Thin-Ink Cherry
Yesterday, my wife and I went to see the "Usuzumi" cherry tree 20% in bloom and were much impressed. It is a very famous tree often taken up in publications. It is a free-standing "Higan" kind of cherry allegedly 1,500 years old. Its trunk is 9.91 meters in circumference, and its branches extend 26.9 meters from east to west. It is located among mountains in Neo Village in Gifu Prefecture. Usuzumi literally means "thin Chinese ink". Petals before falling are said to turn grayish pink. Usuzumi is an obsolete word, but some idioms found in the classical Japanese dictionary suggest that the word used to be a common word.
If you take the bullet train, you will get off at "Gifu Hajima" and drive a rent-a-car for 50 km in the congestion. If my wife and I do so, the train fares will be Yen 42,000 and we will have to pay as much as Yen 50,000 including a rent-a-car. We thought this amount was too much just for seeing a cherry tree, and opted to drive 542 km in 8 hours both ways between Neo and our mountain cottage in Mt. Yatsugatake.
On our way there, we left Chuo Expressway at Tajimi Interchange and drove on the regular highway for 70 km. In its first half, we suffered from heavy congestion. In the latter half, we tried to avert congestion by taking the national highway No. 418 in the mountain, but, to our surprise, this national highway had only one lane in most of its length and we had to stop often to wait for a car coming in the other direction. It took 4 hours and a half to reach the cherry tree from Mt. Yatsugatake.
From the parking place, we climbed a slope with arrays of many local souvenir shops, and saw a huge old cherry tree there. It was so old that it had many crutches, but its trunk and branches looked even divine and it had young blossoms on the branches. We were moved and didn't regret the long drive.
The history of the tree is described in Japanese in the official Web
site of Neo Village at
There are two stories of the tree. One is that this tree was planted in the graveyard of Neo family which had the ruling power over this region. The other is the official story that this tree was planted 1,500 years ago by Emperor Keitai when he grew up here and was invited to the capital to become the emperor. Emperor Keitai was born in a royal family, which averted political strives in the capital and exiled itself to Neo Village in the mountain. Judging from the old tradition that many human bones were dug out around the root of the tree, the first story seems to me more probable.
When we look at the family tree of the emperor family, we see that descendants of Emperor Nintoku all perished and then Emperor Keitai, who was said to be the fifth generation descendant of the father of Emperor Nintoku, suddenly showed up from the Prefecture of Echizen near the tree location, and came into the scene with the support of the powerful Otomo family. Some scholars speculate that Emperor Keitai was the first emperor of a new dynasty supported by the Otomo family.
After a big branch was broken in 1910's, the tree had become weak and was about to perish in mid-1940's. In 1948, the preservation association was organized. Next year, rotted roots with white ant nests were removed, 238 young roots of mountain cherry trees were jointed and the soil was replaced. This way, the tree was once revived. In 1959, however, a big typhoon struck and damaged the tree and the tree became weaker again. In 1967, a famous novelist Ms. Chiyo Uno visited the tree and grieved. She wrote an article on a graphic magazine "Taiyo" next year and appealed to Governor of Prefecture to get support. In the past decade, 4 times of operations were performed.
The tree was about to die several times, but each time it was revived by the support of the local people. I like old cherry trees. I am moved by young vivid flowers from aged trees. When I wanted to move from Toshiba Headquarters to Toshiba Information Systems, my desire was influenced by another old cherry tree "God-era Cherry" in Yamanashi Prefecture.
On my way back, we wanted to avoid congestion by opting to make a big detour through Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway, Meishin Expressway and Chuo Expressway, and returned to the mountain cottage in Mt. Yatsugatake late in the evening. I did 120 km/hr on the dark Expressways but still the return trip took 3 hours and a half. We are sure that we have become a little younger now.
End