What is the oldest tree in Yabu?
Yabu's mapped tree is Tarumi-no-Ozakura, an Edo Higan cherry on a forest trail above the Oya River, said in local sources to exceed a thousand years old, though nobody has counted its rings.
The tree nearly died: its decline set in from 1967 and ran for three decades until treatment began in 1997, improving the soil around the roots and encouraging new adventitious roots to form. By the city's 2020 survey it had recovered substantially, measuring 13.8 metres tall and 6.3 metres round at chest height, among the ten oldest and thickest cherry trees recorded in Japan. It is an Edo Higan, the long-lived species behind most of the country's ancient cherries, and became a National Natural Monument in June 1951. Before that it was a lord's privilege: the feudal rulers of the Izushi Domain came here for their cherry-viewing, and in 1823 the domain's Confucian scholar Sakurai Sekimon named it Sensakura, the hermit's cherry. It now stands on the Silver Wagon Road, a Japan Heritage trail across Harima. Getting there takes a car and a 15-minute walk on a forest trail from a small parking area; in blossom week, usually early to mid April, the approach road runs one way and a temporary restroom goes up for the roughly 10,000 people who make the walk.
One of Yabu's trees also appears in Autumn Worth the Trip, a themed collection spanning several cities.