What is the oldest tree in Sapporo?
The oldest tree in Sapporo is most likely the katsura at Koganeyu, on the road to Jozankei, which a Hokkaido signboard puts at 750 years by tradition. Within the city proper the oldest known is the Ezo willow in Nakajima Park, dated at 200 to 300 years by the Environment Ministry, which means it was standing before Sapporo existed.
Sapporo is a young city and the question has a young answer. The Meiji government began laying the town out on the Ishikari plain in 1869, and until then there was no settlement here to plant anything, which is why Sapporo has none of the ancient shrine trees that carry the answer in most Japanese cities. Two things survived that beginning. Maruyama, a 225 metre hill on the western edge, was never logged and was made a National Natural Monument as primeval forest in 1921; its katsura run to 12 metres round and nobody has dated them. And a willow in Nakajima Park carries an Environment Ministry estimate of 200 to 300 years, which if right means it was mature when the surveyors arrived. The 750 years given for the katsura at Koganeyu is a tradition on a prefectural signboard rather than a measurement. Getting to Nakajima Park: subway to Nakajima Koen, then south to the Minami 14-jo bridge.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.