The Kyushaku-fuji of Byakugo-ji
Byakugo-ji temple
Approximate location.
You need a ticket to see this treePaid entry, 300 yen per person. Temple grounds open 9:00-17:00 (until 21:00 during the wisteria's night illumination period in late April/early May). Best reached by taxi (about 8 minutes) from JR Fukuchiyama Line's Ichijima Station; no bus route or safe walking distance from the station, and the temple runs no shuttle.
The longest flower chain recorded on this wisteria measured 180 centimetres. The name promises more. Kyushaku-fuji reads as nine-shaku wisteria, about 2.7 metres, and the temple's own head priest has gone on record correcting visitors who take it as a measurement: it is the cultivar name, Noda Naga-fuji, a plant bred for unusually long racemes. One plant, one root, trained along 120 metres of trellis in the grounds of Byakugo-ji, a Tendai temple in the hills of Tamba founded by tradition in 705. That date belongs to the temple and says nothing about the vine. Nothing else does either: no source checked, the temple's own site included, gives a planting date, an age or a trunk measurement. If you know when it went in, tell us. What is documented is the flowering. Early May brings the Kyushaku-fuji festival, and through late April and early May the trellis is lit after dark, with the grounds staying open until nine instead of five. Entry is 300 yen. Getting there is the awkward part. The last five kilometres from Ichijima station are a taxi ride of about eight minutes: no bus runs it, the temple operates no shuttle, and the road is not one to walk.
From people who stood here
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Getting there
709 Byakugoji, Ichijima-cho, Tamba City, Hyogo Prefecture 669-4334
You can recognise it by the trellis it covers, one vine trained along 120 metres of frame, with flower chains up to 180 centimetres in early May. It is the only structure of that length in the grounds of Byakugo-ji.
JR Fukuchiyama Line, Ichijima Station, then approx. 8 minutes by taxi (about 5km). By car, 10 minutes from the Kasuga IC on the Maizuru-Wakasa Expressway.
In bloom
late April into early May, when the racemes hang and the trellis is lit after dark
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.
