The Heian Cedar of Katanami

Deep in the forested headwaters of the Katanami River, in Kyoto's rural northern hills, stands a cedar said to have been alive when the Heian-kyo palace it is named for was first built. This forest was imperial timber land for centuries, called Goshomigoyo, and historical records describe it supplying construction material for both Heian-kyo and the earlier short-lived capital of Nagaoka-kyo, as well as replacement timber whenever the imperial palace burned, which happened more than once. The Heian Cedar and its neighbours in this grove are a distinctive local type called fuseki-dai sugi, layering cedars, a growth habit suited to heavy snow: a trunk pushed down and pinned to the ground by winter snowfall can root at the point of contact and rise again as a new, genetically identical trunk, letting a single tree effectively propagate itself sideways across a hillside over centuries. The site is not casually accessible. Kyoto City restricts entry to protect the grove, and visiting requires prior arrangement with the city and an accompanying nature guide, a real constraint on the goal of walking up to see it, stated here plainly rather than glossed over.