What is the oldest tree in Shikokuchuo?
Shikokuchuo in Ehime Prefecture has two famous old trees. The Shimokashiwa juniper is a Chinese juniper designated a National Natural Monument in December 1924, measured then at about 8.2 metres round below a large burl. The great katsura of Mt Tamatori, Tamatoriyama-no-Ōkatsura, is an Ehime Prefecture Natural Monument, more than 300 years old, 30 metres tall and 15 metres round, a ring of stems around a hollow base.
Shikokuchuo lies on the north side of Shikoku, in Ehime Prefecture, and its two famous trees could hardly be further apart in what a visit asks of you. The juniper is the easy one. It stands on a small plot beside the road in Shimokashiwa, propped on many poles with a stone marker at its foot, and you see it from the roadside; directions point to a drive along National Route 11. One account says a Jizo statue has sat in a hollow at its base since 1783. The katsura is the hard one. It grows at about 1,060 metres on the north slope of Mt Tamatori in the Tomisato district, roughly 25 kilometres of mountain road from Iyo-Mishima station and then on foot. We have found no description of the path, the parking or the signage, and the newest photograph of it dates from 2010, so go prepared. In October and November its leaves turn pink and yellow and smell of burnt sugar as they fall. Both trees need a car. If you reach either, a dated photograph would help.
One of Shikokuchuo's trees also appears in Autumn Worth the Trip.