What is the oldest tree in Kawago?
Kawago's mapped tree is Kawago no Okusu (The Great Camphor of Kawago), a hollow camphor whose trunk measures 21 metres around at the base, ranking it among the five widest trees in Japan by girth. Local tradition puts its age at roughly 3,000 years, though that figure is not scientifically dated. Japan designated it a national natural monument in 1924.
The tree stands in a small park purpose-built around it in 1995, in Wakaki-cho, Takeo City. Its trunk is hollow enough to enter, and inside the southwest cavity stands a stone shrine to the fox deity Inari. A local legend holds that the Nara-period monk Gyoki carved a 2.4-metre standing image of Kannon into the trunk; the carving was destroyed during the anti-Buddhist purges of the 1870s, but a separate bronze Kannon found inside the tree survived and is now kept in a hall nearby, a Takeo city cultural property. Measurements from Japanese Wikipedia and the local tourism board agree closely: a base girth of 21 metres, root circumference of 33 to 35 metres, height of 25 to 26 metres and a canopy spreading 27 metres in every direction, ranking it 5th nationally by girth among Japan's largest trees. The park is free and open 9:00 to 17:00 daily, closed around New Year; an adjacent puppet-theatre attraction charges separately but the tree itself does not. Reached by community bus from JR Takeo-Onsen Station to the Kawago stop, two minutes on foot.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.