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Yakushima NP, Kagoshima
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
Wilson reportedly returned to camp on February 21, 1914, saying he’d spotted a vast cave. The next morning, his party found a hollow cedar stump; his 1916 book later brought Yakushima’s forests to wider attention.
From inside the hollow, look up: the stump’s uneven rim frames a heart-shaped patch of sky. This natural view has become one of Wilson’s Stump’s most recognizable surprises.
Measured 1.3 m above ground, its circumference is 13.8 m—the largest among Yakushima’s stumps. Its hollow covers about 16.5 m², and the original cedar was estimated to be 2,000–3,000 years old.
This isn’t a dry shell: a mountain spring wells up inside the hollow and flows out as a small stream, so water still passes through the heart of this massive cedar remnant.
A tiny shrine inside the hollow honors 3 kami: Hikohodemi no Mikoto, associated with mountains; Kukunochi no Kami, with trees; and Oyamatsumi no Mikoto, with mountains and the sea.
For generations, Yakushima’s great interior cedars were considered sacred and left uncut. One theory links this stump to timber for Hideyoshi’s Great Buddha Hall in Kyoto, but botanist Tashiro inferred an early-18th-century felling from its regrowth—not the 1580s.
Three younger cedars beside the stump are thought to have sprouted from seeds shed before the tree was felled. Its mossy exterior also hosts epiphytes, including pink sakuratsutsuji azaleas and inugashi laurel.
Wilson was more than a plant collector: an official interpretation describes him as an early advocate for protecting Yakushima’s forests. The island’s primeval cedar forest became a Natural Monument in 1924, 10 years after his visit.
Even a giant stump can be fragile habitat: an official trail interpretation reports that heavy hiker traffic once killed most epiphytes and shrubs on and around it. The area is regenerating.
