Takakura Jinja no Shibunashigaya

The seeds of an ordinary kaya come wrapped in a bitter skin. This tree's do not, which is why it has a name of its own. Shibunashigaya means kaya without the astringency, a rare variety of Japanese nutmeg-yew whose kernels can be eaten straight off the tree. Edo-period locals called them bee-larva kaya and white-rice kaya, and sent them up to their feudal lords. Only two or three such trees hold national designation anywhere in Japan, and a third was struck from the list after it died. This one has been a National Natural Monument since 25 July 1932. It runs to about 21 metres. The trunk forks into two main limbs roughly two metres up, and each of those splits again about ten metres higher, into six on the west side, where decay shows, and five on the east. Round the chest it measures 3.05 metres. The same source records a smaller figure at the base, which is physically backwards, so read that one as a slip of transcription rather than a fact about the tree. There is no sign. Takakura Shrine leaves it unmarked on purpose, because seeds worth presenting to a lord attract people who take them, so allow time to pick it out from the trees around it. Nothing bars the way in. Nobody has put an age on this one in any source we could find. If you know of a figure, tell us.