Arakawa no Jii Sugi

About a fifth of this trunk is still living tissue. The rest of the cross-section is hollow, and the cedar is standing anyway, recorded at 42 metres and roughly 10 metres round: the largest and oldest known tree in Ibaraki Prefecture. The damage appears to have come from a lightning strike. The base hollowed out, and to take weight off what was left the authorities cut the top 10 metres from the trunk; wires on three sides now hold the rest against the wind. It is not a thriving giant. It is a very old tree kept alive on purpose, by national, prefectural and municipal effort, and standing in front of that is a different experience from standing in front of an untroubled one. Locally it is the Jii Sugi, the grandfather cedar. It has been a National Natural Monument since 1924, the thirteenth year of Taisho, which means the Japanese state has been formally looking after it for a full century. The age usually given is roughly 1,000 years, an estimate rather than a count; nobody has dated the wood, and the hollowing has taken away most of what could have been read. It stands in the grounds of Arakawa Hachimangu Shrine, free and open, about fifteen minutes by car from Takahagi station on the Joban Line. Go and look at it while the wires are holding.