Hagurosan no Jiji Sugi

This tree used to be half of a couple. Baba Sugi, the grandmother cedar, stood beside it until a storm brought her down in 1902, and Jiji Sugi, the grandfather, has kept the spot alone ever since. He is the oldest and the largest tree on Mt Haguro: put at over a thousand years, 43 metres tall, a trunk 8.25 metres round, and roots flaring to a girth of 10.5 metres where they take hold of the slope. That distinction matters here, because Mt Haguro is covered in old cedars. The avenue lining the stone stairway, the Sugi Namiki, is famous in its own right, and this trunk is older and thicker than any tree in it. Walk past quickly and you take it for the best specimen in the row. It is a separately named tree with its own designation and its own history. It stands directly beside the sando, the pilgrimage path climbing from the Zuishinmon gate to the summit shrine of the Dewa Sanzan, so everyone working up the steps passes within a few metres of it. Nobody has to leave the path or pay anything to stand at the base. The bus from Tsuruoka Station stops at Zuishinmon-mae. From there it is stone steps under cedar shade, and the grandfather waits partway up.