Kakurega no Mori the 8th largest tree in Japan

 

Some of the biggest trees I have encountered while walking around Western Japan have been Camphor trees, Cinnamomum camphora, kusunoki in Japanese.

This example is found near the Chikugo River in Asakura, Fukuoka, and is named Kakurega no mori, which means "hideaway forest" and is believed to refer to the wooded area that stood here in earlier times when it was a barrier or checkpoint and people hid in the forest until nightfall when they could then slip through unnoticed.

It is said to be 1500 years old, though the ages of giant trees are very often exaggerated. It is registered as the 8th largest tree in Japan.

At chest height, the trunk has a circumference of 18 meters, at ground level the roots measure 34 meters in circumference, and it is 21 meters high, though before being damaged by  a typhoon in 1991 it was said to be somewhat taller