In 1870 the government ordered this tree cut down and the parishioners bought it back with rice. The new Meiji administration's Miyazaki office sent down an order that the camphor at Ikime Shrine was to be felled, presumably for timber, and the people who used the shrine petitioned against it on the grounds that they were afraid of what the god would make of it. The felling was waived in exchange for three koku and eight to of brown rice, something over five hundred kilograms. Then they cut the whole episode into a stone and set it under the tree, where it still stands, which suggests they wanted the transaction remembered rather than the tree simply saved. It is 8.7 metres round and 24 metres tall, to the right of the hall as you face it, with a ginkgo in front and an ogatama on the left; the camphor and the ogatama are both Miyazaki City Natural Monuments, designated in March 1973. Ikime was once written with characters meaning living eye, and the shrine has long been petitioned for eye complaints. No age has been published for the tree. If you know one, tell us.
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Ikime Shrine, Ikime, Miyazaki 880-0121You can recognise it by the stone marker set beneath it, with a ginkgo in front and an ogatama to its left. It stands to the right of the hall at Ikime Shrine.
Free, shrine precinct open daily
About 8 km west of central Miyazaki, bus or car
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.