Aizen Katsura

A novel and a film were named after this tree. Kawaguchi Matsutaro's Aizen Katsura came out in 1938 and reached the screen the same year, and the katsura behind the title stands in the grounds of Kitamuki Kannon at Bessho Onsen. Its leaves are heart-shaped, said to bring luck in love, which is why couples still walk up to it. The official recognition came a year after the novel. Nagano Prefecture listed the tree as a natural monument in 1939, and the city of Ueda re-listed it as one of its own in 1974. It reaches 22 metres on a trunk 5.8 metres round, breaking upward into the crowd of vertical stems that old katsura grow instead of one clean bole. Its age is a genuine argument. Published estimates run at over 300 years, at 600 to 650, at over 1,000 and at about 1,200, and none of them arrives with a measurement attached. Several hundred years is the part every source agrees on. Beyond that, the number you get depends on who is telling you. The tree stands out in the open in the temple grounds rather than behind anything, free to anyone who gets there in daylight, about a quarter of an hour on foot up from Bessho Onsen station. If you know what actually dates it, tell us.