The temple arrived second. When Zenyo-ji moved to this ground from the village of Fukazawa in the Keian era, between 1648 and 1651, the account of the move describes the kaya as already a large tree. Fukazawa and Noge were farming country then; what grew up around the tree afterwards is Setagaya. Sources put its age at 700 or 800 years and nobody has narrowed it further, so neither will we. It is a nutmeg-yew, 22.6 metres tall and 5.3 metres round, and a female tree: the species carries its sexes on separate plants. What people actually remark on is the shape. Its lower branches trail down the way a willow's do, which is odd enough in a nutmeg-yew that every account of this one mentions it, and it gives a slow dark conifer a surprising amount of movement. Tokyo designated it a Natural Monument in 1964. It is a quiet stop rather than a famous one: a temple yard in a residential corner of Setagaya, no ticket, no crowd, and a tree that was already worth remarking on when the buildings beside it were new.
From people who stood here
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Getting there
Zenyo-ji, 2-7-11 Noge, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 158-0092
You can recognise it by the lower branches, trailing down like a willow's, unusual enough in a nutmeg-yew that every account of the tree mentions them. It stands in the temple yard, 22.6 metres tall.
Noge area, Setagaya; nearest station is a bus or ~15-20 min walk from Kaminoge Station (Tokyu Oimachi line) -- worth tightening in a later pass
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.
- In the official register: 東京都文化財一覧
- (Tokyo Metropolitan Natural Monument register, designated 1964-11-21)
- ja.wikipedia.org
- setagayadigitalmuseum.jp
