Ticket needed. Temple entrance fee, a small amount; much of the precinct is seen on a guided round at set times, so check before going

The Inumaki of Kakuonji

age unknownBuddhist Pinepin approximate

Buddhist PineNobody has published a photograph of this tree under a licence we can use. Send us yours and it goes on this page.

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This is the quietest place on this page and the hardest to get into. Kakuonji sits at the closed end of a valley in Nikaido, past where the tourist route gives up, and for most of the year the inner precinct is seen on a guided round at set times rather than wandered through. The inumaki in it is 18 metres tall, a Kamakura City Natural Monument and one of Kanagawa's hundred notable trees. Inumaki, Podocarpus macrophyllus, is a conifer that does not look like one: long flat strap-shaped leaves, dark and dense, and a fruit that is a green nut sitting on a swollen red stalk which is edible while the nut is not. It is the standard tree of a temple hedge in warm Japan and it takes clipping forever, so a free-grown one at 18 metres is a different object from the ones people know. The temple was founded in 1218 by the regent Hojo Yoshitoki after, the story goes, a dream, and it holds a hall of the twelve heavenly generals and a hillside of cave tombs cut into the valley walls. No age has been published for the tree.

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The button above opens directions in your maps app. About 30 minutes on foot east from Kamakura station, or bus toward Daitonomiya

The pin marks the right spot roughly, not the tree itself. It stands here, but we have not confirmed the precise position on the ground yet. Know exactly where it is?

Species: Buddhist Pine (Podocarpus macrophyllus)
Age estimate
Location: Kakuonji, Nikaido 421, Kamakura 248-0002 (Nikaido)
Access: Temple entrance fee, a small amount; much of the precinct is seen on a guided round at set times, so check before going
Getting there: About 30 minutes on foot east from Kamakura station, or bus toward Daitonomiya

Trees nearby

The Junipers of Kenchojiabout 750 years, reckoned from the temple's founding in 1253 · 880 m away The Great Ginkgo of Tsurugaoka Hachimanguthe standing tree is regrowth from 2010; the original was traditionally called a thousand years and was not · 940 m away The Weeping Cherry of Jochiji · 1.6 km away

Curious what else is standing in Kamakura? See all 6 remarkable ancient trees in Kamakura or find out what the oldest tree in Kamakura is.

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This page was researched from a distance. If you know this tree, you know things we do not: the species, the age, the size, whether the photo shows the right tree, or that it is gone. Every field on this page can be corrected.

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