The Chinaberry of the East Pagoda Ruins

It stands on ground that once held one of the tallest buildings in Japan. Todai-ji's east pagoda rose seven storeys and is reported at around a hundred metres, burned, was rebuilt, burned again and was never rebuilt a third time, so all that remains is a raised platform in the grass with a chinaberry beside it four and a half metres around and twenty metres tall. Nobody has published its age. What is recorded is the reason its species turns up in places like this: chinaberry was believed to drive off evil spirits and was traditionally planted in graveyards and at sites where the dead were remembered, which is exactly what a burned pagoda platform became. For most of the year it is an unremarkable spreading tree that visitors walk past on their way to the Great Buddha. For two weeks in the middle of May it covers itself in loose sprays of pale purple flowers, and the official guide to Nara Park's giant trees singles that fortnight out as the reason to come.