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NAGASAKI Kusunoki project

 

05Oak Tree at the Yamashita Residence in Eri-machi (1)

Tree data

  • Variety

    Arakashi (ring-cup oak, Quercus glauca)

  • Height

    Around 4.1m

  • Trunk circumference

    Around 1m at chest height/p>

  • Owner

    Privately owned

 

This is one of two oak trees (ring-cup oaks) preserved at the Yamashita residence in Nagasaki City's Eri-machi.

The trees were originally in the possession of a house adjacent to the present site but were transplanted to where they now stand after the land on which they stood was sold.

Exposure to the atomic bomb left this tree and those around it burnt and they appeared to be dead. However, after a while they sprouted new buds and recovered their health. The ring-cup oak is known for its hardness as a wood material and the surface of the tree that was facing the blast wind and heat rays was split, whereupon rotting set in and a hollow appeared in the trunk that can still be seen exactly as it was today. This blackened hollow not only bravely relates what sort of terrible situation the tree managed to live through, it brings a sense of the still-living vitality it possesses despite baring such a severe scar.

This ring-cup oak still produces acorns from summer to autumn, is in a good state of preservation and carefully tended by its owner.

A-Bombed Trees