The tree that stopped an emperor's carriage is not the tree standing here now.
Cherry
Prunus sp.
Most cherry trees are finished inside a century, which makes every old one an exception rather than the rule; the trees here carry only their genus, Prunus, because no source names the species. We map 4 of them, in 4 cities.
Uda's Sen'nen-zakura is reckoned at over 900 years old and stands beside the stone steps up to the temple Butsuryuji. In Iida a weeping cherry of about 350 years, 3.8 metres round, hangs down the embankment of the old Enshu Kaido and is lit at night in blossom season. Fukuoka's Seicho-zakura was lifted whole by crane in January 2008, an eight-metre tree of roughly three and a half tonnes, and set down thirty metres from where it had grown. Kyoto's carriage-turning cherry is a roughly 80-year-old successor of the original. If you know which of Japan's many flowering cherries any of these are, tell us.
Kyoto
Fukuoka
In January 2008 this cherry was picked up by crane, root ball and all, and set back down about thirty metres away.
Photo: そらみみ (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Iida
The tree is named for something that is no longer there.
Uda
Most cherry trees are finished inside a century.
Photo: Nankou Oronain (as36… (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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