What is the oldest tree in Nago?
Nago's only mapped tree is Hinpun Gajumaru, a giant banyan whose aerial-root mass runs nearly 12 metres round, a National Natural Monument since 1997 and the acknowledged symbol of Nago City.
The tree stands beside a public road and small plaza in central Nago, near the Anada Bridge over the Saichi River, free to visit at any time. It was already old enough to appear in Ryukyuan poetry by the 1690s, growing beside a large pine that it gradually swallowed as its aerial roots spread. In 1750 the statesman and feng-shui scholar Sai On placed a stone marker at its base, the Hinpun-ishi, named for the traditional Okinawan screen wall that stands between a house's gate and its entrance, and that stone gave the tree its modern name. A 2002 typhoon tore branches from the crown, and a 2010 conservation prune removed nearly a tonne of damaged wood. Okinawa Prefecture protected it in 1956, and Japan made it a National Natural Monument in 1997. Central Nago is about 85 minutes by car from Naha Airport, with local bus service but no direct train.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.