What is the oldest tree in Nagi?
Nagi's only mapped tree, and its oldest, is the Great Ginkgo of Bodaiji (Ginkgo biloba), a National Natural Monument roughly 800 to 1000 years old, standing in the grounds of Bodaiji Temple on the southeast slope of Mount Nagi, Okayama Prefecture.
Tradition holds that Honen, who would go on to found Jodo (Pure Land) Buddhism, studied at Bodaiji between the ages of nine and thirteen and used a ginkgo branch as a walking stick on the climb up the mountain. Reaching the gate, he is said to have planted the branch and told it to take root once his learning was complete. In 2013, Nagi's education board ran DNA testing that found a genetic link between this tree, a second ginkgo at the foot of the mountain where legend has Honen first cutting the branch, and a third that grew from a piece of this tree's own crown broken off by heavy snow roughly two centuries ago. The tests do not date the tree, but they corroborate the legend. At 42.5 metres tall with an 11-metre trunk, it is the largest ginkgo in Okayama Prefecture and one of only twenty ginkgos nationwide with National Natural Monument status, held since 1928. It is male and bears no fruit. A 1955 fire and 1989 typhoon damage are both still visible, though neither slowed the tree. Free to visit, with a dedicated illumination event run by the town.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.