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Fuji-Hakone-Izu NP, Tokyo
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The Big Shii is 13.79 m in circumference and 24 m tall, with an estimated age of over 300 years. A 1997 survey recorded it as Japan’s thickest measured shii; it is now a village natural monument.
In a 1991–1999 Izu Islands survey of trees with trunks at least 5 m around, 491 of the 791 recorded were on Mikurajima—about 62%. This small island is a giant-tree heavyweight.
The Nango giant-tree forest is also a seabird nursery: streaked shearwaters dig nesting burrows in its forest floor. Across Mikurajima, a 2022 monitoring estimate counted 2,548,125 burrows.
Even when the sky is not raining, Mikurajima’s frequent fog can bead on leaves and drip through the canopy as kisame, or “tree-rain.” Researchers identify this extra moisture as one factor helping the giant trees thrive.
The Big Shii is not just one simple trunk: smaller “child” trunks grow around its central “parent” trunk, seeming to brace it. Islanders cherish this striking form as a guardian of the forest.
The Big Shii also supports an aerial garden: bird’s-nest ferns cling to its enormous trunk instead of growing from the ground. On these old trees, one giant can provide a home for many other plants.
At Nango, the approach to the giant-tree forest passes traces of a former settlement, including house sites and charcoal kilns. This woodland was once a place where islanders lived and worked, too.
A local forestry tradition linked a child’s future to the forest: when a baby was born, a boxwood sapling was planted. Mikurajima boxwood also became prized for combs and high-end shogi pieces.
