What is the oldest tree in Kamakura?
The oldest trees in Kamakura are the junipers at Kenchoji, reckoned at about 750 years because temple tradition says the founder planted them from seed he carried from Song China when the temple was built in 1253. The great ginkgo at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu is traditionally given a thousand years, but that figure does not survive checking.
Kamakura's two age claims pull in opposite directions and only one holds. Kenchoji was founded in 1253 by the regent Hojo Tokiyori, who brought the Chinese monk Rankei Doryu from Song to open it, and the temple's tradition is that Rankei planted the junipers from seed he carried. Nothing measured supports that and nothing contradicts it; 750 years is the temple's age applied to its trees. The thousand years attached to the great ginkgo at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu is a different case. It comes from the story that Kugyo hid behind the tree before killing his uncle, the third shogun Sanetomo, on the shrine steps in January 1219, and the trouble is that ginkgo is widely held not to have reached Japan by then. The tree was also never the size a thousand years implies. It came down in a gale in March 2010 and what stands there now is regrowth from the original root, about fifteen years old above ground. Getting to Kenchoji: about 15 minutes on foot from Kita-Kamakura station.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.