Jakushin-san no Kusu

A Sengoku-period lord is said to be buried at the base of this camphor tree, his grave wrapped into roots that have grown over it for centuries. He took the Buddhist name Jakushin before he died, and the tree carries his name: Mr Jakushin's camphor. Every year on 11 January, the anniversary of his death, residents of the surrounding Kitazako neighbourhood still gather under it for a Shinto rite marking the new year. The trunk measures 17.1 metres round, among the largest camphors in a prefecture that has no shortage of large camphors, and its above ground roots surface in shapes locals compare to animals and everyday objects, enough to earn it a reputation as a minor power spot. A public park, Jakushin Ryokuchi, was cleared around it from farmland in 1989 so people could stand under the crown instead of viewing it across a fence. In 1990 it was named to the Shin Nihon Meiboku Hyakusen, Japan's national ranking of its hundred most famous trees. It has taken damage and kept going. A 1991 typhoon broke many of its branches and it recovered. Around 2010 it began declining from soil compaction by a nearby road, and a 2016 remediation, removing and treating the compacted ground, brought it back again. Local tradition puts its age at around 800 years. Official sources are more cautious, giving a range of 500 to 800.