What is the oldest tree in Numata?
Numata's mapped tree is the Great Mulberry of Usune, a wild mulberry standing 13.65 metres tall and 5.67 metres round, widely reported as the largest of its kind in Japan and a National Natural Monument since 1956. Its age is disputed: the city repeats a traditional figure of roughly 1,500 years, while an official 1991 survey suggested something nearer 300.
The tree stands on farmland in what was Usune village, part of the wider Gunma silk story that runs through the nearby Tomioka Silk Mill, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Farmers treated it as a guardian of silkworm rearing, and when frost stripped the leaf crop on surrounding farms, its leaves were used to feed silkworms instead; local tradition also holds it served as a benchmark in a 1686 Maebashi domain land survey. The Cultural Affairs Agency's own record disagrees on its dimensions too, giving 10.7 metres tall and 5 metres round at chest height against the city's more recent 13.65m/567cm. In 2018 the tree was under treatment for pest damage; no report has been found of it since dying or being removed. Viewing is free at any hour along a maintained wooden walkway near Ishizumi Daijingu shrine, reached by bus from JR Numata Station to the Ishizumi Ippommatsu stop, or about 15 minutes by car from Numata IC on the Kan-etsu Expressway.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.