What is the oldest tree in Ueki?
Ueki's only mapped tree, and its oldest, is Jakushin-san no Kusu, a camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora) with a trunk measured at 17.1 metres round. It stands in Jakushin Ryokuchi, a public park in Kitazako, Kita Ward, on the northern edge of Kumamoto City, and local tradition dates it to roughly 800 years old.
The tree is named for Kanokogi Chikakazu, a Sengoku-period retainer of the Kikuchi clan who took the Buddhist name Jakushin before his death; tradition holds his grave sits at the base of the tree, wrapped into roots grown over it for centuries. Every year on 11 January, the anniversary of his death, residents of the surrounding Kitazako district gather beneath the tree for a Shinto rite marking the new year. At 17.1 metres round it is among the largest camphors in a prefecture known for large camphors, and its above ground roots surface in shapes locals compare to animals and objects, giving it a local reputation as a minor power spot. A public park, Jakushin Ryokuchi, was cleared around it from farmland in 1989 so visitors could stand under the crown rather than view it from outside a fence. It was named to Japan's national ranking of its hundred most famous trees in 1990, and carries a Kumamoto Prefecture natural monument designation since 1974. A 1991 typhoon broke many branches and the tree recovered; a decline from soil compaction around 2010 was reversed by 2016 remediation. Free, about 20 minutes on foot from JR Ueki Station.
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