page_title: Ginkgo biloba
section_title: 1000-year-old ginkgo at Tsurugaoka Hachimangū
hierarchical_section_title: Ginkgo biloba / Society and culture / 1000-year-old ginkgo at Tsurugaoka Hachimangū
caption_attribution_description: English: The ginkgo that had stood next to Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū's stairway almost from its foundation and which appears in almost every old print of the shrine, was completely uprooted and irreparably damaged at 4:40 in the morning on March 10, 2010. According to an expert who analyzed the tree, the fall is likely due to rot. Both the base of the severed tree and a replanted section of the trunk have sprouted leaves.
context_page_description: Ginkgo biloba, commonly known as ginkgo or gingko, also known as the maidenhair tree, is the only living species in the division Ginkgophyta, all others being extinct. It is a very old species, with some fossils dating back 270 million years. Native to China, the tree is widely cultivated, and was cultivated early in human history. It has various uses in traditional medicine and as a source of food.
context_section_description: The ginkgo tree that had stood next to Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū's stone stairway approximately from the Shinto shrine's foundation in 1063, and which appears in almost every old depiction of the shrine, was completely uprooted and irreparably damaged on March 10, 2010. According to an expert who analyzed the tree, the fall was likely due to rot.
  Later, both the stump of the severed tree and a replanted section of the trunk sprouted leaves. The shrine is in the city of Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.
  The tree was nicknamed kakure-ichō (hiding ginkgo), deriving from an Edo period urban legend which told of the assassination of Minamoto no Sanetomo by his nephew, Kugyō, who had been hiding behind the tree.
caption: The stump of the ancient fallen ginkgo which has produced leaves in recent years
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