Ichijōji Sagarimatsu, Pine tree in Sakyō-ku, Japan
Ichijōji Sagarimatsu is a pine tree at the fork where the Manshuin-dō and Taniya Fudō Myōō-dō roads split in Ichijōji Hananoki-chō, Sakyō-ku, Kyoto. The present tree is the fourth in a line planted as a landmark for travellers on the road from Ōmi to Kyoto. A stone marker reading "Miyamoto Yoshioka Kettō no Chi" stands beside it, and the trunk of an earlier pine is kept nearby.
The pine has stood at the fork of the Manshuin and Taniyudani Fudo routes since the Heian period, replanted over generations as a landmark for travellers on the road from Omi to Kyoto; the present tree is the fourth. It is named after Ichijōji temple, which occupied this ground from the mid-Heian period into the Nanboku-chō era. In the early Edo period, legend places here the duel in which Miyamoto Musashi faced several dozen men of the Yoshioka school, an episode filmed in 1964 as "Miyamoto Musashi: Ichijōji no Kettō".
The pine is named after Ichijōji, a temple that stood here from the mid-Heian period to the Northern and Southern Courts era. The site is marked by a stone monument reading "Miyamoto Yoshioka Kettō no Chi" (Site of the Miyamoto–Yoshioka Duel), and beside it stands a separate "Dai Nankō Jinjin Ato" monument marking the camp of Kusunoki Masashige before his battle with Ashikaga Takauji.
The pine stands where the Manjuin-dō and Taniya Fudō Myōō-dō roads fork in Ichijōji Hananoki-chō, Sakyō-ku. The nearest stop is Ichijōji Station on the Eizan Electric Railway, about 600 m to the west. Hachidai Shrine, where Musashi is said to have stopped before the duel, is roughly 250 m east.
Many visitors don't realize this is actually the fourth tree at this location, as the original pines had to be replaced over the centuries. Yet both new and old trees connect the continuity of this symbolic place.
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