What is the oldest tree in Yoshida?
Yoshida's only mapped tree is the Nomanji Cycad (Nomanji no Sotetsu), a multi-stemmed sago palm at Nomanji Temple, a National Natural Monument since 1924 and one of Japan's Three Great Cycads.
The plant grows on the grounds of Nomanji Temple in Kataoka, open daily from 9:00 to 17:00 with parking on site; the nearest stations are JR Kikugawa or Fujieda, followed by a short taxi ride, since no train reaches the temple directly. Legend credits its planting around the year 1000 to Abe no Seimei, the Heian-era diviner said to have sealed a serpent spirit beneath its roots, and holds that Tokugawa Ieyasu once had it transplanted to his castle at Sumpu, only for it to wither with longing until he had it moved back. What stands today is a clump of roughly ninety branching stems rather than one trunk, the largest measuring about 2.5 metres round on its own. It is counted among the Three Great Cycads of Japan and the folklore list known as the Seven Wonders of Enshu, and has held National Natural Monument status since 1924, one of Japan's earliest heritage-tree designations.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.