Shikokuchuo, in Ehime, has two very different giants. In the town at Shimokashiwa, a Chinese juniper more than 8 metres round has been a National Natural Monument since 1924 and now leans on many wooden props. High on Mt Tamatori, a katsura has lost its central trunk and grown into a ring of stems 15 metres round and 30 metres tall.
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Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) · 300 years · Tomisato
Fifteen metres round, and there is no trunk in the middle. This katsura on the slopes of Mt Tamatori has lost its central stem, and what stands there now is a ring of trunks rising around a hollow base, 30 metres tall.
The 15 metres is the measure of that whole fountain of stems, not of one trunk, which makes it no less of a sight, a single tree standing like a small grove. A 2024 book by Koyama Yoji gives the figures and an age of more than 300 years, and lists it as a Natural Monument of Ehime Prefecture.
It grows on the north side of the mountain at about 1,060 metres, in the Tomisato district of Shikokuchuo. In autumn katsura leaves turn pink and yellow, and as they fall they give off a smell often compared to caramel or burnt sugar.
We have to be plain about two things. The newest photograph we know of was taken in 2010; the 2024 book is cited for it in the present tense, but we have found no dated sighting since. And we have found no description of the way in, neither the path, nor the parking, nor whether there is a sign. It is roughly 25 kilometres of mountain road from Iyo-Mishima station, by car only, and then on foot. If you have been, tell us how you got there.
Photo: ball banban (CC BY 3.0)
Chinese Juniper (Juniperus chinensis) · Shimokashiwa
This juniper was already more than 8 metres round when Japan made it a National Natural Monument in December 1924. Today its branches rest on a crowd of wooden props.
The 1924 designation report measured it in the old units: 2 jo 7 shaku below a large burl about a metre up the trunk, roughly 8.2 metres, and 2 jo 1 shaku above it, about 6.4 metres. Later and larger figures have been published, but the 1924 ones are the only measurements we have been able to confirm.
The tree is a Chinese juniper, ibuki in Japanese. A photograph from June 2016 shows it in full leaf, a huge conifer with fine scale foliage, its limbs held up by many poles, and a stone marker at its foot. One account says a Jizo statue has sat in a hollow at its base since 1783.
Nobody has given it an age we could confirm. If you know where a reliable figure comes from, tell us.
It stands on a small plot beside the road in Shimokashiwa, in Shikokuchuo, and you see it from the roadside; the photographs show no gate. Directions point to a drive along National Route 11, and you will want a car.
The most recent dated photograph we know of is the one from 2016. It has stood here as a protected tree for a century, and if you pass, a new picture would tell us it still does.
Photo: Dokudami (CC BY-SA 4.0)