In Ogi Park, in Saga Prefecture, a Buddhist pine has been clipped into a cube for generations. It is called the kaku-maki, the squared maki, and local tradition puts it at about 350 years old, a figure no survey has checked. It holds no natural monument status, yet visitor information for the park still names it among the things to see. The park is public, open all year, and free as far as any source mentions.
0 of 1 visited in OgiSee your full collection
Buddhist Pine (Podocarpus macrophyllus) · 350 years · Ogi Park
This tree has been clipped into a box. Its name says so: kaku-maki means squared maki, and the maki in question is an inumaki, a Buddhist pine, pruned by generation after generation of gardeners until the crown became a cube.
Local tradition puts it at about 350 years old, and the published range runs from 300 to 350. That figure is tradition, not a measurement, and we have found no survey behind it. What is certain is the work. A shape like this does not happen once, it lasts only as long as somebody keeps cutting it, and here somebody has, for generations.
It grows in Ogi Park in Saga Prefecture, one of Japan's 100 notable historic parks. The tree itself carries no natural monument designation. Current visitor information for the park, gathered up to January 2026, still names the 350-year-old kakumaki among the things to see, and a photograph from December 2017 shows it in place.
The park is public, open all year, and no source mentions a ticket. Our pin comes from where a photographer stood, so it is close rather than exact; inside the park, the square crown is the giveaway.
Nobody has published a recent girth or height. If you measure it, tell us.
Photo: そらみみ (CC BY-SA 4.0)