Jomonsugi was added to Your Favorites!
Yakushima NP, Kagoshima
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
Snow snapped off a 5-metre limb weighing 1.2 tonnes in 2005. Researchers estimate the branch itself was 800–1,000 years old; it was flown out by helicopter and is displayed at Yakusugi Museum as the “Branch of Life.”
Its bulging, twisted trunk once led people to wonder if 2 cedars had fused together. DNA testing confirmed that the extraordinary-looking Jomonsugi is, in fact, a single tree.
Jomonsugi’s hollow core hides its oldest wood, so its exact age remains uncertain. Though 7,200 years is often quoted, a 2023 Forestry Agency survey estimated a midpoint of 2,400 years, with a range of 1,300–3,600.
Iwakawa first called the tree Ōiwa-sugi. A 1967 newspaper headline used “Jōmon” to describe its supposed great age, and the catchy headline name stuck—even though its precise age is still unsettled.
Jomonsugi’s irregular trunk made poor timber, which helped it survive intense Edo-period logging. Nearby logging remains suggest people knew the giant before its location faded from memory and it was “rediscovered” in 1966.
Jomonsugi hosts its own miniature garden: the Forestry Agency recorded plants growing on its trunk, including soyo-go, sakura azalea and even another cedar. These plants are called epiphytes.
In 1983, a national Environment Agency poster featured a local high-school student beside Jomonsugi. The posters appeared in train stations and city halls across Japan, helping bring more hikers to Yakushima.
Climbing among Jomonsugi’s roots caused soil erosion and exposed them, so the first viewing deck was built in 1996. A north-side deck opened in 2017, offering a forest-framed view like the one at its rediscovery.
Part of the Jomonsugi approach follows a former timber-hauling railway. Trams still use the forest track to carry waste from a mountain toilet off the trail—a behind-the-scenes job that helps protect the forest.
