Kozoji no Kotsubugaya

For two decades this was simply a fine old kaya tree. Then somebody measured the seeds. Toba made it a city natural monument on 24 March 1970 for its size and its age. A survey in 1991 found what that listing had missed. The seeds, aril included, run only 18 to 20 millimetres across, distinctly smaller than an ordinary kaya's, which made this the second kotsubugaya, or small-seed kaya, known in Japan, after one in Miyagi Prefecture. Two trees, in the whole country. The national designation followed on 20 January 1993, twenty-three years after the local one. It stands in the grove belonging to Kozoji Temple in Kawachi, 4.5 metres round at chest height and 25 metres tall. Lightning took the tip out of the crown at some point in its life. Both Toba City's own heritage record and a recent summary describe the tree as still vigorous, so the strike cost it a top and nothing more. Nobody has dated it. Both designations record what it measures rather than when it started, and no source found gives an age at all. If you know of one, tell us and it goes on the page. The tree is in the temple's own grove, and Toba City's lifelong learning division is where visiting arrangements are handled.