Comments on: Good News on Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Tree

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 09:48:19 +0000

This reminds me of a huge Ginko in a town near me. I went there for the ceremony for the rebuilding of the Main Hall, but it was the huge 800 year-old Ginko that wowed me. A couple years back it got hit by lighting and burned for more than two days. It was hard to access it with fire engines (they ended un cutting down two other trees) and the problem was it was burning inside the trunk which was hollow, the centre being dead wood. They eventually had to cut the trunk below the half-way mark to get water down to put out the fire.
The tree, though half the height is doing fine, and it protected the next tallest object, the new Main Hall. Ginko leaves don’t rot and don’t burn well, for that reason Temples often had Ginko trees, and they collected the leaves behind the Temple. In case of fire they heaped the leaves on the fire to put it out. Or so I have heard.
Stephen

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 23:26:12 +0000

Hi guys, sorry for the late reply. Aforementioned test took up my time until now.

Thanks a lot for the clarification and good ocmments. I’ll fix the blog right away.

By: Tornadoes28

Tornadoes28 — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 01:13:52 +0000

Interesting, thank you. I do remember the stump on the left. It does even look like that new growth out of it is a graft from the original. Interesting. The location of the original is the one on the right next to the stairs but that is very interesting that they are attempting to regenerate from both locations. Thx.

By: johnl

johnl — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:58:15 +0000

Tornadoes, your pix are informative. I went a few months ago. There seemed to be two efforts to revive the tree. The stump was beside the stairs, I think in the tree’s original location. Further away (to the left if you are facing the shrine) , a section of the trunk was planted in the ground. The photos suggest that new growth is coming out of both sites. The ginko tree is famous for its regenerative power and its ability to resist pollution and other environmental difficulties. Maybe that has something to do with its reputation as a health supplement as well.

By: Tornadoes28

Tornadoes28 — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:33:53 +0000

That stump on the left with the tree growing out of it is not the stump of the famous ginkgo tree. The old stump from the tree is actually just to the right next to the stairs. What you are referring to in your last photo is the actual remains of the original ginkgo tree. That sacred rope is the one from the original ginkgo tree. I just visited the shrine earlier this month and took some photos. You can see the them here:

http://toshogu.blogspot.com/2010/06/kamakura-june-2010.html