What is the oldest tree in Takahagi?
Takahagi's only mapped tree, and its oldest, is Arakawa no Jii Sugi, a Japanese cedar put at roughly 1,000 years old and recorded as the largest and oldest known tree in Ibaraki Prefecture. It stands within the grounds of Arakawa Hachimangu Shrine in Arakawa, Takahagi.
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 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, with wires on three sides now holding the rest against the wind. It is a very old tree kept alive on purpose, by national, prefectural and municipal effort, rather than an untroubled giant. Locally it is the Jii Sugi, the grandfather cedar, and it has been a National Natural Monument since 1924, meaning the Japanese state has formally looked after it for a full century. The age usually given, roughly 1,000 years, is 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 free and open in the grounds of Arakawa Hachimangu Shrine, about fifteen minutes by car or taxi from JR Takahagi Station on the Joban Line.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.