The Banyan of Takara Park

The whole village turned out to carry this tree to where it now stands. Before the war it grew at the Uebaru settlement, and it was moved to the Takara utaki, the sacred site now inside Takara Park, by the people of Takara working together; the account the prefecture keeps says it took everyone. It sits in the forecourt of the prayer place, 8.9 metres tall with a trunk 3.9 metres round that divides from the base into several stems and opens into a rounded, almost conical crown. It has unusually few of the hanging aerial roots that gajumaru are known for, which makes it look less like the archetype and more like an ordinary spreading tree. The prefecture puts it at about 150 years, which means it was already a mature tree when it was dug up and carried. It is a children's playground now, in the plainest sense: this is where the local children climb. The park is public and Naha city owns the tree.