What is the oldest tree in Tamba?
Tamba's only mapped tree, and its oldest, is Kinone-bashi, a Saw-leaf Zelkova estimated at roughly 1,000 years old. It stands beside the approach to Kashiwara Hachiman Shrine in Kashiwara, Tamba City, Hyogo Prefecture.
A root did what no engineer asked it to do: one of this zelkova's roots grew thick enough to span the Okumura River underground, arching about ten metres beneath a riverbed roughly six metres wide, so the ground on either bank is connected by living wood rather than a bridge. The name follows the shape, Kinone-bashi, the tree-root bridge. The tree stands beside the approach to Kashiwara Hachiman Shrine, founded in 1024, and at 6.4 metres round and about 21 metres tall, with a crown spreading some 25 metres in every direction, it is the largest zelkova in Tamba City. Hyogo Prefecture designated it a Natural Monument in March 1970. It is not currently a healthy tree: Armillaria tabescens, a root-rot fungus, entered through damage left by past road and bridge construction nearby, and the city has been treating the infection since 2002, cutting out decayed wood and applying antagonistic fungi to slow it. It stands a short walk from JR Kashiwara Station on the Fukuchiyama Line, free and open, the root bridge visible from the path.
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