What is the oldest tree in Takachiho?
The oldest tree in Takachiho is the Chichibu-sugi, a Japanese cedar at Takachiho Shrine put at about 800 years. That figure comes from the shrine's legend that Hatakeyama Shigetada planted it around 1190, not from a measurement of the tree.
The 800 years is a legend turned into a number. Two signs stand at the Chichibu-sugi's foot: one from Miyazaki prefecture's hundred-giant-trees list, certified in 1992, giving 800 years, 55 metres and 7.15 metres round; the other telling how Hatakeyama Shigetada, envoy of the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo, planted the tree about 800 years ago. The tree takes its name from Shigetada's home town of Chichibu, near Tokyo. Nobody has cored it. What is measured is the height, 55 metres in the Environment Agency's giant-tree survey, while the girth is disputed: 7.15 metres on the sign, 9 metres in the older national survey. The Meoto-sugi, 35 metres away, are given anything from 400 to 800 years by travel pages, with no measurement behind either. Getting there: Takachiho has no railway, so take a bus from Nobeoka or Kumamoto to Takachiho Bus Centre and walk about 15 minutes to the shrine.
One of Takachiho's trees also appears in The Tallest Trees We Have Measured, a themed collection spanning several cities.