagashino Station, then the Toyotetsu bus toward Taguchi, alighting at the Horaiji stop, then on foot up the stairway. By car: about 20 minutes from Shinshiro IC on the Shin-Tomei Expressway, or 25 minutes from Horaigoke IC or Hamamatsu Inasa IC.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.