Takinoya no Hidarimakigaya

Only four trees like this are known to exist in Japan. This Torreya's seeds spiral left, not right, a naturally occurring quirk so rare it has its own name, Hidarimakigaya, left-spiraling kaya. It splits into two trunks about 3.7 metres up, and the split shows its age: roughly 26 metres tall, 7.35 metres round, with a root circumference of 16.5 metres and a canopy spreading 28 metres north to south. The city gives its age as roughly 800 years, a local estimate with no stated dating method behind it, so treat it as tradition rather than a measurement. It is not fully well. The city's own record describes thinning leaf density in recent years, worst on the northern of its two trunks, where dead branches are advancing and support chains and iron braces now hold the splitting wood together. That is decline under active care, not death, and it is worth saying plainly rather than photographing around. Designated a Hyogo Prefecture cultural property in 1938 and upgraded to a National Natural Monument in 1951, it stands in the centre of Noza, a small settlement in the Yabu hills. The city's history office lists a contact number for visit enquiries rather than open directions, worth a call ahead rather than a guarantee of an open gate.